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But before we return to our scheduled blog--a quick update on the wayward nephew.

I'm jealous. He has friends with money. A buddy actually paid $1000 to get his sorry self out of jail. The stipulation was that said friend had to get approval from my sister and brother-in-law and Stephen's wife Julie. I flat out told him I would have left him there sorry about your luck.

He called while I was at work Sunday night so I only had a few minutes. Julie told him she was leaving him unless he straightened up and will not move back in until there is solid evidence the epidermis has shown a growth spurt. I'm up and down on that one. I would like to think her presence in his life would be an encouragement to continue rehab--though the true change in life style MUST come from him. To depend on Julie would be a mistake -as well as depending on others. I found it interesting that Julie and her mother came to the house and started to clean things out. So far so good but some of his collectables hit the sidewalk. Stephen stated that Julie's MOTHER did that. I perked up at that. The long suffering wife of mine even in our worst arguments would NEVER touch the Batmans, Avengers, etc. That would be the unforgivable sin and the memory would last the rest of our days. She knows I'm a scorekeeper. Such things are just not done in spouse battles and still have a claim on the love that's ever present. What I gather is Julie made no attempt to intervene or monitor the cleanup. Shame on her.I find myself constantly reevaluating her and no longer feel guilty for absolutlely hating being stuck six hours at her wedding reception (whined about in previous blog entries).

Stephen attitude is actually showing some unexpected signs of maturity (which rarely lasts long but we live on hope and in faith). He admits an alcoholic is a liar and not to be trusted. He wants to go in a resident program for four weeks for rehab as out-patient rehab has failed in the past. He has a court date tomorrow and he seems less afraid of life but he's still a bit set in his attitudes though I finally see more I screwed up and less of blaoming somebody else. He's almost ready to see if the Bible has anything to say to him. I told him try Ecclesiastes first then the Psalms--that way he sees the world as it is and then can take comfort in the spirit.

The major news happened at 7:44 pm Monday night when second son Dan called up. He's a member of Alabama National Guard and they got called up for duty In Iraq in January -- for a year. There have been articles in the paper lately about reservists getting multiple deployments and its true. What is less emphasized these back and forthers are going for one to two month vists at a time--sometimes just a matter of weeks. Dan will have served two tours of duty of a year each. he survival school where he an instructor has not taken kindly to this. Can't fire him being in th Gurad and all but they have suddenly changed his duty position--an effective demotion without appearing so. Legal but ethically challenged but his company he works for treats their employees like numbers to be moved around and will dump you fats if the party line is crossed. I no longer care to play those games having survived a military career but Dan's young and can handle himself.

What is troubling to me this time is that he'll be in a fire zone as a platoon leader with 30 personnel under him and no lieutenant overseeing the operations they'll be doing. Uh oh. Enlisted are cattle--officers are gold. True lieuntenants need babysitting until they grow up to be captains but the lack of one on site bothers me with the ramifications.

I used to joke that God would protect both Jim and Dan in Iraq because He wouldn't solve my IRS troubles with a death beneficiary check. Now the joke isn't as funny and for the first time my faith is wavering. But God is still good. Dan actually owns a house in Alabama which he'll closeup and have the neighbors watch and I inherit his dog Rocky for a year. Hope he leaves the truck. Be great to have dependable transportation again. Ahhh shallow fathers. Some things never change.

Ruth took the news well. I started off with the news we were going to have an addition to the family by calling Onyx over to me and telling him he'll have female company in a few months. I thought it was nice icebreaker to this eventful news.