My oldest son put his right hand in the air today…

…to become a U.S. Marine. Holy crap, I just fogged up just writing that sentence. What’s it going to be like the day he leaves?

I fogged up pretty bad when we dropped his older sister off at college, too. Y’know, they used to be little. They used to sit in my lap.

Why the Marines? Because he’s always wondered what it would be like to be the smartest guy in the room. And that was my last Marine joke ever. From now on I’ll concentrate my intra-service mockery on the Navy or, when I’m feeling lazy, the Air Force. I’ll start practicing my pull-ups now instead. He can already do more of those than I can. After boot camp…

I will not be mocked.

Okay, fine, I will be. But maybe I can be mocked for doing a tiny number of pull-ups, instead of …well, instead of the even smaller number I can do right now.

We’ve got him until September, and then we let him go.