One Piece at a Time

Most people probably aren't as big of Johnny Cash fans as I am, but for those that are, remember that song "One Piece at a Time"? For those that don't, the gist is this guy works at a Cadillac factory his whole life and sneaks out one part at a time over the course of his career. By the time he retires, he has an entire car. Well, I'm not building a car, but I felt a little like that guy in the song today; I started bring on my things for deployment today. We have a little while before we leave, so I'm doing one duffel bag a day until we go. Today I brought on a smaller humidor, a box of cigars, liquid for the humidor, propane for my lighter, stationary, and a book that Amy made for me for last deployment. It's a bit of a science in what to bring. It has to be things that I won't use at home between now and deployment. Infrequent use at best. As deployment gets closer, the importance of the item, the frequency of its use goes up: abstract uniform parts, then gym clothes, then my keyboard and guitar and finally socks and deodorant. It's a pretty interesting mental exercise really...