The Way We Were Wednesday - Longing for the Good Old Days

It has been about 23 months since we returned from Ireland, to a vastly changed world, with no idea how long the changes would last. My most traveled year, I boarded a little over 30 airline flights, 4 last year. A couple of times I have gone to Europe twice in a 12 month period, it has been a couple of years since the last trip, and I am longing for the good old days.

I am maxed out on accrued vacation and paid personal days at the office, and struggling to find reasons to take a day here and there to minimize the loss of paid time off that I will never get. In the past this was never a real issue, only when I was distracted or careless did I run afoul of the rules. But without travel, both business and personal, I find it hard to take the time I have earned. I often add a few days to work travel, staying over at my own expense to see people or places. I have had one work trip in 28 months. And nothing seems to be coming up.

I recently had a thought, oh get on with life, I should just book tickets and go. The response was, is it time? Is it safe? Be careful.

We are going to New York in April, train up and back, and a hotel. NYC long ago instituted needing proof of full vaccination for indoor anything, and masks. It makes it a bit safer. I look forward to it.

I long to hop the pond, I long to see familiar places and faces, and to explore places and experience adventures unknown. Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are all on the bucket list. I read the online news in Iceland, an island nation that has done well at isolation in the pandemic, yet 1,400 positive tests and one death of a young person in the week before my latest read. Maybe this is a longing I need to experience just a little longer.

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