Molasses.

Ugh. Our neighbor's husband is home. As in home from the deployment. He is in the same group of guys that Swiss is in... and I'm 95% sure he left after Swiss did. And he's home before Swiss is. My patience is wearing thin.

Don't get me wrong, I am super happy for them. (Honestly!!!) I won't begrude anyone their happy homecoming because deployments are hard on everyone and we've ALL earned our celebrations. But the past week has seen a steady stream of decorated cars, banners on bridges, signs on homefronts... more and more. I see them everywhere naturally, at the PX, the commissary, in the Home Depot parking lot, at the mall, next door, on my run, everywhere. And can I tell you that I am so sick of it.

I'm not sick of it because I think it is lame or overly saccharine. The first signs I saw made me happy and misty and left me beaming all day long. Now I'm just over it because I'm tired of everyone else having their homecoming but us. (Okay, that isn't fair, there are obviously other families in the unit still waiting) I don't know. I'm just ready to have our reunion. I'm ready for that to be us. I'm ready for the signs to be on our house and the decorations on our truck. I am ready to not be in this house alone anymore.

Perhaps all of this is just because my patience is wearing thin and the final weeks of this deployment have left we weary, they are moving oh so slowly- sometimes it is hard to believe we've been doing this for almost a year now. Sometimes it feels like less, but mostly it feels like its been a decade. I am tired and exhausted and so, so over it. I'll stop my whining now. But man oh man, I want that to be us already!

Neighbors.

So we got some new neighbors on the block, not on my street, but on the opposite end of my block. I walk past their cute house on my way to and from work every day. (Side note: I looked at that house when I was house hunting and it needed a lot of work, but someone seems to have 'flipped' it so I imagine it is super cute now. Because you all just had to know that. Right.) Anyway, I started to get the distinct impression that they were military...

What was it, you ask, that got me thinking they were military?

Could it have been the GWOT Veteran license plate? Sure.

How about the giant ARMY! flag hanging in front of the house?
Yep, that sealed the deal. Awesome. Why you ask? We are around 110 miles from the nearest Army post, and that one is teensey... so there aren't a lot of military folks in these parts other than the handful of recruiters at the office down the street.

I got all sorts of ideas for introducing myself... envisioned BBQ's this summer or at least a beer or two with hopefully some really nice Army folks, just like me. Another twee set of folks who get it, and right around the corner!

And then I saw this on the tire cover of their Jeep Wrangler XL.

0.o Yeah, ummmm, about that. (If you can't read it, it says: CAUTION Stay 100 Meters Back or you Will be Shot. And then it is translated into Arabic.) Pretty sure I'm not cool with you having that on the back of your SUV. In AMERICA. Dude, you aren't in theatre anymore. (I get that it is his prerogative, yadda, yadda, yadda....)

I mean, am I the only one who thinks this is, amongst other things, insulting, ridiculous and utterly lame? Who puts that on their car? And it is BIG. Really, what kind of Army dude put this on the family vehicle? I know what kind... the kind I don't want to BBQ with. I bet his one of those uber Hooah-Hooah guys who hasn't really done much to warrant being so flashy about his rough-tough-Army-guy persona. So yeah, am I overreacting or is this really as ridiculous as I think it is?