Are We Alll Met?

I gather it is the practice in combat, after the platoon has undergone an attack, to regroup and count noses, so as to assure that everyone is accounted for.  I can relate: I suppose this might be true in any case but most of my everyday email contacts are in their 70s or 80s and when one of them goes to ground you just have to catch your breath.  Just lately a couple of my regulars went into radio silence and I muttered a quiet "uh oh."  Had somebody taken a hit?  And come to think of know?   In several cases, I know next about these guys--I mean as to next of kin,, newspaper to search for the obit, that sort of thing.  They might just vanish.


Fortunately the stragglers both checked in this morning, as fit as you can get in our general state of advanced decay (and none the wiser about my fussy concerns).   We can now continue forward together into the void.