As I write this at 7 am in the morning in the office at Barb’s house in Phoenix, it is already a balmy 76 degrees which is pretty much the expected high temperature in Bozeman today! The expected high temperature in Phoenix today is 101! The mornings here are actually quite pleasant and the daytime highs seem to be dropping from the extremes witnessed during the summer. On Friday, it’s only supposed to get up to 93 – yahoo!
Needless to say, it has been a bit of culture shock for this Montana boy! I am settling in and finding my way around. Barb got me a sunshade for my windshield, and I have learned the fine art of trying to park under trees in parking lots! My Harley is parked in the garage, and I have not yet taken it out but as the temperature continues to get more reasonable, I will give it a try.
All my remaining worldly possessions arrived and are now packed into a climate-controlled storage facility near here. That includes my road bicycle which I will get out soon and start riding around on all these nice bicycle paths and lanes – in the morning when it is still cool.
Barb is a free woman now. Her official last day was last Friday so she is free to do what she wants when she wants now. She sold her CPA practice a year ago but there was a one year ‘tail’ when she worked for the purchasing company and helped with the transition of clients. That chapter is now finished, and she is free to go on about her life.
We are trying to switch gears and start to focus on the move to Portugal and are learning that patience will be one of the most important things to remember during this process. We are obligated to submit our applications for our visa through the VFS Global office in San Francisco since they handle most of the West, including Arizona. We know that it takes a while to get an appointment so we decided to be proactive and book our appointments now, so that when we return from Portugal in November with our hoped-for lease, we can be all ready to go. Great theory!
We have found the VFS Global website to be extremely frustrating and after trying to book an appointment online since last Friday, have not yet been successful. We know we are not the only ones as we have read several accounts of others trying the same thing and running into the same types of problems. Years ago, when I was working, I remember using the VFS office in Washington DC to process our visas for Saudi Arabia and other places. That was before the internet, and it was often frustrating then. It doesn’t seem to have improved much.
One would think that, given the amount of business they do, they would be able to put together a website that is more robust and user friendly. It’s almost like using one of the old dial-up services. Very frustrating. We are actually contemplating flying to San Francisco for a day (or two) for the express purpose of going to the VFS office simply to see if we can book an appointment in person for some time down the road. That’s how ridiculous things have gotten.
I am sure this is one of the many, many challenges that we will face in trying to navigate the bureaucratic maze that lays before us. I will continue to post on our progress.
In the meantime, I will continue to settle into life in Arizona. As a bonus, my daughter, Jordan, is flying in on Wednesday for a few days and I’m really looking forward to seeing her. We have a couple of fun things planned in addition to jumping in the pool and staying in the air-conditioned house. The adventure continues!