The Mandelbear's Musings

Our Ship Finally Came In

2025-01-13T19:18:44Z

... and our Stuff is here. The ship they originally told us our stuff was on is still somewhere in the Persian Gulf -- apparently they moved our container to a faster ship. We are relieved. Also very tired. The house is full of boxes, a few of which have been unpacked.

Fortunately, Monday is also the day when our housekeeper, N", is here. At some point she's going to help us move excess boxes into the storage unit we haven't rented yet, because we took an awful lot more stuff than we should have. Much of that is books; some is CDs and maybe DVDs.

Right now it's about 8pm here, and it does NOT feel like Monday. I'm also feeling cold, and there are boxes between me and the thermostat. I did manage to make sure a few other important items -- like the coffee, and the boxes of cardboard that were already staged to go out Sunday night for pickup next Monday.

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Done Since 2024-09-22

2024-09-30T02:17:52Z

It's been a hectic (frantic?) week. The movers came Friday. Inevitably a few things got forgotten; there's a pile of stuff that's going into storage, until (with luck) somebody comes back for it. Also inevitably, there are a lot of decisions that are too late for second thoughts. And there are errands that never got run, which is a problem because I just got through selling (Chevy Bolt)Molly, the last car I'll ever own. (To M and J, but still...)

And of course I'm feeling down on myself for not getting things done, on top of several different layers of leave-taking, transition, and anxiety. On the whole I don't think I'm in very good shape. That's not even counting the ache in my left lower back pain (QL, probably) from carrying boxes, and right TMJ presumably from jaw-clenching.

This time Tuesday evening I'll be on my way to SeaTac with N. This time Wednesday we'll be in Den Haag. This time next week we'll (hopefully) be in the new house.

Wish us luck?

( Notes & links, as usual )

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River: Where am I Going?

2024-09-27T20:32:36Z

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

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Done Since 2023-03-19

2023-03-26T18:12:25Z

Oddly, there seems to have been a relative scarcity of bad news this week, and I seem to have been mostly okay-ish apart from continuing to be extremely worried about the safety of my trans friends and relatives, queer people in general, women's health, and the rise of Nazism in the US. It was also not a great week for our cat Brooklyn, who had most of his teeth extracted on Tuesday (but, like Bronx the week before last, has made a very good recovery and seems to be doing okay with wet food).

You may remember that three weeks ago we had our marvelous housekeeper E' and her mom (who taught her how to clean) come up to Whidbey Island to clean the house and triage the junk. Well, last Saturday I arranged for a junk-hauler to come in and give me an estimate. He told me to call (local food bank)Good Cheer's thrift shop to send a truck out to collect donatable items, because he doesn't sort stuff and would just take it to the dump.

So this weekend was largely spend making several passes through the bedroom where E' et. al. had piled the Stuff, and re-triaging it properly for pickup. Good Cheer, unfortunately, is having to relocate their thrift store after their rent was raised, so they weren't taking large items. They did, however, take enough to make a difference -- almost all of the fabric and sewing notions, several of our ubiquitous plastic drawer units, two walkers, the 40" TV, one of the three floor lamps, and a four-footed cane among other things. And going through the junk room afterward turned up some things that were worth saving (or rather moving to the other bedroom, where we're keeping stuff that might be worth trying to sell).

I threw out all of Colleen's unfinished sewing projects. That was sad, but nobody is going to finish them now. I will probably continue being sad, on and off, about that, but I still think it was the right thing to do. But...

( Notes & links, as usual )

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