You're welcome, Harpgirl. It's been fun keeping it up. Ordinarily when I try to keep a journal I lose track of it within a few days. With this I feel some reponsibility to keep it going because I am not just doing it for myself. Instead I am bringing a little known part of the world to others, and a part of myself goes into it as well.

This morning as I walked across the parking lot Kip called out to me to congratulate me on my retirement. Then he said something that really touched me. He thanked me for my 28 years of service. I didn't think about it til then but I have given (sold?) 28 years of my life to this country. It was unusual that he had thanked me for that.