I’m sitting in an empty house. I declined my parents’ offer to go to a BBQ with them. It’s a farewell party for the local RCMP officer, and I don’t know the man, so I didn’t feel comfortable going. This morning I learned that my cousin’s husband will be heading to Afganistan for 6 months of military service. I really hope his time there will be uneventful, and that his role will be confined to peacekeeping, rather than any combat. He’s been in the military for a long time but has been lucky enough to have never been sent into active duty. His wife and 3 kids must surely be quite nervous and scared by this occurance, but our military is one of the best trained in all the world, so I do believe he’ll be relatively safe. I pray he won’t have to kill anyone, for that would be quite terrible. I’ve been missing Ashley a tremendous amount lately… She’s been visiting relatives for over a week now and we’ve only talked a little in those 10 days… Long periods of time like this compound the usual loneliness I ususually feel during the times we are unable to talk, and has certainly lead to a noticable decline in my spirt… Hardship and nostalgia in Iraq lead to nostalgia for Saddam