This post falls under the “When we make plans, the universe laughs” umbrella! The last time I posted something it was all ahead full for a temporary move to Phoenix followed by an exploratory trip to Portugal with the hope of finding a place to lease. I had my house on the market and had sold, donated, or pawned almost everything I owned. I had driven my pickup to Phoenix, flown back to Bozeman to complete purging the house, loaded my Harley on a trailer and headed back to Phoenix.
That was the plan – and then the universe and life stepped in. The contingency deal for my house fell through. Coupled with a continuing rise in interest rates, although there were some interested parties, no one pulled the trigger and the house continued to sit on the market. The house was completely empty and the thought of it sitting empty all winter continued to grate on me. Given a combination of the problems in the real estate market and facing winter, I decided to pull the house off the market. My realtor told me that I was not alone in making that decision as several of her clients had made a similar decision.
I did contact a company that would ‘babysit’ the house for a fee but, even with that, I wasn’t really comfortable. I also did not want to become a landlord. In addition, I encountered some personal problems, and, in the end, I decided to return to Bozeman and put off consideration of Portugal for the time being. That’s the second time I have planned to go to Portugal and the effort has been torpedoed for one reason or another. Perhaps the third time will do the trick or perhaps the universe (see above) is trying to send me a message! Time will tell.
In any event, I am back in Bozeman for the winter and plan (there’s that word!) to put the house back on the market next spring. I found out that a house must be off the market for 6 months before the ‘days on market’ clock resets to zero. I am currently in the process of trying to refurnish my house although I don’t intend to fully refurnish it. I don’t expect any company over the winter so I will make the house comfortable and functional for me and leave it at that.
On the positive side, I will hopefully get in some skiing this winter and be able to make a trip or two back to Boston to visit my daughter. And, I have all winter to think about ‘Plan B’, whatever that is.
Since I will have lots of time on my hands, I am hoping to finally get my other blog ‘musingwith mike.com’ up and running. There is certainly no shortage of news going on in the world so there should be a lot to ‘muse’ upon. I will continue to post to this blog from time to time as life events or various trips arise. Once ‘Plan B’ begins to gel I will post those plans here. In the meantime, I am back in Bozeman!
I have already had one interesting wildlife encounter. I left the house a couple of days ago before sunup to grab some coffee at Starbucks since I don’t yet have a coffee maker. Right on the edge of town, I came across a good-sized black bear lumbering along the road. It was pitch black out, so I only saw him because of my headlights. I continued driving and about a block and a half away I saw a lady jogging in the direction of the bear. They were on a collision course!
I whipped my car around, stopped the lady and told her about the bear. She thanked me and promptly headed back the way she had come.
We’ve already had one bear alert in my neighborhood as the bears are foraging to get ready to hibernate for the winter. They are definitely around so one needs to be ‘bear aware’ when you head out in the dark in the morning!!
I thought I would post this update so anyone expecting to see pretty pictures from Portugal would understand why that isn’t happening right now. Like I said – life happens!!
Good to hear from you. Best wishes out there.