Bizarre, indeed!  To those pondering last week, here you have it – Colonel Haulley is wearing his Royal Canadian Marine uniform.  In real life, there is no such thing as the Royal Canadian Marines, although the Canadian Forces do have a substantial fleet and carry out amphibious exercises with the United States, NATO and the Pacific Alliance on a regular basis, and stormed Juno Beach on D-Day in the War (the most successful of the Overlord landings).  So in a world where Canada is the key power-broker and international military leader, giving them a power-projection weapon like a Marine Corps was always reasonable to me.  Plus, Haulley is such a tough guy, making him anything less than a Royal Canadian Marine seemed… I don’t know, exactly, but in the U.S., the Marines are very often seen as totally gung-ho badasses, and so this alternate-universe Canada needed something similar to suit the role.  I think everyone has basically gotten on board.

Anyway.

This was an unusually tough week for me.  I had a LOT of work to do under very rough conditions.  I think it’s in good taste not to go into specifics, naturally, but suffice it to say, it got a little rocky for a while there, but I’m on an even keel now, I think.  I’m looking forward to a little time off now that the holidays are approaching, though, I can tell you that much for damn sure.  For right now, I’m worn down to a stump, so I’m basically just going to make my bed and then go to it.

We’re creeping up on the end of the chapter, though… Stay tuned for the finale!