Gov. Pawlenty

Tonight was Josh's unit send off. It was a nice dinner at the American Legion Post nearest to where they drill. Gov. and Mrs. Pawlenty were both present.

As a child of a Vietnam Vet, my expectations of the military are pretty low. It was beyond my expectation that the Governor and his wife would take notice of a small unit. Furthermore, when I heard he was going to be there, I thought that he would probably do his speach, shake hands with some brass and leave. We left before he did. He took the time to pose for pictures and talk to any soldier or family member who approached him.

Also, Mrs. Pawlenty has an organization (link to come) that lists organizations willing to provide help to the families who are staying behind. Her organization provided gift bags filled with spa and dish cleaning product samples from Thyme plus a scented candle.

Josh and I are impressed by some of these seemingly trivial things. People in our lives and also complete strangers have shown Josh and me great kindness. And it's the kindness that means a lot.

On a side note... we said "the pledge" with the words "under God" and no one complained. And the chaplain said a prayer to God. And people were quiet and respectful and no one complained. Perhaps an upcoming deployment puts the fear of God into people. But, perhaps it is because the people in the room were genuinely interested in acknowledging God in this situation. It was nice, though. One can acknowledge God without being offensive.

All in all a good evening.

Note, I'm going to go through and edit this sometime during the weekend. Just publishing to have my thoughts written down.