I'm grateful for: the end of July; S2 on his way home before going to his combat engineering course on Monday - a Lo-ong weekend for him; my still new camera backpack.

Yesterday was S2's graduation from his Hebrew course. Another army ceremony, and they do seem to get those right here. It made for a terribly long day, the graduation was at his base up north, which does NOT btw appear on any maps. We drove for more than four hours, including a stop to shop and pick up D2 in Rosh HaAyin. Finally arriving at the base, it was so horribly hot we could only take refuge in the one tiny bit of shade by the parade ground and wait for it to be over - at least at first.

Then S2 showed up, and that was wonderful. We fed him and gave him lots of food (that's what the shopping was for) to take with him. After the ceremony he was getting loaded on a bus with a bus-load of other graduates and taken to the centre of the country where his fate for the next several months is to be decided. With no lunch and possibly no supper until 8 or 9 pm, or even later, depending on when they arrived at the base and were allowed to go eat.

As I said, seeing S2 was wonderful. I took loads of photos but I haven't looked at any of them yet so I don't know how they are. S2 got to visit with us briefly, then we watched them practice the ceremony, then came the real ceremony.

An advantage of showing up early like we did - we didn't mean to be so early, it's just we live far enough away that we had to leave long before anyone could have told us they changed the time - is that we got to meet pretty much all of the officers, and a bunch of the guys in his unit and company.

The ceremony was just the right length, and lovely. Something the IDF really gets right. The guys don't march perfectly in lock-step, which looks kind of funny to people like us, from countries who work so hard to get the pageantry perfect. Instead, the IDF works on making them the best possible soldiers they can be, and spends just a couple of days drilling them on marching in formation. It comes, in part, of having an army that was formed after armies no longer marched in columns to the field of battle, and faced each other along long lines, discharging their rifles and falling back for the next row to fire. There are actually special groups (I don't remember what size) in the army who are trained to march and perform parade maneuvers and look good when working with the troops of other countries, where such things are valued. At home? not so much.

There was a pinning of 'excellent' soldiers - they get a pin they can wear for the rest of their lives, including on their uniforms, so the whole world can know that they were considered excellent. If that sounds at all sarcastic, I don't mean it to be. S2 says the guy from his unit truly deserves it, and I don't doubt the others did, too.

The ceremony over, the graduates threw their hats in the air, and a strong wind meant that they then all had to run after them a bit frantically, which was also kind of funny. A last chance to hug S2, and meet a few more of his mates, and he had to run, so we left.

Long, long drive home, TH and I taking turns and trying not to fall asleep. I think he did better than I did, but then, his last two weeks were a lot quieter and less work than mine were.

Yeah, ask me how I know about that. Try to imagine the state of the house when I came home.

So we managed to stay awake long enough to read S3 a bedtime story, and I crashed. I don't know how long TH stayed awake, I imagine not long. I woke up again shortly before midnight, and D3 and I watched an episode of Joan of Arcadia together, so I'm getting back into the swing of things here, a bit.

There were a couple of funny things I'd wanted to share, but I can't for the life of me remember any of them now.

S3 woke up screaming the night before the graduation, and came to sleep in my bed. That was when everyone bothered to tell me that he'd been losing it and getting hysterical while I was gone, saying he couldn't last without me. I don't suppose it would have made any difference - it's not like I could have come home any earlier - but it would have been nice to know what sort of state my youngest son was in.

He's off at a friend's house today. Missing me doesn't hold a candle to getting to spend a day with his friend N. :-) I love having older children.

That's all I can manage right now. The heat is, well, it's the end of July. In the Negev. No more I can say to that. I have laundry to hang out, and I have to decide whether to try and do it myself, or to try and wake a grumpy child to help. *sigh*

I'm listening to Don White: Not Scared Anymore

:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
I'll be moving on - 2010-10-10
Gold membership and stuff - 2010-10-10
Decisions, decisions - 2010-10-07
Days to go - 2010-10-06