Keith Deploys

Keith deployed this morning for an 8 month tour! The first few weeks he is off the coast of Scotland then they begin their transit across the Atlantic. The ships will then spend the next 4 months sailing with the Canadians, Americans and many other countries doing exercises. Somewhere between mid July and mid August he'll have two weeks of leave which I'm planning on meeting him home for - or somewhere in North America! If we're lucky we can spend the time in NB with his family. After his leave the ship will sail to the Falkland Islands which are off the coast of Argentina. It will be a very long deployment. To keep myself busy I have booked a few trips over the next 8 weeks. Malta next week, Crete the first weekend in May and Sweden & Norway the last weekend in May. The first two trips will be with other Canadians and the Scandinavian trip will be on my own! It should be an interesting adventure!

This morning was obviously sad to say our goodbyes but my coping mechanism is to not focus on the length of time he's gone for otherwise I'll go crazy. However, while at work I saw the two Merlins fly by my window on their way! I shed a few tears watching my babe leave. :( It was helpful to have a bowling night with work tonight to keep my mind off it all. These months will definitely have their ups and downs.

I think the hardest thing about having him away is the communication. It tends to be erratic with no constant contact. Depending on where they are and what they're doing the satellite can be down which means no phones or email. Each time I receive an email I never know when the next one will arrive. It could be tomorrow, it could be next week. And I just have to assume that everything is okay if days go by as there's no way for him to give me the heads up he'll be out of contact. Not having him here to kiss and hug me when I come home and ask how my day was is tough. I have to talk about everything via email and of course it's just not the same. He only gets 30 minutes a week to call - that's not much time to hear his voice and cover everything from the week. It can be stressful trying to figure out what to talk about - you don't want to spend those few minutes chatting about house stuff like bills/errands/etc. You want to chat about how you're feeling but you don't because you don't want to have an emotional phone call. It's difficult! And what if you miss THAT call! This means showering with the phone and basically carrying it with you everywhere throughout the house so you don't miss it! Oh the things to look forward to!

Anyway, last night we had a great evening. It was sunny and warm so we barbecued a feast and sat outside at the picnic table and enjoyed a few drinks soaking up the great weather together. I will miss those spring/summer evenings together.