I’ve never experienced a pandemic before. I wonder what the percentage of people who are born experience a pandemic. I guess they happen ever 100 years or so.
I don’t know about you, but this last two weeks of slowing down has been kind of a blessing for me.
I left for Europe to tour with the Tiptons on Feb 28th. The COVID-19 virus was just beginning to tear through Italy at an alarming speed. Statistics of cases and deaths rose daily in Italy and other countries in the world as well. On March 3rd we where notified by concert organizers concerts in Italy where cancelled and Italy was shutting the boarder. This was not any surprise to us.
I remained optimistic that this would be the worst of it and we could safely remain in Austria and Germany and complete our tour. I was also looking forward to staying two extra days with our drummer to do some snowboarding in the Alps.
We played well attended and lovely concerts in Pohrsdorf, Jena, and Chemnitz Germany and there was certainly talk of the Corona virus and people where mindful to not shake hands with each other. It did seem like a surreal joke and most everyone was not taking it so seriously.We among the band where being very careful with lots of hand washing, covering our mouths when coughing and passing around hand sanitizer when needed.
The vibe certainly changed in the next two days. We knew something was up when we played to a 7 person audience in room with a 500 person capacity in Kranj Slovania.
Instead of driving to Italy then Munich to play our next shows where blessed to be invited to come a several days early and stay with friends in Rottweil Germany until our scheduled concert 3 days later. The news continued to alarm all of us and there was talk about maybe not finishing the tour.
I myself refuse to fly into panic mode. When I see it happening to those around me, this is when I put on the breaks. Hard. I was pushing back and trying to be a voice of not panic. And indeed, I was at peace the whole time. I have seen what happens when members of Tiptons get into a panic. It always causes knee jerk reaction decisions that always lead to substantial financial loss. So I wasnt giving in to abandoning the tour.
Wednesday March 10th, we played our concert in Rottwiel Germany. By this time major ski resorts in Tyrol Austria hand reported a cases of the virus and had shut down. This is when I knew it was getting bad.
That night while I was sleeping I was woken up by a band mate speaking very loudly about a three day ban. I tried to go back to sleep. Then at 7:30 in the morning I was woken up by Sue, who told me to come into her room to talk about leaving early. I checked my phone for the time, and saw it lite up with text messages from my family and friends about getting home immediately, like yesterday.
Crap. What happened over night?
I then learn that European flights into the U.S. would be banned and Europeans would be banned from the U.S. Starting on the 13th. This created great alarm. I knew that as U.S. citizens we would be allowed back into the states. The question was, could we get a flight if all flights got cancelled.
I checked in with my gut. It was time to go home.
I was lucky enough to be on the very last scheduled flight out of Munich. Jessica and I had to go to the airport to change our flights. Amy and Sue where able to do it online. No change fee. This was indeed and emergency.
On my flight home I met the sweetest airline attendent. Philip Gillner. Sweet little boy. He took care of me. He asked. “what Can I get you to make you happy?”
I told him I needed hot water, that I really wanted some hot chocolate. He gave me the hot water and asked more of what I needed. I told him my outlet at my seat wasn’t working and I couldn’t charge my computer.
He investigated the problem, and brought me a new adapter which worked wonderfully. He shortly returned with a reusable hotwater cup full of chocolate and delicious coconut date protein balls from first class. He spoiled me the whole time. Wow. He just made my whole day better.
I loved that he said “what can i get you to make you happy”. This was all i needed to hear my whole life. What a blessing.
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