Let’s face it: my timing is often really, really bad.
On the sunny Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001, I was on an airplane awaiting a flight from Denver to Chicago to return to the project I was working on. I had a comfortable seat in business class and was just waiting for boarding to finish and the flight to get underway.
But something was wrong. The time to close the door and push back from the boarding bridge had come and gone, but we were still there. And there was some commotion among the crew. Another passenger mentioned that an airplane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers, but we all assumed it was probably a small plane that didn’t do any real damage, and we couldn’t see the connection to our delay.
Then either the captain or the lead flight attendant gave us the news: a serious incident was underway in New York and was affecting air travel all across the country. They were unsure when or even if our flight would be cleared to depart. We all began to feel like something major was happening, something that would present a big disruption. A short time later we were told a second plane had hit a tower, that it was very serious, and that we would have to get off the plane and make other arrangements. No flights were being allowed to take off anywhere in the country.
Of course we all know what happened that day and how it affected air travel for the next several days and beyond. It was bad timing for me. I had to figure out how I was going to get home from the airport because taxis were not being allowed to come to the terminal. What’s more, my luggage had already been put on an earlier plane and was not available: it was in some city somewhere between Denver and Chicago.
Fortunately, I was able to rebook my trip for the following Saturday and find a fellow passenger who had a car and was willing to give me a lift home. My missing suitcase got back to Denver on Friday, just in time for me to claim it and recheck it the next morning to get to Chicago.
Yeah, that was bad timing. But I suppose it could have been worse. I could already have been in the air and forced to land in someplace like Omaha, Nebraska. And my timing was certainly not as bad as for those people who had taken off from Boston or Washington that morning only to be incinerated when their planes were crashed into those buildings. My timing wasn’t as bad as for the workers in the buildings who were killed or the firefighters and others who lost their lives trying to save them.
It was only a minor inconvenience for me, far worse for a lot of other people. I have never lost sight of that.
I have had a few other instances of bad timing in the past. I was on Guam when a “super typhoon” hit the island. I got caught in a blizzard on I-95 somewhere north of Portland, Maine, just a month after I returned from Guam. The POS car I had just bought completely broke down in the midst of heavy snow, swirling winds, and subzero temperatures. I might have frozen to death there if a snowplow hadn’t come along and rescued me. And Colorado snows caught me at bad times more than once.
This Time my Timing Really Sucks
All of this brings me to my present situation. And this time, I don’t think my timing could be much worse. After living in Ukraine for just about 12 years, I decided that it was finally time to leave. I had been thinking about this for a long time, and I kept putting it off for various reasons. But by late 2019, I knew that the time had come. It was only a matter of deciding when exactly to go.
The key date in all of this was March 29, 2020, which is when my residency permit expires. I have had to renew this permit annually since I first got it in March of 2013. I decided that there was no point in renewing it again since I was going to leave. Sure, I could have gone ahead and renewed it and then left in May or June, but I felt that would have been a bit dishonest.
So, I gave my company my notice in January and began preparing. I set the end of February as my last day at work and 21/22 March as my date to fly from Ukraine to Belgium. I also made plans for a vacation in Ireland during the first three weeks of April and a second trip to another European destination from late April to early May. It was all organized and looked good.
Then the Wuhan virus hit.
You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere!
We all know the unbelievable whirlwind that has kicked up over this virus in the past weeks. It spread like wildfire and has killed thousands (mostly in China and Italy), and it has crippled the economies of countries all over the world. And a big effect is that it has shattered the travel plans of millions of people. There has never been anything like it.
Just before it hit I had made extensive travel plans. Those travel plans, of course, have been shredded.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the world suddenly went mad. Countries banned incoming flights; cruise ships were unable to dock anywhere; cities, states and countries went on partial or total “lockdowns” curtailing domestic air, rail and bus travel. Large gatherings were banned. Schools were closed and students put on extended vacation, and millions of workers were told to work from home. “Social distancing” became a thing.
The National Hockey League suspended its season, as did just about every other athletic league in the world. Concerts and other large meetings were canceled, including political rallies in the United States (it’s an election year). Restaurants, cafes and bars closed. Thanks to the irresponsible media, people panicked and started buying and hoarding supplies (most strangely including toilet paper).
All this madness exploded in such a short time that it is still hard to get my head around all that has happened. And in the middle of all this, I had a carefully organized plan to leave Ukraine, do some traveling, and then head to the U.S. for a while.
I was supposed to leave on 21 March, but as of 17 March, all transportation in or out of Ukraine is suspended. They say it’s for two weeks, and my flights were canceled. I rebooked for 1 April, but on 19 March I was informed that those flights were canceled. The airline ceased operation of its ticketing call center, so I was left with no alternative but to use an online form to request another rebooking. I am still waiting for some word.
I have doubts now that I will get out of Ukraine in time to make my planned flight from Brussels to Dublin to begin my vacation in Ireland. I really don’t know when I will be able to get out of Ukraine. And on top of that, Belgium is on a pretty strict lockdown, so I am not sure whether I would even be able to go there in early April.
But yet, I have to leave Ukraine soon: my residency permit expires on 29 March. It’s a foregone conclusion that I will not be able to leave the country before the permit expires, but I have assurances that I will not be penalized under the circumstances. However, I don’t know how long after the expiration the authorities will allow me to stay.
I suppose it goes without saying now that my Ireland trip is probably a goner. One of the B&Bs I planned to stay at in April has already informed me that they will be closed. And the state of things in Ireland is very unsure. It certainly seems like early/mid-April is going to be a bad time to try and visit the land of me ancestors. It looks like my focus tomorrow will be on canceling those plans.
My second trip, from late April to early May, is probably also going to have to be canceled. Maybe I’ll be able to move the Ireland trip to that time period and just drop the second trip entirely.
My grand plan included leaving Belgium sometime around the 18th of May and flying to Colorado with a five-day layover in Iceland. I haven’t booked it yet, but even that is looking like it might not work out.
The thing is that no one really knows how long this thing will last. Will it subside in April? Will it go on until May? Longer? It’s all a mystery at the moment.
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda…
If I had made different plans, this wouldn’t have devastated me the way it has. If I had left at the end of 2019, I would probably be in the U.S. now. If I had decided to renew my permit and stay in Ukraine until May or June, I’d simply be riding it out here until it subsided elsewhere. Kharkiv has not yet seen a single instance of the infection, so it’s about as safe a place as there might be.
But, I did not do either of those things. Unknowingly I set travel plans for the worst time to travel that there has ever been – outside of an active shooting war. Yep, my timing was really terrible on this.
I can’t change things, of course. I just have to deal with the situation as it is and try to find the best way through it. That’s all any of us can do in these kinds of circumstances.
But it sure sucks!
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