Long distance relationships aren’t easy things. Sometimes the distance itself can be
deceptive. Who would have thought that
3500 miles and 322 miles could be so similar?
It takes a transatlantic flight 8 hours to get from Gatwick to
Boston. It takes a Subaru 6 hours to get
from here back to the house in Maine. A
case of so near, but so far away.
Now I know that the new job is the number one priority. No job means we have nothing at all and that
is unacceptable. So here I am, in New
York in a hotel room, while the wife, Lil’G and Matt are back in Maine
suffering under the strain of moving, feeling under the weather (in Audrey’s
case, quite under the weather!) and literally being under a lot of weather.
I just got an e-mail saying that it was windy, with thunder and lighting,
to follow the snow that blew through earlier.
So, not only is Audrey working out the kinks of another house move
without me there, she’s doing it just as winter decides to show up. My Dad used to say that I never did anything
the easy way. Seems like that still
holds true.
Now I’ve done the long distance relationship before, when
Audrey was here in the USA and I was back in England, so I have had more
practice at it than I really wanted.
More than that, I thought I’d never have to do anything like it
again. Yet here I am, 6 hours away and
unable to lift a finger to help pack, keep the kids under control and take care
of the unwell. It doesn’t make me feel
too great, leaving Audrey to get over being ill by herself. My place should be there, fetching, carrying,
cooking, tending and taking care of everyone.
And it sucks that I’m not. Badly.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Oh yes it is.
We got snow here in Upstate New York this morning and my car got hit in
the parking lot outside our site office.
The funny thing? The car that hit
it was being driven by one of the safety engineers. As Alanis Morrissette once sang, “Isn’t It Ironic?” Oh, the damage isn’t bad, because he wasn’t
driving that fast. It’s just that the
car park was icy under the snow and he slid as soon as he touched the
brakes. Could have happened to anyone,
but it did happen to me.
OK, I was kidding (a bit) about the doom and gloom. It feels good to be working again, even if
the whole thing was thrown together in a mad panic. My computer turned up on Day 2 and the
security pass on Day 3. Why do I mention
the security pass, you might wonder?
Because without it, I needed to have someone let me back into my section
of the office every time I went to the bathroom, break-room, or any other damn
room! You don’t need to ask how happy I
felt once I was able to do that on my own.
The people I’m working
with are a good bunch and they have made me feel welcome in the week and a half
since I started. I have work to keep me
going and it’s only going to get busier as the project ramps up into serious construction
work come next Spring. A big plus is
that I get to see the building as it goes up, as there are windows looking that
way on my side of the office. It’s an
impressive sight.
So I guess I’m lucky.
There are many out there who have lost their jobs and remain unemployed
after months out of work. I know now a
little of how they feel. The mere
thought of putting my family through that gives me the shivers. One month was bad enough, not knowing where
the next opportunity might come from, whether anyone would see any value in
bringing me on board and where it might lead us. As I said, I’m one of the lucky ones. This company came after me, for a job I
didn’t know was out there, in a place I didn’t even know about. I owe them a great deal and I intend to give
them full value for their Estimator.
Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?
It’s still a little reminder of a long distance relationship, though. But we’ll get through it. And once the stress of this move is over and done with, we’ll emerge on the other side, stronger, more humble, but, more than anything, together.
G
