Day 173

Well, I won't lie...it's nice and quiet when the boss is out of "town." So is the case with today and for the next few. However, we did have another U.S. Marine colonel here first thing this morning. He just arrived in country and is here to relieve the other Marine colonel that I've written about so many times. Our job was to get him in, put him up for the night, then get him on his helo to his ultimate destination. By 10am, he was on his way. He's a great guy and someone I wouldn't mind working for one bit. What is it with these Marines? Great people! Makes me wish that's all I was working with here. Once we got him moving along his own Yellow Brick Road, we closed the door and got to work. Pretty quiet day yet again but plenty of work to stay busy. (I stumbled on the following quote from former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt in 1945: "The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!")

There was one pretty significant highlight today. I mentioned a few posts back about paying down our debt. Well, today we (Dorothy and I) made our final debt payment! 21 months and we're done. Nothing but the house left. 2 cars, a few credit cards, and the biggest one...our home equity loan..all paid for. We actually haven't had a credit card in over a year. Don't miss it one bit. It's great living to a budget and working together on every dime spent. The stress relief has been way more than I ever expected. Now we start to build our 6 month emergency fund. Basically, we'll just start piling up cash that approximately equates to 6 months of living expenses. We'll throw that in a money market account where it won't earn much, it's readily accessible, but it's not as bad as sitting in a savings account practically losing money. Later on in the day, I received a message from a running friend who read my post online many months ago about the steps to become debt free. He embraced the idea and was messaging me today to tell me he is 100% debt free...mortgage and all. He read it...eyes opened....and acted. You see? You never know who might be listening, watching or reading what you say, do, or write. That made my day...for the 2nd time!

After being in the office until 8pm tonight, we headed on out, grabbed some dinner, and called it a night. Also, since I've told Dorothy this multiple times already, I guess I'll tell you: I can't believe my relief is only about 2 1/2 weeks from showing up. I really AM going to leave this place! Civilian clothes, I cannot wait! Oh yea, a big sloppy kiss for Dorothy, too. More conservative kisses for Tin Man and Scarecrow.

Goodnight, everyone.