River: Where am I Going?

[mdlbear]

The obvious next question is "What am I doing in this handbasket?" I think I'll leave that for the next post.

Right now, the answer to "where am I going?" is Den Haag (The Hague) in The Netherlands. The First of October. This may not come as a total surprise to the very few people I hold regular conversations with, nor to anyone who's been following this blog for the last few years, though in the latter case I wouldn't blame you for missing it.

I'm going with my family of choice -- N, G, and N's oldest kid, m. N told me that, shortly before she died, Colleen had asked her to take care of me. She had a point -- statistically one's chances of dying go way up after the death of a spouse. Followed closely by, among other things, death of a parent (Mom died in 2019) and retirement (2017). (My kids think we're crazy, BTW. In my darker moments I tend to agree with them.)

The last time N and I were in the Netherlands was back in July, getting j set up in his apartment -- he just started his first year at University of Leiden. Toward the end of that trip we connected with a real estate agent N had recently started working with, and visited a few houses for sale in the Hague. One had a perfect location, but it was a wreck. The one we put an offer on was this one. We, or rather our Dutch real estate agent, got the keys yesterday (as I write this). (That link will also give you our new address.)

We started planning this crazyness eight years ago, when the Orange Menace won the presidential election. We were within an inch of moving to Vermont and planning an escape to Canada, but were foiled by N's ex, who wanted to stay close to their kids and didn't want to move at that time (for good reasons, it must be said). Said kids are now both over 18, j (the younger) is out of high school (and see above), and in the mean time a close friend of N's who had moved to Amsterdam a few years ago told us about a bit of diplomatic hackery called (appropriately) the DAFT.

The Dutch-American Friendship Treaty

... makes it easier for US Entrepreneurs to open businesses in The Netherlands. It lowers the amount of needed investment capital from €27,000 to €4,500, frees US Entrepreneurs from the points-based test, and removes the benefit to Dutch national interests requirement. The residency permit is good for two years, after which it can be renewed for five years. The treaty is valid for all US citizens who are opening a business in the Netherlands or its territories. (Wikipedia)

Add to that the facts that the Dutch speak more English than anyone else on the continent, are incredibly queer-friendly, and know better than anyone else how to deal with floods and rising seas. After all, as they say, “God created the world but the Dutch made the Netherlands”"

I have already spent over two weeks writing this; I'm going to post it now. The movers are almost done packing up the house, and we'll meet them at the storage unit after lunch. Until later...

Edited to fix metadata screwed up by a superfluous blank line