Some days I find it very hard to be cheery. Other days it just sort of comes naturally to me. It's not so much that I'm an extremely bubbly person; it's more that I try to be an optimist and to look on the bright side of things.

Lately it's been getting harder and harder to just be cheery. I know it's because of the weather. When the sun is out, I find it much easier to be optimistic. But it's hard to be upbeat when it's chilly and rainy and overcast. We've gotten well over 12 inches of rain this month alone, and we're not even halfway through!

Then when I get crappy news, it just totally sinks my mood.

I had been in a fine mood this morning, not particularly good but not crummy either. I watched the Price is Right in my jammies and finally decided to put some real clothes on around 11am. I made the bed, and got some dusting done while I put on my makeup. Just as I was finishing, my cell phone rang. And sure enough, it was Kurt.

Unfortunately the father of one of his coworkers passed away yesterday. Another sailor threw his back out so completely that he now needs surgery, which is going to happen today and tomorrow. This means that the ship is really short-handed because it's so small that missing just two people in a particular division will really throw a monkey wrench into the works.

Now Kurt's telling me that he's probably going to have duty every three days from here until he leaves for his six-month deployment in two weeks. He's going to have to work his normal five-day work week, but every three days he'll have to stay on board the ship overnight. When that happens during the week, he'll go to work one morning and not be home until the following night. Weekends are not immune. If his duty day falls on a weekend, then he goes in that morning and doesn't come home for 24 hours. Before this happened, he had worked it out so that he had both weekends off until he left (although he does have duty on Thanksgiving). Now he'll probably have duty both weekends.

It's bad enough that he's leaving for six months in just a couple of weeks. Now he won't be home from work hardly at all. I'll see him four nights a week and one day on the weekend.

So much for family time.