Questions You Don't Think To Ask

I pride myself on being prepared. My family and I have always been able to discuss what happens in case of serious illness and death. The SGM and I discussed not only what would happen were he to be killed in action but what would happen were he to be captured. I knew my father had a DNR long before the stroke that took his life. The people who need to know, know my wishes regarding medical decisions.

Every now and then, though, one slips by. I remember when my mother brought her now-husband, then not-yet-husband, to meet the family in Colorado. One day, we went to the museum. He said he was going to check out an exhibit on another floor; we agreed to meet up later at another exhibit all of us wanted to see. He left. About five minutes later, the fire alarm went off. We looked at each other and actually laughed. As we evacuated the building, we decided that he was an adult and would find us on the grounds. Sure enough, he did. But when you're all adults, you figure out that yes, you will all meet up in 30 minutes in the Egypt room. You don't think to ask "Where do you want to meet if there's a fire alarm?"

Another time, the SGM was heading out on a deployment and I was to join him in Newport for the last three days before he left. We discussed the things I needed to bring him. I doubled checked that I had my i.d. All was good. Until the attacks on the World Trade Center occured and they closed the bridge to the island and locked down all military bases. You don't think to ask "What's Plan B should there be an attack on US soil?"

Want to know what else you don't think to ask? You don't think to ask "What happens if you're in the country that is Ground Zero of the swine flu that threatens to become a global pandemic?" Nope. That one didn't even make the top 10 list of questions Lithus and I thought to ask each other.

Luckily, he is in a very small town and it is isolated enough that all should be well. He and his co-workers did not get on a crowded bus this morning and travel 3 hours to see the cool city that one of the Mexican pilots wanted to show the others. So they are being smart and responsive with being reactive, let alone overreactive.

Still, you have to laugh. At least I do. Because who expects a global pandemic of swine flu during the only six weeks he's away? Welcome to our world. This is what happens when you combine my life with the life of the one other person whose stories I envy. You get a weird, synergystic swine flu pandemic. Or something like that. But it makes a great story.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.