I have, maybe seven or eight bikes I’d like to send on to new homes, but they’re in Chicago.
I’m in school, and my wife’s a musician.When everything went remote we were urged to evacuate to MI. Her folks have an in-law apartment where we were able to isolate for the 14 days. We drove from Manhattan so no airports or buses. This was back towards the end of February...
I know that makes me privileged and selfish and a bad American, but school shuttered it’s doors and grocery shopping in Manhattan meant physically brushing against many many people in the supermarket. Her folks insisted, and I was seeing the National Guard trucks coming through, and staying was looking more and more terrifying. It felt like if we didn’t get out of the metropolis soon, we might not be able too.
We had just moved to New York in January, so Diana could take some exclusive music development workshops and make some music theater connections in the Big Apple. She was already making real connections, was offered a gig with the national tour of Tootsie, and then it all ground to a halt.
Were in MI right now, figuring out if it’s going to be worth the cost of living to be in NYC post covid. I have to think it will be another year or so till we have a vaccine, and while things are opening back up we still need to distance and mask up for the forceable future. I worry about a second surge both as states are relaxing and when the weather cools in the Fall.
So now we’ve been in MI for seven weeks, we have a sublet in Manhattan, we are subletting the apartment we left in Chicago, and we are living a few towns away from Detroit. We have stuff in all these places, and we don’t know where we’re going to end up living.
I count my blessings, her folks are just the best, and we have a lot of space. Our living quarters are very generous and outside we’re in a beautiful area with trees and a river, and I’ve been doing a lot of gravel riding on the dirt roads.
I had stashed my two most valuable bikes here when we sublet the Chicago place, and when we split from NYC I made sure we brought Diana’s bike too.
There are far worse things than being stuck with your beautiful wife with her ‘88 Cannondale ST400 and you on your ‘83 Trek 720 having access to miles of fairly well maintained dirt roads!
Still, the uncertainty is a constant drain. If we knew we would be here long term, we could get our stuff from Chicago, if we knew we weren’t going back to New York, we could retrieve our things from Manhattan. Right now is a limbo, and our life is literally spread out between three states.
And I’m just going to say it, because you guys will understand...
I miss my bike hoard!
I know, I know...