The Creepy Guy in the Basement...

In March I was anxiously awaiting the return of my husband from Iraq.  He had been gone eight long months and the thought of having him home was threaded through every thought that I had.  Doing the dishes… there would be another plate to wash soon.  Watching TV… we would be watching his shows soon enough.  Going to the bathroom and showering… I would have to share a bathroom again soon.  None of that mattered, what mattered was that he would be home again and our family would be complete again… at least until the Army saw fit to pull it apart again.  

However, his homecoming was also to be combined with the arrival of our friend, Harmon.  Without divulging all of his personal information on my public blog, Harmon is a friend of ours from WAY back when.  He PCS’d to Colorado shortly after John got home, and due to some personal issues, he needed a place to crash for a few months until he deployed.  We took him into our home and John gave up the Man Cave so that Harmon could have his own space.  Now, the Man Cave is in the basement, so Harmon quickly became “The Creepy Guy In The Basement”

Well, Harmon’s 3 months turned into about 6-7 months but it didn’t really take much of a toll on our family.  In fact, it amazed me at how quickly he fell into our routines and simply became a norm in our household.  He filled in a gap in our family that I didn’t know was there.  John desperately needed another man around to talk Army with after a deployment, Jaydan needed a “big brother” during his transition into high school, Kaitlyn needed someone to treat her like a princess… because I sure as Hell got over that a long time ago… and me, well, I guess I thought I needed someone to help.

John had to go away to this school and that school during the 7 months Harmon was here.  This is not new… when John is “home” that simply means he’s not in Iraq or an Icky-Stan in the Middle East.  He can be in Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, freaking ENGLAND (asshole)… and I’m left holding the bag as the married single mom.  Having Harmon here really helped during John’s recent TDY’s…

You see, that last deployment John went on was by far the hardest deployment I’ve ever endured in the 14 years I’ve been an Army wife.  The separation was a bitch, and a lot of bad things happened in my personal life; my last surviving grandparent passed away, my nephew was in an almost fatal car accident, all the kids and I got H1N1, and I started to realize who my friends really were.  Yeah, I know, wah wah wah… my point is, with John going TDY so much after that deployment, I’m pretty sure I would have lost my mind without Harmon here.  I thought I needed someone to help, a project if you will…. But the truth is, I needed someone to help ME. 

Now John is home from England, and it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere else anytime soon… and we dropped Harmon off at his unit along with all of his stuff.  He’ll be spending the next year in Afghanistan.  He’s probably on a plane right now, flying through the cold dark night, hopefully sleeping and not missing us as much as we already miss him.  I didn’t think it would be so hard to send him off, but he is as much as a part of this family as the rest of us, and we are already counting down the days for him to be safely back in the United States.  Stay safe our brother and friend… you are loved.