Say hello the little Mormon children. "Laaaseengaay!"

So, a possible set of orders to Louisiana is in the works for Barksdale AFB, land of the Smiths (friends o’mine). It would be from now through the end of the calendar year, but don’t get too excited. Nothing is written in stone.

However, as all things, if the present path before me lays out as it might, I’ll leave San Diego in about a week or so for Denver, CO, to pull my last required days with my home unit, and then a few days in Oklahoma, and then land in Louisiana just in time for heat, which is to say: Welcome to Louisiana.

So, with the need to get my PT test complete and my annual dental exam finished, I hit the road for Riverside last night and crashed with a friend up there and her wonderful family — nice people. Got up and went to March ARB to do my PT test two weeks earlier than I had planned and, to my surprise, at a whole altitude level higher. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it means less oxygen for Christian while he’s running.

However, despite all odds and against all Canadians, I passed with ~84% pass rate, and will test in another 6 months or so. Next time, however, I’m gonna get mahself a 90 so I can go a year without testing again. Yay.

After that, I went and visited the 452nd Airlift Wing at March and chatted and cupcaked, before heading to Orange, CA (city in Orange County, imagine that), to visit my aunt, uncle and cousin, who have lived out there since the 60′s. Had a lovely mexican lunch and good conversation — our family is full of conversationalists and we all have an opinion, before reclining with my aunt before heading south again on the busy I-5, which out here in Calyforn-I-A land, dey call dem “Freeways.” (Insert Christopher Lloyd and a confused Bob Hoskins)

I've run on this beach three times since moving here.

So I made it home (Pacific Beach, San Diego) safe and sound and now settle back into a few days of quiet. On the bright side, all I need left for my promotion package is my dental, which I hope to get done tomorrow or early next week, and that, too, will help me get orders (You have to be green across the board on Reserve requirements).

God is good, and even if Louisiana doesn’t pan out, I’m heading east. Whatever my great trip West will mean in the end, I’m sure time will tell, but today, I have but a small glimmer of its telling. Sometimes we don’t know why we are on the paths we walk. Things are a bit cloudy. Life confusing. Canadian, in nature, I would say. But ultimately, there is usually purpose in everything, even if sometimes to tell you how not to do it again. (See Titanic, Sinking of)

Regardless of the great purpose of anything, I will be grateful for today, and for right now. Right now I have food, clothing, shelter, and the love of great family and friends. I can’t tell you the future. Never could. (Death and Taxes!) But if you don’t take appreciation of right now, you’ll never find peace. You’ll never truly be happy. And while I’m not there — everything in life is a process — I at least know the most important goal. Contentment comes not from the final acquisition of material, but from finding material in the fabric of daily life.

Good night my friends. Stay thirsty.