Time Apart, Big Trucks and Ratchet Staps

Catchy title isn’t it? It has been a few weeks and once again we have moved but this time Jerry and I have gone in separate directions for the last couple weeks and will be apart for another 2 weeks. Wow…it seems so weird to be apart from each other. In the past year we have spent less than 7 nights away from each other. There was a time in our marriage where it was kind of a joke (kind of not) at my office and people would ask “where in the USA (or world) is Jerry this week?” There were definitely weeks and months where we spent more time apart than together. To be honest, spending so much time together over the last 365 days has gone better than I think either of us every thought it would. Some days are hard and are not so pretty. Some days we just say to each other “I need some time alone” but all in all it has been a good change for us.

Enough of that, so where are we right now? We left Centre, Alabama on October 15th and headed north to Illinois. I was cold by the time we got to Nashville and was second guessing the direction we were heading. We went to the LaSalle-Peru area and put the boat away for the rest of 2020. A quick stop at my parents to pick up mail and packages and we were off to a hotel at O’Hare Airport. On Friday, October 16th I dropped Jerry off at O’Hare at 9pm and at 3:30am Saturday (3 hours delayed) his flight finally departed.

Jerry is currently in Taipei, Taiwan. This is information that I do not share lightly. And please believe me when I say it was not a decision we made lightly either. While I am certain that everyone has an opinion on us traveling during a pandemic please know that respectfully I ask you not to share those opinions in this forum. It isn’t that I don’t care what you all think, but when you are living this way with no home to return to it can feel like you are being judged with every move that you make. This is something that I have worked hard to quiet in my brain over the past month. We are extremely cautious when moving about and we live a hermit life no matter where we are.

So Taiwan, Jerry, right. Making the decision for him to go was not easy. We made the final decision in September 2020 for him to leave mid October to go help with a robotics event in Taiwan. Honestly? I never thought he would ever make it onto the plane. Surely the event would get cancelled. Surely we couldn’t find a flight that I/we approved of (layovers, etc). Surely SOMETHING would happen to cancel the trip. I can tell you I didn’t believe that this was happening until he was wheels up on the plane. Then it all hit. Oh shit….what have we done?!

What we have done is sacrificed time together to bring some normalcy to some kids in Taiwan. What we have done is sacrificed Jerry’s ability to move about for 16 days so he can complete a quarantine in a hotel room to ensure he is not carrying Covid when he volunteers at the event. What we have done is ensured that Jerry has a brain cause it was poked with his pre-flight Covid test. And finally, what we have done is what feels normal to us….give back to the kids in this world in a way that feels right to us. They are our future and they deserve better than what they have gotten over the past 6-8 months.

Some statistics of the trip:

• one pre-flight Covid test
• one Taiwanese Visa obtained using a special invitation letter from the Taiwan government
• one direct flight lasting 15 hours from Chicago to Taipei
• 12 hour time difference between us and him to his employer
• one cab ride from Taipei International to his hotel
• 16 days of quarantine in a hotel room (16 because the day you enter the hotel and the day you leave the hotel don’t count toward the 14 day quarantine)
• one phone call from the Taiwanese police informing Jerry that his Taiwanese SIM card in his phone will be used to track him while in country for contact tracing purposes (if necessary)
• 3 meals a day delivered to his room = 48 meals
• 2 temperature checks per day = 32 temperature checks
• November 2nd…..quarantine done
• 1 bullet train ride
• a new hotel room for 9 nights
• November 7th and 8th: 2 one day robotics events to limit the number of people exposed to each other
• November 11th and 12th: travel back to the USA
• November 12th to Thanksgiving: willing self-quarantine together in an Airbnb house in Columbia, MO

When I type it all out what I feel is proud. Proud that he took this on. Proud that he cares enough to sacrifice to help bring “normal” to people he doesn’t know. Proud that he can tolerate a hotel room for that long. When you read it you might wonder how Taiwan can even consider holding a robotics event of all things? Let me help you understand, when Jerry got on the plane to Taiwan they had 7 active Covid cases….in the entire country. 7. Taiwan has a population of 25 million and is an island off China. (China says Taiwan is part of China, Taiwan says they are independent. For purposes of this post, Taiwan is their own country. Thanks!) 7 people total have died from Covid in Taiwan and on the 29th of October they reported 3 new Covid cases. When a case is reported in Taipei it makes the news and the news report sounds like this “Today we confirmed our 48th Covid case, it is the wife of the 37th case and the daughter of the 10th case.” Legit. On the news. It is wild.

While Jerry has been sequestered I came back home to West Lafayette, IN. I spent time working at my employers office. I relaxed and came “home” to stay with Sarah and Brett (the only people we have stayed with since the pandemic has started). It has been nice to have the office structure to my days and puppies to cuddle at night. It has been wonderful to be surrounded with familiar while Jerry has been gone.

Tomorrow I will head back to Illinois for a couple days and will see my parents socially distanced. Then off to Columbia, MO I go to spend some time in another place I consider home/familiar.

Big Trucks: a few months ago we traded in our SUV for a big truck. We named the truck Russell. Prior to Jerry being gone I had driven Russell some and he and I got along, but this break has forced Russell and I to REALLY get to know each other.

• Have I sworn at him? Yep!
• Have I taken him through the car wash and cleaned him out? Yep!
• Has he made me bleed? Yep!
• Have I sworn at him? Do you know me…of course I have! (yes it is on here twice)
• Have I forgotten where things are located in Russell? Yes!
• Have I hit anything with him? Nope
• Have I gotten a ticket? Nope

Finally, (if you are still reading) ratchet straps….I don’t like them. I don’t use them correctly. Jerry loves them. Jerry uses them. Then Jerry goes to Taiwan. Ratchet straps are securing things in the bed of Russell. The straps make me swear at Jerry. Jerry is not here to defend himself. I use the straps incorrectly but still get them to do what I want them to do. Can I get the straps to release when I get to Missouri? Probably not. My plan? I own scissors, I know where they are, and I am not afraid to cut the stupid straps! I am also confident I could order more stupid ratchet straps from Amazon.

The End.

Much Love, NB