Hello Vern*

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Spring is in the air. Has been for a while, pay no attention to those recent snowstorms, Mother Nature has perhaps had a few too many. But the cardinals are singing...

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Er, I mean...

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Anyhoo.

The WSO just returned from the homeland of her mother, The Missus Herself. The Land of the Morning Calm, otherwise known as 대한민국, or the Republic of Korea (for all you non-Hangul speakers). There she spent a very nice almost-a-week in the port city of Busan (부산) where she met up with husband Big Time, whose boat was making a port call.

As The WSO is now on terminal leave (which simply means that she is on leave from the Navy and won't be returning to active duty, she's done, finished, and has decided to be a full time Mom, rather than an NFO) she has the time to spend gallivanting around the Pacific rim. (Though "gallivanting" may be too strong a term, as anyone who has ever flown over the Pacific can attest to. One suffers through the journey. While one might gallivant at the destination, the trip itself is anything but pleasurable. Having made that trip a time or three, I know a thing or two. Unlike Juvat, I didn't fly myself with all the attendant wonders therein, no, I flew commercial, inside a flying Petri dish. Always fun. And yes, I did digress, thanks for noticing.)

Now there was one side effect of The WSO's trip to lands far to the west, different time zone dontcha know? A time zone which is ahead of Little Rhody time by 13 hours. While The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe tried very, very hard to dissuade our youngest child from texting us at 3 in the AM, we never quite succeeded. So sleep was very much a catch-as-catch-can affair last week.

"Dad, you don't need to get up and read my texts. Read them when you get up."

"Uh sweetie, you're 6,849 miles from us, in an area of the world under constant threat from the NORKs, and a number of time zones away to boot. Of course, we're going to check your text messages, hoping they don't say, 'Hey, there are North Korean tanks coming down the street, any suggestions on what to do?'"

While there were no texts regarding NORK armored fighting vehicles in the streets of Busan (which, old school fellow that I am, want to spell "Pusan") the texts were many and often very funny. Because of kakao.

Uh? Because of what Sarge? Cocoa? Coca? What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

Actually the correct term is...

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Which comes with some very hysterical emoticons and is very Korea-centric. The Missus Herself and all of her fair sisters use this app extensively. I like to call it "Korean koobecaF," which it isn't, not really. But you can exchange all sorts of pictures and such and, drum roll please, it costs nothing. No international charges for texting from 6,849 miles (and multiple time zones) away.

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So we had great fun with that. Even if it was at oh-dark-thirty. So sleep, it's something I haven't been getting a lot of lately. I suppose it's over-rated. But only if you've had enough.

Sleep that is.

So yeah, Spring is here, the crocuses are coming up, the daffodils are not far behind and soon I can dial back the boiler temp. It's been a cold winter, not snowy really, but deuced cold. We've been going through oil faster than I care for and with the warmer weather approaching I can look forward to saving some coin on heating costs.

Until summer comes roaring in, then the air conditioners come on line and the electrical costs go up.

Sigh, it's always sumthin'... (As my old pal Buck liked to say. Miss him we do.)




* Well, Monday was  the vernal equinox, wannit?