Fitty... Part Deux

Editors Note: This post originally ran on November 2nd, 2015. Since then a few things have changed, most of which has been chronicled here. I took the liberty of editing the 11/1/15 post to reflect my current countdown.

Today is November ONE.  – March 24, 2016

I have spent part of July, ALL of August, September, and October and now part of November in Alaska. – And Now ALL of November, Most of December, All of January, February and most of March.

I have seen and done some remarkable things...things I won't soon forget. I have experienced things in the last 4 (8) months that I never thought I would again get a chance to do. This has all come with a price.

My son laid the smack down as the Middle Linebacker and leading "Meat Eater" on his youth football team this Fall. I did not get to see a single down except for a few short video clips my wife sent me. He earned the All Around award for his hockey team and impressed the socks off his teacher, his mother and I with how well he’s doing in school this year.

Saturday my daughter lit the lamp three times in her first hockey scrimmage of the season. I wasn't in the arena, not in the state, not within twenty five hundred miles. My daughter played in a dodgeball tournament with Boys and is rumored to be thinking about a trip to the movie theatre with Boys.

I missed Halloween Trick or Treating with my silly little munchkins and my adorable wife.

(All 4 birthdays, our Anniversary & Valentine’s Day)

We knew this before I left.

I would miss a few things...and those things will be there next time around. And for years to come.

We've accepted that as part of the equation. I am here - earning a decent paycheck and experiencing new things. They are there continuing on in their comfortable day to day lives and we are in touch often.

But today things feel different.

I've got something to fixate on.

A number.

50.

50 days from now, Good Lord Willing - I'll be holding my wife and kids again...on a short Holiday break RETURN TRIP HOME from the Northwest Arctic...

I could stand on my head for Fifty days if I had to.

Lots of living left to do here in the next 50 days but MAN, am I ever looking forward to December TWENTY May Fourteen!