True. Very true.

"Times are tough, but they'll get better soon, Darling. I miss you terribly. Love, JG"

That's what the card said. One morning last week, flowers were at my desk before I was.

We were arguing again just two days later.

Things are strained. Every disagreement leads to an argument about how we argue. Our efforts to dissect the IMs and/or emails to figure out where our communication went wrong has only shined a spotlight on how imperfect we are. Baggage and bias have skewed our views on acknowledgment, forgiveness and apologies.

Actual words are less than 10 percent of communication. Well, when words are all there are to go on internet delays during a live chat, lack of or use of the wrong 'emoticon' and even word choice makes the 90 percent margin for error a guarantee.

JG and I were talking about how were we at the halfway mark of his deployment when his countdown application registered 48.5 percent. It was about a week before it officially hit more than 50 percent. I swear time stood still for hours at a time.

I took the kids out to Silver Diner for dinner tonight. We had made friends with the manager, Jackie, before JG left due to an unfortuante hummus incident. "We guarantee our restaurant is sparkling clean, and that goes for the food too," Jackie had said. Anyway, Jackie greeted the kids and I warmly. She asked how JG and I were doing. After listening for a couple minutes she broke in with "that's only because you miss each other so much."

True. Very true.