Wow, sorry to hear about all those things. I always have a fear of my back going out, because I can't even imagine how painful it must be...
Yikes, that's a lot of money for the roof.
Nah, it's not BS. People worry about the little things, but then something major happens like your health, and suddenly that takes priority. I'm sure the U2 camp were worried about a lot of things related to the tour, and then this happened, and I bet they're all prioritizing Bono's recovery first.
My company had a major layoff last December, after I'd bought the concert tickets for most of the shows. I survived it, but I was really thinking to cancel going to the shows where I'd have to fly, because I wasn't sure of the future of my company (and my job).
In February I found out we weren't expecting anymore layoffs, so I continued to make my plans. In March my company signed a contract to convert our existing system to another system. This is a major effort that would have taken many programmers to do. And they had laid off all those programmers, and we were left with a skeleton crew. It seemed impossible for us the skeleton crew to pull this project off. By end of June. The new system boasted that they can handle some of IT functionalities of our company. So rumors spread on how they're trying to get rid of IT altogether. You can just imagine me and my co-workers.
As we're exploring the new system though it's come to light they won't be able to handle some of the functionalities we thought they were going to. And my boss basically reassured me that he's not thinking of letting me go anytime soon.
So I finalized my plans, thinking with the economic uncertainty at my company, this may be my last year in the US, and I'd like to visit some of these places where U2 is going to play.
In the beginning of May, my boss announced no one is supposed to take off in June and July to meet the deadline for this project.
I told him I already made plans, paid for airline tickets. I pleaded with him, I can work Memorial Day weekend if I have to, but I can't cancel my trips. All the while I was thinking he is now going to fire me for sure... He talked to his boss and managed to get an exception for me to keep my trips.
He only said that I will have to be available by phone in case he needs to reach me for my part of the project, which I didn't object to.
And now this happened.
I would have to pay $300 and the fare difference if I changed the date of my trips. I'm thinking I might as well keep them. I don't want to imagine what my boss would do to me if I changed my plans again.
And as long as I can get refunds on the tickets, Bono can take his own sweet time recuperating. I would be disappointed, but not upset if the North America leg is postponed. But I had some of the best times in the tour last year. So I'm ok.