Then There Was A Detour

So I make the ceremony.

I attend the reception.

I get a shell!!!!!

Then I go home and make it to work for a few hours, right?

Wrong.

I am carrying around my shell and my certificate. Cradling it like a baby. Completely floored.

I get to my car and I carefully place it on the seat beside me. I call Jen and announce "I have a shell!!" She responds "Like a sea shell?" We laugh. She is alluding to the fact that when CDR Bullard first suggested a "shell" as a gift for CDR Junge we had no idea what he was talking about. I told her and she said "Like a sea shell?" We laughed it made no sense. Then she Googled "Constitution" and "shell". One of the hits was an item from the USS Constitution Museum store. I read it and we discussed it, but it didn't make sense. Then Jen's BFF, SB called and we asked him and he explained it was a 40 mm, 200 gram saluting shell that had been fired on the ship, stuffed with oak from the decks and sealed with a command coin.

So Jen knew what it was this time around and was very happy for me.

I made it all the way to the gas tanks before I noticed it.

My gift for CDR Bullard was still on the seat beside me. LOL! I was so besotted with my shell that I was all the way in Dorchester. So I got off the highway and turned around.

Back on Memorial Day weekend I attended Max Kennedy's discussion on his book "Danger's Hour" and I got an autographed copy for CDR Bullard. I worried for a little bit that he might not be impressed. But then he said something to me on Twitter or SailorBob, I forget where about being jealous that he didn't make it to the lecture. SB said that clearly I had made a good choice.

I had also popped into College Hype and picked up Townie T-shirts for his kids and "All Roads Lead to Charlestown" T-shirts for himself and his wife. He told me that CDR Gillen had given him a Townie pin.

So, poor CDR Bullard finally finishes up with his long emotional day (which was preceded by several days of prep) and goes home to decompress.....and I turn up again like a bad penny.

I was ready to leave it with Sarah, but she called him to the front hall to see it for himself.

I am really going to miss them.