Monthly Archives: April 2024

Apr20

The process of leaving – Part 5

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April, 2024 – Preparing the Landing Area


In parallel with creating the plan, and the contingencies to the plan, I had to prepare for my arrival in my new home. Realistically, I had to prepare my new home before I could even prepare for my arrival there.

First, I verified my enrollment to Trinity. I did this before I even quit Raytheon, in fact, reaching out to the coordinator and verifying that all was happy and prepared.

Then, I worked with the coordinator to find a relocation firm – someone who would be able to not only help me land on my feet and find a good apartment… but a team who could help me acclimatize to the city and the new culture. Now, I know this isn’t always an option for people, so I freely admit to my privilege here – being able to afford this service isn’t a given, and I’m super thankful that I was able to enlist their help.

It.

Took.

Forever.

Seriously – the two firms that Trinity recommended were bad. One went out of business, and the other wouldn’t return my calls. So I found some others. Of those three I found myself, two never called me back, and one ended up going out of business while I was speaking to them. Thankfully, they recommended someone else after they went under… and THAT, the sixth group I spoke with, was the one that’s worked out so far.

With them, I finally got the ball rolling in early March. We got me an Irish Social Security number, connected with health insurance (both for my travels, and for when I arrive in Ireland), and discussed the basics of how a house search would go. Basically, they’re like a super realtor who does everything.

It worked out pretty well! As of writing this, I’ve got the basics laid out, and the final piece of the puzzle is finding a spot for me to stay once I land in Dublin… The relocation folks will be meeting me at the airport as if I were some fancy debutant, and I have no doubt that we’ll lock down a good place for me to stay while we rock the apartment search.


As before – slowly but surely. Taking the time required, and making the move happen.

Apr19

Touching up the Mustang

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April, 2024


So this is just a quick note, but it’s something I’m proud of. Part of leaving Oregon, and the United States, is putting my car into storage. I’ve brought it in for a full maintenance, cleaned it up, and then did some touch-up work on some chips in the paint on the hood.

It worked well!

For anyone debating if they can touch-up the paint on their car… well, I did it. Wasn’t too tough, so… give it a try, I guess?

All I did was headed to the autoparts shop, asked for a touch-up pen, and then followed the directions. Cleaned off the chips, snapped off any bubbled paint, cleaned the surface… then applied two coats of paint and two coats of clear finish. Took me 20min total, over the course of… maybe 3 hours, letting everything dry.

My only regret? Not having kneepads. Kneeling to do the paint was kinda painful on the asphalt.

Apr18

The beauty of Wilsonville

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April, 2024


With preparation and planning comes walks and relaxation.

It’s been tough for me to not judge myself too harshly for needing time to make plans and get everything set up. It takes time, to be sure, but I’ve found that creative work like this tends to take longer than one would expect… and that it also takes down time to make it happen. I call it “riding the waves”… when I’m energetic and focused, I get tons done. When I’m not, I take a walk or go to the gym.

It’s too easy to fall into a Youtube hole, or play video games… and while I do let myself fall down those holes every so often, it’s a major work of mine to limit those, and work to keep myself on track.

Walks definitely help – and in the Oregon Spring, those walks come part and parcel with beautiful views, pretty flower crowns left by my neighbors, and home-made chili-dogs after I got annoyed at Sonic for taking too long to take my order.

Yeah, literally. I walked to Sonic for lunch, they took 20min and didn’t take my order, so I walked to the grocery story and bought my own damn hotdogs and made my own damn lunch. With beer! For cheaper!

Slowly but surely. I’m focusing on burning down my to-do list, enjoying the time left with friends and neighbors, and making this whole thing happen.