A Sad & Frustrating Day

So, today is the day that Chris left for 8 months! It is bad enough that he had to go, but they make it so darn difficult, that by the time he is ready to go, we are all frustrated beyond belief and can't even say "goodbye" properly.

The day before yesterday they told us that he had to be on base to catch the plane at 1pm. So, we made some nice plans for the morning and then we would drop him off in the afternoon. Well, last night they tell us that he has to be there by 10am. Okay, so no enjoyable plans.... we just need to get him there. This morning we hear that he doesn't have to be there until 11am. Now we can get some breakfast, but that's about it.

We rush through breakfast, say goodbye to our friends who had joined us and head off to the base. We get there only to find out that they have no idea where on the base he is supposed to catch this plane. We figure it out just in time to get him there in order for them to pull the plane up, stop 2 of the 4 engines, load his gear and take off again. Then as the plane is taxiing to the hangar, they get a warning light and have to shut everything down. Now we are stuck waiting around until 1pm (the original "go" time), frustrated by the "hurry up and wait" that we've been dealing with all morning.

My husband decides that we might as well say our goodbyes now and be on our way before the entire family is miserable waiting for them to fix the plane. All in all, they didn't actually take off until around 5pm and I never got to give my husband the heartfelt goodbye that I wanted to. I just thank God for webcams and e-mail because today's memory is not the one I want to be left with for the next 8 months!

Sorry for the rant, but I am really bummed.