Wouldn’t you know it?  You spend months planning a trip — including a couple months re-planning when your original destination goes all crazy and shooty — and what happens the Sunday before you are supposed to leave?  You get that scratchiness in your throat, like you were eating sandpaper again for some reason.  You think, “huh,” suck down a couple Ricola, and try to get some rest.  But is that the end of it?  Noooo.  Next comes the sneezing and the mucus and the “hell no, I’m going to be sick now.”  But you’re actually sort of sick.

I blame my coworkers.  And those people that — despite my utter lack of trying to prevent them — still get on my train in the morning AND the afternoon.  And probably that guy on Friday who was coming back from his smoke break and decided to stand right next to me in the elevator.  I couldn’t breathe then and suddenly I couldn’t breathe on Sunday night.  Don’t tell me that’s not a coincidence.

Fortunately, the throat thing only stuck around for a day, but that was long enough to set off my sinuses.  Not that they needed much to be set off.  This year’s wet-two-days, dry-two-days spring weather has really been doing a number on them.  This past weekend were some of the wet days, and now we’re in the dry part of the cycle, so a bit of a bug was the only push those ol’ sinuses needed.

But things will be OK.  I’m catching a few extra ZZZs each night — which is not as easy as it would seem when you’re trying to get everything squared away for your trip — and the congestion is just about gone.  Ah, it’s good to have a fairly robust constitution.  I think all will be well when I get on that plane.  I’m quite sure I’m not infectious or anything like that — which would be the only thing that would keep me from going.  (That, and a couple jack-booted thugs from the CDC.)  And even then I’d kind of have to think about it.

Believe it or not, it has been almost six months since I was last in Ukraine. It was so long ago, and yet, it doesn’t seem like it has been that long at all. Time just goes by way to fast.  But here we are, six months since my last trip, and I think I should see my wife again.  I think a husband should see his wife every six months or so.  I guess I’m just old fashioned that way…

With the exception of my cave-located followers, you know that there is significant unrest going on in Ukraine right now.  Unfortunately, the part of the country where this is happening is also the part of the country I would need to go through.  And for the past couple months I’ve been getting regular advisory messages from the State Department that strongly urge US citizens to defer travel to Ukraine, particularly to the eastern portion of the country.

I had started planning my trip and purchasing my travel just as things were starting to boil over in Kiev.  It was before Russia violated international treaties by sending troops into Crimea (and then lying about it for weeks) or so-called “citizen activists” stormed their first city hall.  At the time I believe that things would return to a point of stasis and I could enjoy time with my wife in her country.  Ah, I was so young and foolish then.

So after much discussion, my wife and I decided to meet in Kiev and then go on to a much safer location:  the Middle East.  OK, I’m being a little flippant; we’re actually going to the Persian Gulf — which is probably still safer than Donetsk.

Actually, it will be completely safe.  We will be visiting that metropolitan jewel of the Arabian peninsula, Dubai.  Technically I’ll be in Ukraine for two days — on day at the start and end of my travels — but the bulk of the time will be in Dubai.

This will be my first time there, and while it has never been on my list of places to see, I’m still trying to get a bit jazzed about it.  Of course, I am definitely jazzed about seeing and being with my wife again.  In some ways, this will be our honeymoon.  (Again, not the place I would have picked for it, but…)

So this trip will probably have far fewer pictures of Ukraine, and many more of the good ol’ United Arab Emirates.  Well, one of the Emirates.  Well, actually, one city in one of the Emirates.  Oh, you know what I mean.