So, this month, one of the manufacturers that our company is a distributor for is sending the President of our company on a 10 day Danube River cruise, Nuremberg to Budapest. It's a reward for hitting a sales mark for their equipment. But, in January he found out his wife has pancreatic cancer and he told me, then, that he didn't think they could go on the trip so he wanted me and the Mrs. to go in his stead. I told him, no way. That at that point in the process they'd probably want to get away. Besides, it just felt goulish to me to take advantage of their tragedy.
So fast forward to last week. Months of diagnosis, chemo, etc and miracle of miracle the tumor is gone and she's now a candidate for surgery. Still the chemo has stomped the shit out of her. She feels terrible, has and infection in her leg, a blood clot in her leg, and convinces the Pres that they shouldn't go on the trip. So yesterday he announces that I have to go in his stead.
It just doesn't feel right, but I go home and tell Mrs. P that we have two weeks to get ready. She's sad for them too, but at the same time, Vienna and Budapest, right? We start planning for the weather there, making plans to get to the safety deposit box for our passports, deciding on who we want to ask to come stay with the animals and generally get the process going. We're starting to look forward to the trip. I'm just pulling out my digital SLR camera from the closet (to see if it needs cleaning) when the Pres calls. They just got back from another consultation with the surgeon and he told her to stop being a whiney-ass and go on the fucking trip. He wants her relaxed and a month done with chemo before he cuts her open.
So, now we're not going. Strangely, I'm pretty happy about it.