The Ex-Marine

I was supposed to go ice riding this morning.  I didn't.  My daughter came up from Springfield, Mass yesterday.  I figured a visit with her even for the short time she would be here today before she left was more important than a freezing cold ride out in the woods.  And it was some cold this morning.  Windchill I figure was in the negative numbers below zero.  Brrrr.

I am glad I took time from my own selfish pursuits to catch up with the world and events surrounding my only daughter.  She is hating her doctoral program at the moment because of the courses she is being force fed.  But she knows it will get better.  Her Honda Fit  she now knows is not meant for winter style driving - too loosie goosie in the frozen shit.  And she has finally found a guy that seems to fit in with her lifestyle.



Wow.  I have to deal with a guy in my kid's life again.  I kinda got used to her as the nose to the grindstone, nothing matters but finishing her doctorate mindset for the last 6 years as she determinedly put one foot in front of the other, her eye always on the prize.  Guys, boys, men, losers all of them were not part of her program.

Mike is an ex-Marine with at least two tours over in the shit that makes up the Middle East.  He enlisted right out of high school, spent 8 years as a jarhead and now works at Home Depot part time and uses the GI Bill to go to college.  That's what I managed to find out over a couple of Irish whiskeys on the rocks as Lis cooked us dinner and I sat there interrogating her about her new beau. 

Lis has high standards.  Of excellence, of intelligence, of everything she does and hopes to do.  If she has decided to include this fella in her life, he has obviously passed a higher standard than I would have insisted on.  I only want her to be happy and if he helps her to achieve that, he is okay in my book.

Later..................................