Mike, your shining dad qualities are evident here. I get it: you blink your eyes and the little girl in the stroller suddenly is traveling abroad without Dad's protection. The big downside of this life I chose is that I'm away from the kids too often. Though increasingly they come to me- will meet daughter # 2 this weekend. Sorry I've been so busy, would have been good to catch up.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1