Here We Go Again!

Writing this sure feels familiar. Was it four years ago I wrote here about the urge to buy land? In fact, that was also in October! That was when I purchased a piece of land up on the Colorado Plateau in eastern Arizona, just below the Navajo Nation. I’ve been thinking about that today since my brother Dana and his wife Claudia have been traveling around the west this year, and paid a visit to my little piece of land today while visiting the nearby Petrified Forest National Park.

So why not do it all again, but here in the Philippines? For a few months, Eden and I have been looking for a piece of property here to buy and build a house. The easy thing to do would be to buy a lot in a subdivision, so of course we are not going to do that. For myself, I am not a city person and would very much rather have some space around me. For Eden, well… Eden is a farmer at heart. She needs to grow things. To plant and to tend and to harvest. And owning land and being able to grow your own food gives one a deep level of security.

All that being so, we’ve been looking for a piece of land out in the province, away from the city but still close enough that it’s reasonable to come into town to buy things we can’t get out in the province. We are also constrained by budget, so we’ve mostly been looking at properties out on the unpaved barangay roads. We’ve seen some beautiful pieces of property, but they were never quite right. One was so far out into the mountains we needed 4WD low on the truck just to get there, and we could never do it if it were raining. Others were too expensive for our budget.

Finally, we found a nice 2.25 hectare (a bit over 5 1/2 acres) lot in Barotac Viejo, just outside of town, that looks like it is going to fit our needs. We’ve visited the lot twice, did some arms-length negotiating with the owner via the agent, then finally had a sit down meeting with the owner to work out the final details.

The system for buying and selling real estate here isn’t as regulated and structured as it is in the West. Basically, you have to look out for yourself because nobody else is going to. So we hired an attorney and had him check the title for the property and that all the taxes were up to date. Yesterday we had a surveying company out to survey the lot and confirm the property lines. We also need to talk to the barangay office and make sure what we think is the barangay road actually is.

The partner of one of Eden’s sisters is an engineer working for a building company, and he kindly came out yesterday and looked at the property with us. He confirmed my fear that the route to the spot where we want to build the house is too steep for a driveway and would require some cut and fill, as well as likely concreting of slopes to prevent collapse onto the driveway. The solution to that is to also purchase a smaller adjacent lot, which would allow a much more gradual approach, and also provide us with another 6/10 of a hectare of more level, cleared land. We made the owner an offer to buy both lots, and they’ve accepted. Isn’t it always the way with real estate that things creep up and you end up stretching to get a bit more? Anyway, if we have to spend more money we’d rather spend it for more land rather than more concrete.

If things keep moving in a positive direction, sometime in the near future we will be the owners of a little piece of Panay Island! I long ago gave up trying to predict how long it takes to do anything here in the Philippines, so the most I can say is “soon”. And then the real fun will start; building a house. That should be worth a few more grey hairs.

Stay tuned…

Here are a bunch of photos taken during the survey yesterday:

End of the road. Our right-of-way for a driveway will be where the path on the left is

The surveying crew at work with my in-laws looking on

Getting Married

Getting married in the US is easy. You go down to the city hall, show them your ID to prove you’re of age, fill out the application for a marriage license, and you’re all set.

It doesn’t work like that in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the list of requirements is a page long. You have to have documents to prove your identity. You have to have documents to prove your age. You have to have documents to prove your citizenship. You have to have documents to prove that you are not already married. You have to take a class.

And if you want a Catholic Church wedding, there are even more requirements. Do you have your baptismal certificate? How about your confirmation certificate? Good. Almost there. Now you need to go to counseling with a priest. I guess because he knows so much about marriage.

For Eden, we had her birth certificate and her national ID, and we had to go to the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) office to get her Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR).

For myself, I had my birth certificate and my passport. Since the federal government in the US doesn’t keep records on marriages, there is no US equivalent to a CENOMAR. Instead, one has to go to either the US Embassy in Manila, or the US Consular Office in Cebu City, and write up a document detailing any previous marriage and divorce, and sign it and have it notarized by the staff there. this is known as the Affidavit of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage. And if you are divorced in the US, then you need to obtain a certified copy of the divorce, and have that apostilled to make it a legal document here in the Philippines.

So, I made an appointment online with he Consular Office, then we had to fly to Cebu so I could appear in person at the Consular Office. And I enlisted the aid of a friend in the Boston area to make a trip to the courthouse to get a certified copy of my divorce documents, then take them to the Secretary of State’s office to be apostilled, and finally to ship those documents to me here in Iloilo City. These were two very expensive pieces of paper!

As for the church… They kept insisting I needed a certificate of baptism from a Catholic church. I was not baptized in a Catholic church, and I do know that the Church recognizes baptism in other churches as valid, so long as it meets three requirements. And I know that my baptism meets those requirements. But good luck arguing with a church here! I did check with the church where I was confirmed and took first communion, but they couldn’t provide any record of it. That being so, we were told we cannot be married in the Church here, BUT, if we first have a civil marriage, THEN the Church will marry us.

So, we gathered all the required documents and applied for a marriage license in Barotac Viejo, took the required class where a woman half my age explained marriage to me in a language I do not understand, waited the requited ten days, then went back to retrieve our license. We then took that over to the courthouse and applied to be married by a judge. Finally, this Monday morning we went to the courthouse and got married.

The plan is still to have a wedding in the church in December, with my daughter Anju with me and, of course, Inday’s family. With Anju, the plan was for her to be here for about a month, so she could be here for the wedding and for Christmas and New Years. But I just heard from Anju yesterday that she may not be able to come. She has two dogs that her boyfriend was going to take care of in her absence, but they just broke up so that isn’t going to happen.

So now I don’t know what is going to happen in December. And those of you who know me, know just how well I deal with uncertainty! The church wedding doesn’t carry much meaning for me. The part I cared about was Anju being with me. If it is important enough to Inday, then we’ll still do it for her and her family.

In any case, we’re married! And now we are free to start working on the next big project; looking for a piece of land where we can build a home and settle down. Stay tuned.

Wheels

Back in April I wrote about having to make a late night trip up to Barotac Viejo when Edrian was in the hospital, and how that had made me rethink buying a vehicle now rather than later. I did some checking into how much it would cost to park here at the condo where we live, and was shocked by the P6,000 per month price tag, so after some discussion we decided to put it off.

My lease here is up in early December, and the plan is to move out of the city. Out in the province we will have more of a need for a personal vehicle, including traveling into the city for doctor visits, as well as when shopping for things not available in small towns. We’ll likely start looking for a house to rent around the beginning of October, and we’ll need a vehicle for that. Looking for a place here is nothing like doing to same back in the States. You need to wander around looking for houses with FOR RENT signs on them, and talking with people and asking. Eden says “you need to use your saliva,” meaning asking around. All that being so, we had decided we’d go through the process of buying a vehicle in September.

Meanwhile, I did a lot of reading and looking and decided on what I wanted to buy. We definitely want something with ground clearance and 4-wheel-drive as our long-range plan is to buy a fairly large chunk of property out in the province, and the cheapest property is out on the unpaved barangay roads. So I had settled on the Ford Ranger. It turns out that the discount available in June, coupled with an impending price increase, made it worthwhile to buy now rather than waiting, even with the added cost of renting a parking space, so that’s what we did.

I signed more papers buying this truck than I’ve signed in all the real estate closings and vehicle purchases I’ve made in my life, combined. Efficiency isn’t a hallmark of the Philippines. It took a couple of hours, but we were finally on our way home with the new truck. Poor Edrian was rather freaked out when he realized I was going to drive home. He didn’t believe that Tito Allen knew how to drive. When we made it home safe and sound, he said “Good job Tito Allen!”

It sure is nice having our own vehicle for trips up to Barotac Viejo. Before we had to take the bus, and it was hot and very crowded coming home on Sunday afternoons. And this past Sunday, the bus from Barotac Viejo to Iloilo City lost both dualies on the driver’s side rear and flipped on its side. I’m really glad we weren’t on that bus!

Eden doesn’t yet have her driver’s license, but she’s working on it. She’s taken the required theoretical class and she’ll get her learner’s permit next week, then she can practice driving. It’ll be nice when she can share the driving, and when she can make trips up to Barotac Viejo without me.

We picked up the truck on a Tuesday, and that Thursday I was stopped by traffic enforcers who shook us down for a bribe. It hasn’t happened again, and hopefully it won’t.

So This Happened

I’ve been living here in Iloilo City for a bit over 6 months now. It feels like just yesterday that I got here, and at the same time it feels like I’ve been here forever. I will interpret that as a good thing; it feels new and fresh and exciting, and at the same time it feels like I’m settled and in place. When I tried settling in Tennessee, I never had that feeling of being in my place.

After I had been here a while, I met and dated a woman a few times. She was nice and we got along alright, but there wasn’t any spark between us so we ended that. That’s alright, I certainly didn’t expect the first woman I met to be my soulmate.

Then I met Eden. Our first date was a walk along the Esplanade on a Saturday evening, followed by pizza at Giuseppe’s. At the end of the night I asked her if she would take me someplace for Filipino food the next day, and she agreed. We started at the food court in SM City for batchoy, then we wandered around and talked for a while, and ended up at Pedro Bulalohan a couple of hours later for several dishes I didn’t recognize, and don’t now recall. I do remember we ordered way too much food for 2 of us, so we ended up taking the leftovers over to Inday’s (Eden’s nickname is Inday) workplace and sharing it with her colleagues.

That day out continued into the evening, when we finally ended up in Molo Plaza. It being Christmas season, which in the Philippines runs from September to January, the plaza was lit up with Christmas lights, and being Sunday evening it was crowded with families. At Christmas time small groups of children go around singing Christmas carols, and in exchange you give them a few coins. After one trio sang for us, Inday opened her purse and took out coins to give the kids. Afterwards I said something to her about not giving away all her money, and she replied “That’s okay. Those are the coins I didn’t spend for my food today because I am with you.” That made a big impression on me, because that’s the kind of person Inday is.

So, we’ve been together every single day since then. Has every moment been perfect? Of course not. There are cultural differences to adapt to in each other. There are food differences. I’ve eaten more rice in the last six months than I have in my entire life pre-Philippines! Eden speaks excellent English, but in the beginning I could tell that having to speak English constantly was wearying for her. And anyone who knows me knows that I am pretty rigid. I doubt anyone has ever described me as being flexible or easy going or anything similar. But we’re good together. Really good.

A few weeks after we met, we made the trip up to Barotac Viejo so I could meet Inday’s family. I met her mom and dad, her 5-year-old son Edrian, and several of her 6 sisters, and various children and neighbors.

I never expected to meet somebody and be in a committed relationship so soon after arriving here. Just before I met Inday I had committed to a 12-month lease on a 1-bedroom condo here in Iloilo. It was plenty of room just for myself, but now there are three of us.

As of this last Saturday, we have been together for 6 months. We are now engaged and planning a December wedding, on Inday’s birthday. We have plans for our life together, but more on that later. For now, I just wanted to introduce you to Eden and Edrian, and share the part they play in my life now. I will add here that my daughter Anju has agreed to be my “Best Woman” and stand up with me at our wedding. That makes me very happy. I’m looking forward to her being here for the wedding and Christmas and New Years, and seeing what my new life is like.

The Barangay Captain, The District Hospital, and Zooming Through The Night

Okay, the Barangay Captain doesn’t actually have anything to do with our story, although we did see him while we were in the Barangay Hall. I just think it helped make for a good title.

Sometime last week we were in SM City shopping, and noticed a banner advertising a summer sports program for kids in Iloilo City. Inday wants to sign Edrian up for this, and one of the requirements is a Barangay Clearance to prove residence.

For my Western friends, a barangay is the smallest political division in the Philippines. A city or town is made up of multiple barangays. Iloilo City, for instance, has 180 barangays. You can think of it as a neighborhood. Each barangay has an elected captain and elected council members.

So, on Tuesday morning Inday and I walked over to the Barangay Hall for the barangay that includes our condo, in order to ask for a Clearance for Edrian. Since we never registered with the barangay when we moved here, we had to do that first. The clerk came out and sat down with us to interview us, and fill out our information in a surprisingly large, multi-page booklet. He recorded information about each of us including name, birth date, religion, educational attainment, where we lived prior to moving to Barangay San Rafael, and our reason for moving here. For the household, he asked what our source for drinking water is, what fuel we primarily use to cook, and how we dispose of our kitchen waste. And at the end of all this, they printed up Edrian’s Barangay Clearance, stating his full name, that he is a resident of Barangay San Rafael, he is of good character, and the barangay officials know of no complaints or actions against him.

Meanwhile, back on Monday morning Edrian had woken up and the little guy’s face was all swollen in an obvious allergic reaction to something, although he wasn’t complaining about anything. Inday had been planning to bring him to Barotac Viejo to stay with his grandmother, and she decided to carry on with that plan, but with the addition that when they got to Barotac Viejo she first took Edrian to the babaylan, and then to the doctor. The doctor ordered some tests, and prescribed medication. Inday spent the day there with her family, and in the evening Edrian was feeling good and wanted to stay with Grandma, so Inday came home alone.

Fast forward to Tuesday night, and about 8:30 or so Inday got a call from her mom telling us that Edrian had been complaining it was hard to breathe so they were taking him to the hospital. The fastest way for us to get up there is by car, so I booked a Grab Car and off we went. We got to the hospital a few minutes after 10:00, and Inday’s mom and two of her sisters were there with Edrian. He was doing okay, sitting on the bed with one of his titas (aunts). The doctor wanted a chest x-ray and some blood tests, so we paid for those, and were told we would have to wait 3 to 4 hours for the results. Fortunately it only took a couple of hours, so a bit after midnight they told us all the tests were negative, and they did one last check of his vitals before telling us he could leave about 12:30.

So now we’re sitting outside the hospital in the middle of the night with a 5-year-old, and we need to find a way back to Iloilo City. The obvious choice is to book another Grab Car, but after multiple attempts we always got the “No Drivers Available” response. The buses don’t run overnight, and the first bus in the morning is at 4:00AM. Fortunately, Inday is a resourceful woman. She had the phone number for a Grab driver who had told her previously that he was available as a hired driver for day trips and such, so she called him and he agreed to drive up to Barotac Viejo and pick us up. It’s a bit over an hour drive, so we settled down to wait and he showed up about a quarter to two. Finally, we were on our way, and after a stop at Inday’s parents’ place to pick up Edrian’s medications from the day before, we were off and got home a couple of minutes after 3:00AM.

This morning Edrian was still very itchy, still had hives all over his body, and was complaining that his tummy hurt, so Inday called his pediatrician. She doesn’t have office hours here today, but told us to bring him to the ER at the hospital down the street, where her office is. We did that; they checked him over, reviewed all the tests that had been done up in the province, called his pediatrician and filled her in, and she said he should be fine, we just need to allow time for his medications to work, and made an appointment to see him on Monday. The ER didn’t even charge us for the visit. Can you imagine that happening in the States? I can’t.

I’ve been thinking about buying a car so we can easily take trips around Panay, but have been put off by the cost of parking here at the condo. A parking spot in the garage costs about 5500 – 6000 pesos per month. In a typical month we don’t spend anywhere near that amount for transportation. A Grab ride across town is a couple hundred pesos. But last night’s experience is, in my mind, a pretty strong argument for having our own car. So now we’re re-evaluating.

Some Random Observations

As the title says, this will just be some random vignettes of my life here in Iloilo City.

Inday and I went to SM Supermarket, which is in SM City, the large mall. We came out with a cart full of shopping bags, ordered a Grab car to bring us home, and when the car arrived the driver jumped out and opened the back of his car to load our bundles. One of the mall security guards, with his long gun strapped across his chest, came up and started helping the driver load everything in the back of the car. It was all done so fast, we didn’t even have a chance to help. Then the guard smiled, waved, and walked off.

Once the Grab driver dropped us off at home, as we approached the lobby door one of the building staff opened the door and greeted us as we entered, then he pushed the elevator call button for us, and when the door opened and we got in, he reached in to push Floor 3 for us so we wouldn’t need to do that with our hands full. I have no idea how they manage to remember that we live on the 3rd floor. There are 7 floors of condos in this building.

Does anybody remember the arcade game Frogger, from back in the 80’s? Crossing the road here is like a game of live-action Frogger. If the road has two lanes in each direction, then there could be three lanes of traffic in each direction, plus motorbikes filtering by on either side and in between. There are signs directing drivers to Yield To Pedestrians In Crosswalk. They are a total waste of time and materials. Nobody stops. When I first got here my strategy was simple: I’d stand on the curb and wait until some locals ventured forth to cross the road, and I’d shadow them. I’ve become marginally competent at crossing the road now, although Inday still thinks I’m not to be trusted on my own and always takes my hand so she can steer me across the road. To be fair, I did nearly get run down by a motorbike right in front of her once. But only once!

Filipinos typically eat using a fork and a spoon. I’ve actually adopted this method at home, although I use the spoon to help load food onto my fork, while Inday uses her fork to push food onto her spoon. In restaurants the staff will sometimes give Inday a fork and spoon, and will give me a fork and a knife. I get a chuckle from that every time!

Back in the States people lament the rise of cellphone addiction. It is nothing like what it is here. Nothing! People seem to be glued to their phones every waking moment. More than once I’ve had Filipinos walk right into me while staring at their phone screen.

When we moved to this condo, there was no toaster. I need to have my toast in the morning, so we headed off to the SM Store to buy a toaster. When you buy something in the Philippines, the store staff will unpack whatever it is and make sure it works before you pay for it and leave. So the sales clerk took the toaster out of the box, plugged it in, made sure it heated up, then packed it back into the box and sent us on our way to the checkout.

Similarly, Inday bought a toy train for her son Edrian, and the store staff unpacked the little train, put the batteries in it, and made sure it ran on the track. Then they packed it all back up, checked us out, and sent us on our way.

Okay, that’s it. Nothing important and profound. Just a few snippets about adjusting to life here. I hope it was worth the few minutes to read.

A Short One

I don’t know what to title this blog post. But it is a short one, so I’ll just go with that.

There are a number of common comorbidities to autism, and I am in the process of being evaluated for some of these. It will be a number of months before I get an actual diagnosis, because that’s just how backed up the system is, but I’ve taken the screening tests and I know my scores. That being so, I have a good idea what the results are going to be.

I scored very low on the ADHD test, I scored right on the line between mild and moderate on the OCD screening test, and I scored off the charts for alexithymia.

The only one of these that surprised me at all was the OCD test, but on reflection I’d say that’s just me being unaware. Apparently, not everybody has the unending internal dialogue that I thought was normal. Fortunately, my level of OCD doesn’t really interfere in my daily life. At least, I don’t think it does.

As for alexithymia, when I first read the definition, I knew that fit me to the nth degree. Basically, alexithymia is a difficulty in discerning emotions, either my own or other people’s. I’ve seen it described as emotional illiteracy. I remember once telling someone that if they gave me three days, I could figure out what I was feeling. I’m sure that sounded crazy at the time.

I experience emotions as physical things. My stomach hurts. My chest is tight. I can’t quite take a full breath. Usually, all I know is that I’m feeling negative emotions or I’m feeling positive emotions.

When Anju and I were out for dinner last week* I was explaining these test results and what alexithymia is, and her response was “Oh yeah Dad!’ So it seems this is much more apparent than I ever thought it was. I hope it didn’t make me a bad dad.

As for discerning other people’s emotions, I have these internal dialogs when I’m interacting with other people that might go “oh, his voice is going up and he’s making bigger and bigger gestures. I think he’s angry.” Often I’ve no idea why, so I just assume I did or said something in a way to make the person angry, usually unintentionally.

Okay, that’s it. Short and sweet!

* This was written last month soon after I got back to Tennessee after my trip to New England

Week One Is In The Books

I’ve been here in Iloilo City for a week now. It feels like I’ve been busy, but at the same time not busy at all.

When my flight landed at the crack of dawn in Iloilo last Friday, I was met at the airport by two other expats living here who I had connected with on Facebook. Chris and Mary were so kind to pick me up and drive me to the condo I had rented on Airbnb. It made a wonderful start to my time here.

Since then I’ve figured out my neighborhood a bit. I’ve shopped for groceries a couple of times. I either run or walk on the Esplanade most every morning.

There are some things I need to do to settle in here. One of those is to get a Philippine phone number. My US number is with Google Fi, which works in most countries in the world. Here in the Philippines, Fi uses Globe’s network. Since Globe and Smart are the two big players here, I chose Smart for my local SIM. This way, I should have coverage most anywhere I go.

I tried to buy an eSIM from Smart via their website, but in order to complete the checkout, they require a Philippine phone number. So I went to the Smart store in the mall to take care of it. It cost me P40 for a SIM, which included unlimited calls, texts, and 5G data for 3 days. Since my phone is dual SIM capable, I have both my US service and my Philippines service active at all times, and I have it set so the phone automatically switches to whichever data service is better at the moment. Very convenient.

The system for funding a prepaid phone plan, and for choosing what calling, texting, and data options you want, is completely different than in the States, and very confusing to me, but I think I’ve figured it out enough to have a working phone. There are so many little details of daily life to learn anew!

When I landed in Cebu and went through Immigration, they stamped my passport with a 30 day tourist visa. I’ve since gone online and applied for a visa waiver, which gives me another 29 days. It was very easy to do online. I logged into the Bureau of Immigration website on Sunday night, filled out the form and submitted the payment, and on Monday morning I got an email from BI with the waiver attached. So now I’m good until Christmas Day, December 25.

I believe in December, when I apply for a visa extension (I don’t know why the first extension is called a waiver, and then you subsequently apply for extensions) I can also apply for my ACR card. ACR is Alien Certificate of Registration and is a government issued ID card for non-citizens living in the Philippines.

The other significant thing I’ve been working on is finding a long-term rental. This Airbnb is okay, but it’s relatively expensive, it’s very tiny, and I don’t love the location as much as I thought I would. I looked at a one-bedroom unit that’s currently available at a condo complex called Avida Storey. It had a reasonable amount of space, but the way it’s laid out makes no sense and results in a tiny living room with a significant amount of wasted space by the kitchen. The plus side to Avida is that I really like the complex. There are a lot of conveniences on-site, including a 7-Eleven, a water refill station, and a laundry service, as well as some coffee shops and restaurants. The pool area is really nice, and shaded in the afternoon, and there seems to be more air there. It’s also not right on a main road, which I am here.

So I didn’t like the unit I looked at, but there’s a different one-bedroom unit coming available in early December, and that one has a much better layout with a decent sized living room. Right now I am waiting to hear if they will discount the rent if I sign a one-year lease.

This was meant to go out on Friday, and it is now Sunday morning. So I should properly rename this entry “Week One Plus Two Days Is In The Books,” but I’m not going to. Such a rebel!

Fill ‘Er up! No, wait! Don’t!

This morning I hiked out to Laurel Falls, and on the drive out to the trailhead I stopped for gas. As usual, I was going to fill the truck up, but as I was pumping gas I thought “No, wait. You’re not going to use a whole tank of gas before you leave here!” So heck, I’m less than a tank of gas away from leaving. I’ve got about half a tank of gas in the truck. No sense selling it with $50 worth of gas in it.

BTW, when I sold the AdventureMobile last year, it had a nearly full gas tank. At 80 gallons to a full tank, that was a couple of hundred dollars. And it’s not like I got more money from the sale because of it.

Anyway… Two weeks to go. Two weeks until I fly out of here, bound for the other side of the world. I’ve just about go the last few details lined up.

I leave early in the morning on Wednesday, October 25. On Monday, the 23rd, some folks will be coming to get all of the furniture and kitchen stuff in the apartment. I decided to just give everything away, rather than deal with the logistics of trying to sell everything, while also needing it all since I’m living here until the last minute. So it is all going to end up going to an international student at ETSU who apparently is living in a mostly empty apartment.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading over to the local Ford dealer to hopefully come to an agreement for them to buy the truck on Tuesday, the 24th.

The only other final detail left is to sell the washer and dryer. I’m going to try to make that happen on the 23rd as well, so I can leave here with all my laundry clean.

So on the 23rd all the furniture goes and the apartment will be empty. I have a hotel room reserved for two nights starting then.

On the morning of the 24th I do the walk-thru of the apartment with the management company, and they give me all the bullshit reasons why they won’t be returning the full security deposit.

That afternoon, I drop the truck off at the Ford dealer, and take an Uber back to my hotel.

And finally on the 25th, I get an Uber to the airport, and I’m off for the next insane adventure.

50 Days

50 days from today, at 7:45 in the morning, I will be flying out of the Tr-Cities Airport, bound for Dallas, then Seoul, then Cebu, and finally on to Iloilo.

50 Days.

I bought the tickets for my flights almost 3 months ago, so at the time it felt like I had forever to get ready. But now, all of a sudden, I find myself only 50 days out. That’s next month. Next month, I’m leaving the country.

I have got a lot done. I’ve been steadily busy selling things. I’ve sold the motorcycle. I’ve sold my beautiful Cannondale bicycle. That one hurt, but there is no practical and cost-effective way to ship an e-bike overseas. It can’t go by air because of the battery.

I sold the RV. That was a big one. The RV market has flipped since I bought it last year, and it is now a buyer’s market. But I sold it last week to a guy who drove down from Connecticut to get it. That’s a big source of anxiety off my plate, and a very big check mark on my to-do list.

And, of course, I’ve sold dozens of other, smaller things. I’m mostly down to things which, if I don’t find buyers and it’s close to time to leave, I can just give them away and feel fine about it.

The next logistical headache is how to empty out the apartment before I leave, but also have it livable until then. I’ve got some furniture, and all the kitchen stuff, which I’ll need until the end. I’ve got to cook and eat and sleep and sit down somewhere. I think I am going to try to find someone in need of setting up an apartment, and if they have a way to come get everything a couple of days before my flight out, I’ll just give it all to them.

And I’ve got to sell the truck, but I think I am going to sell it to the local Ford dealer, and arrange the date for the day before I leave.

That will leave me with a couple of nights in a hotel, and some Uber rides around town and finally to the airport.

BTW while I’m finishing up writing this, I’m listening to Peter, Paul and Mary sing Leaving On A Jet Plane. Fitting!