Well, this will be about it. I have lost easy access to the Internet, and that will greatly reduce my ability to email or post pieces to Dadmanly. It had to happen at some point, but this was a bit sooner than I expected.

No, I’m not being censored or shut down, and we are all well, in good spirits, and ready to start our redeployment operation home.

I am as busy as I’ve been since the start of this adventure, outside perhaps those first few months of Mobilization Training. I don’t get very much time for me, which means I don’t get very much time for all of you, either. Now the loss of ready connectivity means, I’m going to be far more silent than any of us have been sued to.

The guys here joke that I’ll be going through withdrawal. That’s partly true. But I will also be taking a few deep breaths. When I can, I will be finishing transcribing my notes from the last half of Sandberg’s Lincoln (plenty more posts there), knocking out another Chapter or two for the Jilly Beans Jamboree and Moss Don’t Grow on a Rolling Spud saga. (Those are my histories of the early life of my daughters, who sometimes get short shrift, as I started writing like a monster just recently, and hence Little Manly gets a lot more coverage. This is my effort to reminisce with them over the important times we’ve shared, good and bad.)

I can knock out any final profile or two. I can submit and final thoughts for Blackfive’s MILBLOGGER book (if the Editor doesn’t file a restraining order against me). I can read the excellent book on the building of the Erie Canal, Wedding of the Waters, by Peter Bernstein, that Mom and Dad sent. I may even dabble in one or two of the historical novels by Bernard Cornwell that Kid Sisly sent my way. I think I’ll write a few old fashioned letters of gratitude to my friends and family.

In short, I will withdraw somewhat further into that safe and reflective place that was long a feature of the Land of Sunday, and Land of Summer.

We are well, and we will be as successful in our return, as we were on our arrival, as we’ve been throughout our tour.

I will never successfully explain what a powerful effect your readership has had on me, how it’s changed my life forever. I cannot capture what God has done, working through this experience, in the many ways he has worked the clay as the Divine Potter. I will never be able to adequately express my gratitude for the love, encouragement, support and enthusiasm from you, my patient and forgiving readers. Never, not even a fraction of the fullness of my heart, or the emotion bursting in my spirit. But I will try, through words spoken and typed and written by hand, as I’m sure you would expect I’d do.

It’s with your help, echoing the love and support of Almighty God, that I remain, in one piece physically if not mentally, your friend,

Dadmanly