And Then There Were Seven...

Time continues to march with a brutal regularity and we can no more effect it's passage than we can stop the sun from rising. While the endless tasks make each day pass with a surprising velocity, it's unique duplicitous nature also continues to remind me how many more days must pass before we can call this mission completed.
It is both fortunate and tragic that we measure mission success in this manner. It is fortunate because we can make realtively definite plans around it. We can put a mark on the wall which both torments us and tantilizes us by measuring the remaining separation from family, friends and loved ones. It is tragic though because it makes the deployment an exercise of endurance rather than one of objective accomplishment.
I think they key here, as Papa Ray related in a previous comment, is to measure our mission here in a series of objectives and accomplishments rather than on a calendar. Not only will this make the passage of time co-incidental but also provides a sense of purpose and accomplishment. This isn't a function of changing the tasks that fill our day, but focusing on those tasks and accomplishments instead of the clocks and calendars.
Hopefully, by the time we have 7 weeks remaining instead of 7 weeks completed, I will be relating our time here through the recitation of a laundry list of achievements.