Alarm! Alarm! Bill's Going Back to Work!

We knew it was coming, but THE CALL is always a shock. Time for Bill to pack a sea bag, rush around in a panic, get on a plane and go back to work.

Well, almost. There are still things that have to be done. A new drug test (the old drug card expires Dec. 13) will be necessary. Forms to fill out and email for pre-boarding. And just to make things interesting, another call came in yesterday, asking if Bill could get on a plane tomorrow and do 5 days of dock trials in New Orleans this coming week. The catch? It's a government contract and there is no funding for it, as of 4 pm Friday afternoon. So we're skeptical that the job will actually materialize, and we're assuming that it won't happen.

It is always like this in the shipping business. There is no planning ahead for any job. When you tell them that you're ready to go back to work, you'd better have your bags packed, because they don't want to talk about later in the week or next month. It's always a panic, get on a plane and catch the boat tomorrow. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I'm not.

The plan we had last summer was that Bill would be home for September and October, take a temp job in November and go back on the USNS Observation Island in late December. That of course didn't happen, and Bill is still short by about 3 weeks to get vested for a full retirement year. We decided that we weren't going to worry about that, but now there's a slight possibility that he might get that retirement credit after all. Of course, there's no telling if the OBIS job will actually happen before the end of the year. It's all up in the air, the maritime version of zen-patience, and letting things unfold in the fullness of time. He'll go when they say "go," and he'll know about 24 hours ahead.

So we continue to just live our daily lives, with this spectre in the near distance. When he does sign on to the OBIS, he'll be gone about 4 months, which would put him back home in April. Wow. That sounds like a long way off. I'll have to find someway to work this out, one way or another. Usually I'm ready for him to go, just about the time he goes. After all of this togetherness and tough stuff we've slogged through together for the last 3 months, I'm not ready to give him up at all.

Mom will be here to help me along through the next stages, at least for December. I'll just have to wait and see how it goes. There's no point in worrying about it, I've already been so lucky to have Bill's undivided attention and constant care, one of the advantages of the business he's in.

But now the piper must be paid, the insurance REALLY needs to be continued, and he has to go earn some money for us to live on. We'll figure it out somehow.