The chaos continues as we enter the last three weeks before heading to Arizona.  The process of selling the house continues even though we have a signed contract.  Unfortunately, it is an offer contingent upon the buyer selling their current house.  However, there is a date at which time they have agreed to remove the contingency even if their house has not yet sold.  In the meantime, we continue to have showings of the house by appointment and others can still make an offer if they choose to.  If that were to occur, we notify the current buyer, and they then have 72 hours to remove the contingency on the current contract and proceed with the sale or we are free to accept the new offer if we choose to.  Needless to say, the real estate market these days is a little different from the buying frenzy that swept through Bozeman a couple of years ago.  That said, the current buyers really want the house so I am hopeful it will all work out in the end.  In the interim, we continue to get ready to vacate the house.

As I stated previously, trying to vacate a house AND sell almost everything in it is much more challenging than a straight move from one house too another.  In the latter case, you just pack things up, schedule the moving trucks and poof! everything shows up at your new house!  In this case, Barb already has a fully furnished house in Phoenix and in phase two of this little adventure, we won’t be shipping much to Portugal. Consequently, I am in the position of having get rid of, one way or another, almost everything in the house.  My firearms and larger power tools have already found their way to the local pawn shops.  I have found a buyer for most of the furniture but am still faced with disposing of things like a riding lawn mower (the current buyer already has one!), snow blower, washer/dryer, refrigerator, lots of small hand tools, etc.  It is a bit more challenging than you might imagine!

In addition to trying to purge the house, I am trying to get all my medical appointments taken care of before I leave, train for and prepare for my bicycle ride in the San Juan Islands the first week of September, and find time to have a little fun before we leave Montana.  We went to the Sweet Pea Festival on Saturday and Sunday and then we are heading for Glacier Park on Saturday to spend a couple of days.  Barb is still working so she has her plate full as well.  The sale of her firm is finalized on September 15^th, so she is trying to wrap everything up before that date.  Needless to say, it’s a little hectic around here!!

I’m sure it will all work out, but it is a bit challenging.  I guess that’s why we view this as an ‘adventure.’! 

Admittedly it has been a while since I posted anything – almost a month I believe.  The whole process of selling the house kind of took over our lives in the last month.  Once the house was listed, every time there was a showing, we’d have to put the house in ‘show condition’, pack up the dogs and disappear for some period of time. At first, we agreed to show the house any time that a request was made but we soon learned that was too disruptive given that Barb is still working so we limited requests until after 4 p.m.  Even so, it got to be a very burdensome process.  That said, we have an offer on the house so now it will be a process of working through the next phase – house inspections, etc., and trying to drive towards a closing date. 

As I think I’ve said before, this move is a bit different in that I am simultaneously trying to get rid of almost everything I own.  In previous moves, things get packed up, the moving truck shows up, and magically transports everything to the new house!  This time, very little will be going to AZ and on to Portugal, so I am trying to divest of everything.  That, in and of itself, has been a learning experience.

I got a tip from my realtor about a used furniture store here in Bozeman, so I called them up.  The owner came out, went through the house and gave me an offer for almost the entire house full of furniture.  And they will come and pick it up!!  That was a life saver.

I was trying to figure out how to sell the few guns that I have and didn’t really feel like having various and sundry individuals come over to the house to sell them privately.  I found a pawn shop here in Bozeman that is also a licensed firearm dealer, so I took my guns and ammo to them.  It was a very interesting experience.  The guy helping me and appraising my guns was really nice, but the store was basically an armory.  I felt like I was in redneck heaven!!  Guns and ammo, knives, and all kinds of hunting gear floor to ceiling plus an interesting cast of characters coming and going.  However, it was convenient, and I walked out of the store with a nice chunk of cash.

I also have a garage full of tools!  The pawn shop I took the guns to wasn’t too keen on the tools, but I found another pawn shop that is more than happy to buy them.  I’ve already taken one load there and will take another load today.  I know I could get more money if I took the time to sell everything individually but right now, I’m more about convenience!  Frankly, I wish I had explored pawn shops a long time ago.  Every time I needed a tool for something, I’d go to Home Depot and buy a brand new one and I could just as easily have gone to a pawn shop and picked up a tool for what I needed at a cheaper price!  Live and learn.

It will be an eventful 6 weeks or so.  Barb and I are leaving for Arizona in three weeks.  She will pack up all her stuff and the dogs and I will take some stuff in my pickup, and we’ll caravan down there.   I’ll then fly back to Bozeman to finish up some stuff at the house, pack up my bicycle and all my gear and head to Washington State for my weeklong bicycle tour of the San Juan Islands.  Then I will return to Bozeman, deal with whatever needs to be dealt with, pack up whatever is going to AZ into a U-Haul box, put my Harley on a U-Haul trailer and head for AZ!!  Lots of moving parts!!

Once I get to AZ, we will turn our attention towards getting ready to find a place to live in Portugal and applying for our long-term visas.  Once we have secured our visas, Barb will go through the same process of selling her house!  We are hoping that by the end of the first quarter of next year we are parked in our apartment/condo/house somewhere in Portugal.  This will become our base of operations for continuing to explore Portugal and the rest of the Schengen Zone.  We’ll see where we ultimately end up, but you have to start somewhere!

I will try to post about this little adventure more frequently as things develop.  I’m sure it will be a bit of a rollercoaster!  Wheeee!!

It has been a while since I posted here so I thought I’d post an update on where things currently stand on ‘the great adventure’ of moving to Portugal.  It is getting very real!  I spoke with my realtor a few days ago and my house will go on the market July 10^th!  The photographer will show up for pictures on July 6^th and then who knows what will happen.  The interest rates are still high but the housing inventory in Bozeman is very low so it will be a crap shoot as to what price the house sells for and how long it will take to sell.

My realtor gave me a whole checklist of things to do to get the house ready for the photographer.  Some of the things are easy but some require a lot of work, i.e., staining the deck!  I had hoped to get the deck done weeks ago but it rained so much throughout June that it was just impossible.  I am busy working away to get things done.  I will be VERY glad when this is all over and done with.  I have very much enjoyed my acre of paradise here but have become less and less enamored with doing house projects as time goes on.  Hopefully I will finish most of the heavy lifting today and then it is just spit polishing the interior, although I will have to get on my John Deere riding mower and attack the lawn once more before the picture man shows up.

We are hoping to stay in Bozeman until the end of August, but we will see what happens.  We have discussed contingency plans if we must leave a week or two earlier than we planned.  We have reservations to drive the Going To The Sun highway in Glacier National Park on August 13-14 so we want to do that.  I also have a bicycle ride planned in the San Juan Islands in Washington State September 2 – 9.  If we have to vacate the house before the end of August, we’ll do the Glacier trip and then immediately head for Barb’s house in Arizona (with me in my pickup).  I’ll fly back up to Bozeman to get my Toyota, head for Washington to do the bicycle ride and then return to Bozeman to pick up my Harley and trailer it down to Phoenix.  It will all work out one way or another.

As part of applying for the long-term visa for Portugal, you must submit an FBI background check.  We decided to do a practice run just to see what came back and how to do it.  The only place to get fingerprints here in Bozeman is at the sheriff’s office and they use the old ink and paper method.  I found a place in Billings that uses an electronic method of taking fingerprints and sending them directly to the FBI along with the application for the background check, so we had a nice little day trip down to Billings to get that done.  We had a nice visit with my sister and her husband in the process so that was fun. (Although we got caught in a bad rainstorm on the way home and that wasn’t fun!!).  We have since received our background checks from the FBI and I’m happy to report that neither of us have an arrest record with the FBI! 

In addition to all the regular excitement, Barb got to sample the local hospital the other day.  She had gotten up at night to try to calm one of the dogs down because they were kind of freaking out due to someone shooting off fireworks (that time of year – yay!).  She closed the doggie gate I had installed across the bedroom doorway so the dog wouldn’t run back into the bedroom and then later after she had sat with the dog on the sofa for a while, she was navigating back to the bedroom in the dark, forgot the doggie gate was closed and – thud and splat!  She fell really hard.  I took her to the ER early the next morning because she was in a lot of pain, and they took some x-rays which revealed at least one broken rib!  Unfortunately, they can’t do much for broken ribs, so she is convalescing slowly but won’t be running any 10K’s any time soon.  (Or riding on the back of my Harley!)  Take home lesson – never try to navigate a strange house in the dark!!

The weather has finally gotten nice so hopefully we can enjoy our last few weeks in Montana.  I will get the deck put back together today and we are looking forward to just sitting on the deck watching the world go by for the next few evenings.  I’m sure once the house sells and we have a hard date when we must vacate the chaos will return, but for now, we’re hoping to enjoy what time we have left here in Big Sky country.  Stay tuned!

It’s been almost a month since I posted anything and there are a couple of reasons for that. I made a trip back to Boston to attend Jordan’s graduation from Boston University where she received her master’s degree.  I was also busy getting the house ready for Barb and her two pups in addition to getting the house ready to put on the market.

The trip to Boston was fun and I was very proud to watch Jordan receive her graduate degree.  She is taking a well-deserved year off from academia to think about what she really wants to do.  In the meantime, her mom moved from New York up to Boston and they are sharing a beautiful apartment that overlooks the Boston harbor.  They are looking forward to a nice year ahead in Boston and the opportunity to explore more of the area.

I’m happy to report that after three days of driving in a very full car packed with personal luggage, office computers, dogs and dog supplies, Barb and the two dogs (Wally and Paisley) arrived safely here in Bozeman.  Barb will be working remotely here in Bozeman during her stay this summer, so I set up a desk for her and it is now operational with her office computers, phone, etc.  I also built a temporary dog pen in the backyard and installed a doggy door so the pups can go in and out on their own.  They have been here a little over a week now and everyone seems to be settling in nicely.

In addition to getting Barb settled in, I have been slowly trying to get the house ready to put on the market.  I anticipate putting the house up for sale the week after the Fourth of July.   I have some work to do in the yard, but it has been somewhat challenging given all the rain we have been getting.  I also need to restain the deck and I need at least two or three days of dry weather to tackle that.  Hopefully, one of these days, it will clear up and I can get things done.

Now that the self-imposed ‘debt crisis’ has been resolved the biggest hurdle for selling my house will be the current interest rates.  The market in Bozeman has slowed down from the frenzy that took hold a couple of years ago but is still fairly robust.  I am hoping I can get a decent price for the house.  We shall see.  This little ‘adventure’ will become much more real when the realtor puts the ‘For Sale’ sign up in front of my house.

Frankly, I am dreading the inevitable open house that will likely have to happen when the house goes on the market because of all the nosy neighbors who will be parading through my house.  I guess I really shouldn’t care as it is highly unlikely I will ever see any of these people again but, given that I made a few enemies during my tenure as HOA president, there are some in the neighborhood that I just don’t trust.  I guess it will be what it will be!

The other reason that I have not been posting regularly is that I have been working on another blog that will focus on my thoughts on the current political situation as we approach the 2024 election and various other topics.  I did not want to pollute this blog with my political writings, so I have been developing another blog.  It is called ‘musingwithmike.com’ and is a continuing work in process but it is currently live.  I will continue to post to it even as I tweak it to get it to the point where I am ultimately happy with it.

Barb and I have a few activities planned for the summer so I will continue to post as things develop and, particularly, when I put the house on the market!  Yikes!!

Yesterday was another rainy and windy day here in Bozeman so there was no yard work, bicycle ride or taking the Harley out for a spin.  Instead, I decided to start going through the garage as part of my ongoing purge.

I have two objectives.  Barb and her two dogs will be arriving with her Lexus SUV in three weeks. Given that I currently have my truck, my SUV, my Harley and two bicycles, once Barb gets here, my place will begin to look like a used car lot.  I am hopeful that I have found a buyer for my truck and that will help ease the problem, but given all the stuff in the garage currently, I still won’t be able to fit two SUVs and my Harley in there.  So, the first objective is to purge the garage of ‘stuff’ in order to try to create enough room to fit both SUVs and my Harley into the garage.

The other objective is just to get rid of ‘stuff’ that has been accumulating over the years.  As I was going through things yesterday, I couldn’t help but laugh at the number of things that fell into the ‘I might need this someday’ category.  Anyone who has a home and does any work at all themselves probably has the habit of finishing a project and then stashing the leftover material in the garage because ‘I might need that someday’.   The fact is, most of the things I came across in that category, I have rarely needed.

I have been wrestling with this whole ‘I might need this someday’ attitude with the decision to sell my truck.  The fact is, I have been in Bozeman for 5 years and in that time, I have driven my truck less than 20,000 miles – 4,000 miles a year!  It was, at times, very useful to have the truck.  When I built my deck, redid my master bathroom and during other large projects, it was useful to be able to jump in my truck and go to Home Depot and/or the dump.  And, given that I inherited the truck, and the only cost was for insurance, registration, and maintenance, it was not a huge economic hit to keep it.  However, I no longer have any big projects that I’m contemplating so for the majority of the summer, the truck will just sit in the driveway and be an obstacle to moving the other vehicles around. 

This decision was also facilitated by the process of thinking about how I was going to get my remaining possessions and motorcycle to Arizona after I sell my house.  I went through many different scenarios but finally narrowed all of the various options down to using U-Haul.  They have trailers designed to haul motorcycles and they have large pods/boxes that you can pack, and they will ship.  It is by far the most cost-effective solution, and it completely eliminates the problem of what to do with trailers when I get I Arizona if I were to purchase one myself.  I just drop them off and I’m done. 

Given the limited number of times I NEED my truck, it became very apparent that I could sell the truck and if I find I need a pickup this summer, I can easily rent one for a day (or more) to do whatever I need to do.  Given what I will sell my truck for, I can rent a lot of U-Haul pickups this summer and the more I thought about it, the more it just made sense. 

As I’ve been going through this exercise, it has become very apparent that there is a big difference between what I want and what I NEED!  I have certainly suffered from the ‘I might need this someday’ syndrome as I have accumulated things over the years.  I guess that’s why the storage business is booming across the country.  In any case, the exercise continues – and it’s a learning experience and a bit of a challenge. 

One of the biggest challenges in getting ready to make a move like this is how to get rid of an entire house full of ‘things’.  If I were just moving to another house somewhere in the continental US, it’s just a question of packing everything up, hiring a moving company (or a U-Haul if you are really masochistic which I have also done), and get ready for weeks of unpacking and dealing with cardboard boxes at the other end.  It’s basically just relocating the same ‘stuff’ to a different place.

This time, the objective is to basically dispose of almost everything I have accumulated over the years.  To that end, yesterday I called an auction company here in Bozeman that deals with estate sales.  I have decided this is the mechanism I will likely use to empty my house when the time comes.  Of course, they charge a commission of about 25% but I’m thinking if I can get a decent price for the house (that’s a whole different discussion these days!) then anything I get for the contents will be gravy.  I’m looking at it more from a convenience point of view.

There are certainly a few things I will keep and a few things my daughter has said she wants.  I have rented a storage unit here in Bozeman to begin moving those things out of the house.  However, I am trying to keep those things to a minimum. I’m sure when the day comes and most of everything I own is converted into a check issued by the auction company it will be a little bittersweet.  On the other hand, it will signify the beginning of a new life and a new adventure.

I have toyed with hanging on to my house in Bozeman and leasing it out for a while.  And, if the real estate market craters, I may still go that route.  However, that is not really my preferred option as I don’t relish the idea of being a landlord from 5,000 miles away.  In addition, as much as I have enjoyed living in Bozeman, I don’t see myself returning to live in Montana once I leave.  I will look at the situation this summer and see what the market looks like.   If I have to go the leasing route, I will only consider long term leases and have no interest in doing the Airbnb thing. 

Barb will not be selling her house in the Phoenix area until after we have successfully applied for and received our long-term visas.  Once that happens, she will decide whether to sell her place or lease it out.  We want to make sure we have at least someplace to live and don’t end up with matching shopping carts living under a freeway overpass!! 

It is not our plan to immediately buy something in Portugal.  We intend to find a place to lease while we get the lay of the land and decide if it is where we want to plant for a longer period of time.  Neither Barb nor I have lived in an apartment for decades and we know that we may end up living in one for the first year we are there.  That will be a huge adjustment for us both.  We are just going to have to see what is available when we get there and try to remain flexible.  This is called jumping into the deep end of the pool!!

We do have a few contacts in the country and will start working with those contacts prior to arriving so we can maximize the amount of time we will be on the ground.  We will, however, be under the gun to actually sign a lease before we leave the country.  It will be a bit of a crap shoot.  Wherever we end up, we understand that it is just the base of operations to enable us to establish residency and look for a place to plant for a longer period of time. 

When I moved from Los Angeles to Montana, I had initial ideas about what I wanted but when I started looking, I realized some of my ‘wants’ were really not practical.  Had I followed through with that wish list, I would likely have become a full-fledged hermit.  In the end, I bought my house in Bozeman before I ever set foot in it.  The first time I saw the house in person was when I met the realtor there who handed me the keys.  It all worked out and I’ve been very happy here.

Similarly, we have ideas about what we want when we get to Portugal, but we could end up with something different based upon what we find and what is available.  I guess that’s why they call it an adventure!!

One of the things that is required to be submitted with the long term visa application in Portugal (and probably several other countries) is a report from the FBI including a set of fingerprints.  Barb and I were talking about this last night and kind of laughing about it, but we decided that we would make a ‘test run’ when she is here this summer just to see what’s in the report.  The one that gets submitted with the application has to be sealed and unopened, so you don’t really know what it says.  We decided that, just for fun, we would request ours this summer and open them knowing that we will have to request another copy closer to when we actually submit the application. 

Neither of us are expecting any adverse information but thought it would be interesting to see what such a report contains.  Given my work in the defense industry for most of my career and the many clearances I held, I often tell people the government probably knows more about me than I know about me.  Likewise, Barb has no arrest record, but we thought it would be an interesting exercise and good practice for when we have to do it for real.  I’ll report back on what we find just in case anyone else has to go through a similar exercise! 

As I have mentioned before, there is a very robust expat community in Portugal who have all been through these bureaucratic processes before.  There are several websites/Facebook groups that are great resources for how to navigate the sometimes cumbersome and confusing procedures.  We will be drawing heavily upon all of this information as we move forward.  The ultimate prize will be getting our passports back with the long-term (D7) visa stamped in the pages.

Of course, that is only step one.  Once that visa is issued, and after you have moved to Portugal, there will be a subsequent meeting with the immigration officials in country to finalize the process.  Assuming that is successful, a renewable two year visa is granted and you are pretty much good to go.  It’s kind of the equivalent of a green card in the US. 

However, the real benefit of establishing residency in Portugal is that it gives you the freedom to move around the countries in the Schengen Zone (27 European countries) without being subject to the 90 day limit on staying in the Schengen Zone. Many people don’t realize that such a limit exists because they don’t stay in Europe for an extended period of time. 

For example, if you spent a month in Portugal, a month in France, and a month in Spain, you would run up against that 90 day limit and would be obligated to leave the Schengen Zone, i.e. leave Europe.  And you could not return for another 90 days.  I actually have an app on my phone that tracks the amount of time I am allowed to stay in the Schengen Zone at any given time.  In any case, establishing long term residency solves that problem.

In some respects, submitting the visa application is almost like preparing to submit an application to your top university pick.  You fill out the application, get your transcripts all lined up, write your essay, drop it in the mail and wait hoping that you will not be rejected!!  Or, probably even more relatable, getting all of your financial ducks in a row to apply for a mortgage and waiting to see if the underwriter accepts or rejects your application.  I guess this whole process of having your life path hinge upon what a bureaucrat decides lasts your whole life!!

I thought it might be interesting to let everyone know how Barb and I met and how we ended up on this journey together.  And, perhaps more importantly, how we have managed to keep this relationship going for the last 15 months when Barb lives in the Phoenix area and I live here in Bozeman. 

I had been contemplating leaving Montana for some time prior to 2022 and moving overseas.  I had several reasons why I was contemplating such a move but suffice it to say, I was researching various options.  Independently, Barb was thinking about her retirement and also perhaps moving overseas.  She had built up a CPA practice in Phoenix over the last 25 years and was tiring of the grind of running a business – particularly during tax season!  Each of us had kind of honed in on Portugal as a possible place to go.

Prior to 2022, I had joined an organization called International Living which targets people who live overseas or are contemplating living overseas.  They have conferences and various resources to help people research the pros and cons of various places around the world.  Barb had also joined International Living in her search for a place to retire.

International Living had to stop their conferences during COVID but was able to host a conference in Las Vegas in February 2022.  They had very strict COVID protocols in place – mandatory vaccinations, mandatory masking, etc.  On a lark, I decided to attend as did Barb.  Neither of us were in a relationship nor were we looking for a relationship.  We were expecting to embark on any future overseas adventures as singles.

After the first full day of the conference (Saturday), there was a welcome cocktail hour hosted by International Living in the hotel where we were staying.   I was there talking to some people about Portugal and relating how I was actually planning a trip there in April when Barb walked in.  She joined the small group and one of the people mentioned that I was planning a trip to Portugal.  Barb said that she was also planning a trip to Portugal but later in the year.  I told her that I would be happy to pass along any information I gleamed from my trip. We chatted a bit longer and then went our separate ways.

The next day, I saw Barb in the conference and during the lunch break I approached her and gave her the name of my blog that I would be using to detail my trip to Portugal.  I think we also exchanged email addresses.  Since it was lunch time, I asked her if she’d like to have lunch.  We adjourned to a restaurant in the hotel and had a nice lunch.  We were due to attend different sessions in the early afternoon but agreed to meet at a session later that we were both interested in.  Later, I was seated in the session we agreed to meet in, when Barb came dashing in, told me she had forgotten when her flight was, apologized, gave me a quick hug and dashed away.  I figured that was that!

After I returned to Montana to get ready for my trip to Portugal, I seriously injured my knee which was going to require major surgery to repair, and all of my travel plans came crashing down.  At some point, I emailed Barb and told her that my scouting report would not be happening and in all likelihood she would make it to Portugal before me.  At that point we started corresponding regularly, exchanged phone numbers and then finally moved on to Zoom meetings.

I was already planning a trip to Southern California in July so I threw out the idea of making a detour through Phoenix so we could meet face to face and just get to know each other a little better.  She agreed and in July I drove down to Phoenix on my way to SoCal and spent a long weekend.  We talked a lot and found we had a lot in common and enjoyed being with each other.  Of course, there was still the issue of the 1,100 miles between Bozeman and Phoenix.

I invited Barb to come up to Bozeman over the Labor Day holiday and she accepted – our second ‘date’.  We had a great time when she came up to Bozeman.  By that time, we had each independently made our travel plans to Portugal.  She was going with a friend of hers and I timed my trip so I could spend Thanksgiving with my daughter and her mom in New York City.  However, there was a couple of days of overlap where we would be in the same city in Portugal and we agreed to meet up.

The more we talked about it, the more it seemed like a good idea to try to sync up our trips and just go together.  She talked to her friend and subsequently, rearranged her travel plans to sync up with mine.  We were going to take this trip together.  We figured that traveling overseas together for 18 days would either make or break this relationship!  As those of you who have read my blog posts from our trip could see, we had a great time.  It was our third ‘date’!

Since then, we got together for New Years in Seattle (one of the few places with direct flights from Bozeman) and met in Las Vegas in February for the one year anniversary of our first fateful lunch.  I just got back from 10 days down in Phoenix after tax season and Barb will be moving up to Bozeman for the summer.  After that, I will be selling my house and moving down to Phoenix before we get our long term visas to go to Portugal.  When we are apart, we text everyday and have our weekly Zoom ‘date’ usually on Sundays. 

I’m going to be 72 this year and Barb will be 65.  It just goes to show, you just never know when you might stumble into a relationship and embark on an adventure that you never really imagined.  But here we are! 

One of the most common questions I get when people find out that we are planning this move to Portugal is, “Do you speak Portuguese?”  The short answer is that I know a few words and have been trying to learn more via an online course.  When I started, I found that most online courses teach Brazilian Portuguese rather than European Portuguese.  And while that might help a little bit, there are sufficient differences between the two that when contemplating moving to Europe, it is best to seek out a course that teaches European Portuguese.  

One might wonder why most online courses teach Brazilian Portuguese instead of European Portuguese and I think it has to do with the fact that Brazil has a population of over 200 million and Portugal has a population of a little over 10 million!  In any case, it is best to try to learn European Portuguese.

The fact is, one could get by with not learning any Portuguese.  In those areas of Portugal with large expat populations, English is fairly widely spoken.  However, it just seems like the right thing to do, to try to learn the local language, not to mention it will make life a lot easier in the long run. 

I have no illusions about being conversant in Portuguese by the time we move over there or not being instantly recognized as an American as soon as I open my mouth.  However, I will hopefully know enough to at least begin to engage some of the locals and find my way around the grocery stores! 

On another note, I had an interesting experience yesterday that someone might find useful down the road.  I have been trying to figure out what to do with my piano.  It is certainly not a concert grand piano but it is a good piano for someone trying to learn or just playing for their own recreation and amusement.  However, if anyone has ever tried to divest themselves of a piano, it is not easy. 

Some organizations accept donated pianos, and I contacted them but my piano did not meet their qualifications.  And then yesterday, I got an email from the company that has tuned my piano while it has been here in Bozeman reminding me that it was time to have the piano tuned.  On a lark, I sent them an email letting them know I was moving and asking if they were aware of anyone who might be in the market for a piano or an organization willing to accept a donation. 

Voila!  I got a response fairly quickly from one of the owners saying that they actually had a list of students/people whose pianos where not longer tunable and would appreciate a new instrument.  Since they had worked on my piano, they knew it was in pretty good shape.  She said they would make some phone calls and get back to me.

Serendipitously, yesterday was also their ‘piano moving day’.  I actually didn’t know they moved pianos in addition to tuning them.  In any case, they called me back and were actually at the house of a lady whose piano was no longer viable.  I spoke with the lady and a couple hours later, a truck pulled up to my house, scooped up the piano and it now has a new home where it will get used. 

Bottom line, if you’re ever trying to figure out what to do with a piano, call your piano tuners!!  They might be able to help! 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! 

Assuming the economy doesn’t crater, my house will go on the market in about two months right after July 4^th.  That gives me about 8 weeks to get things ready to go!  Yikes! 

The Bozeman real estate market is certainly not as crazy as it was the last two years, but there are still people moving here and it appears the inventory is still pretty low.  Even with interest rates high, I am hoping that my place will sell for a reasonable price.  Once the place sells, I will once again be homeless for a while.  This is a bit like déjà vu when I left Los Angeles a little over five years ago.

I sold and moved out of my place in Los Angeles at the end of December 2017.  I knew I was moving to Montana but did not yet have a house and I didn’t really want to move to Montana in the dead of winter, so I put everything in storage and moved to New York City where my daughter was going to school.  I rented an Airbnb in the middle of Manhattan, not too far from NYU where my daughter went, and spent the next four and a half months exploring New York City and spending time with Jordan. I had a blast. 

I attended different classes – welding, stone carving, juggling, etc!!  I explored tons of museums and walked miles and miles around Manhattan.  Jordan and I went out to Coney Island and had a lot of time to just hang out together.  It was a lot of fun.

This time, when I sell my house, after completing my bicycle ride in the San Juan Islands in Washington, I will be moving into Barb’s house in the Phoenix area.  It will be another 4- or 5-month interlude while our visas get processed, and I expect to spend the time exploring the area around Phoenix.  We already have one trip planned up to Denver to visit some of Barb’s relatives and we plan to get over to SoCal to visit friends there. 

And, of course, we have our house hunting trip to Portugal already booked.  We will be gone virtually the entire month of November.  We will spend the first part of the month in Portugal looking for a place to lease and then we will return to the US to spend Thanksgiving with my daughter and her mom in Boston.  We will then hop down to New York for a few days since Barb has never been to New York City, so it seemed like a good opportunity.

It’s shaping up to be a very busy, interesting and exciting year!  There will no doubt be bumps along the way but that kind of goes with the word ‘adventure’!   I have no doubt our patience and sense of humor will get tested many times.  But, what the hell!  I am sure we won’t be bored!