Last Night

Tonight is Danny's last night on overnights.  He has been on this shift since leaving the Army in October of 1998.  It has worked well for our family.  We didn't have to have babysitters in the summer or when the kids were home from school.  Danny would get home from work just as I was getting up for work.  We always had our evenings together.  We were always able to eat dinner together as a family. 
But it's time now to move on, move over.  Danny is going to days as a detective.  This is a regular shift, no nights, no weekends, no holidays.  Too weird.  Of course, he will be on call regularly and that will include nights, weekends and holidays.  And there will be times when the hours will be much longer than 9-5 or what ever his shift will be.  But for the most part, we will be normal.
I know that he is very excited for the new adventure.  I don't know if I am.  I joke about not wanting to share the bed or the late night tv, but it isn't that.  I just keep thinking he is going to miss hanging out with the scum of Des Moines.  I think he is going to miss the pleasant interactions that he is accustom to with meth heads and crack whores.  I think he will long for the days (nights) when the average client had a below average I.Q.  But then again, the idiots are not confined to the midnight hours.
Starting Monday, Danny puts on dress shirt and tie (and pants).  No more uniform.  No more uniform?  Not since 1989 has that happened.  I don't know what it is like to not have something with patches hanging in my closet.  It will be strange.  I will miss the sound of velcro every morning.  That sweet sound that Danny is home and is safe. 
I feel like we are starting something completely new.  No more leaving early from the party, or not even going because of work.  He can watch a Monday Night Football game to the end.  We won't be rushed each evening.  It will be a slight adjustment, but one that will be really quite grand.
But then there is Harlow.  She camps out next to my side of the bed.  Danny will kick her out the first night she snores.  Emmitt will lose his place on Danny's side of the bed.  Sophie will be kicked out because she knocks on the door at three in the morning to be let out.  Elsa can stay because she is a good night time kitty.  They will have a hard time adjusting, that is for certain.
So here it is, Danny's last night.  Good on ya sir!  See you in the morning.