May 2022 - Move Update
Aloha! May in the Seattle to Panana trek has been eventful, though there is far to go!
- A few art pieces have left the house, so we have some blank spaces on the walls.
- Miguel spent a whole week sorting old papers and shredding enough to fluffily fill our building compost bin (though it battened down well for soggier stuff to have room), as well as add 8 grocery bags of non-shredded paper to the recycle.
- I was able to get 4 move-in kits to Vincent House to make new homes for elders who had formerly been homeless to move into apartments at the Pike Place market.
- The former office, more recently known as "that room" has shrunk to about half its former floor-sitting holdings, though I still have half the floor space, and then the bookshelves and closet, to go.
- I sorted winter clothes to send to Vincent House residents, and that amounted to 4 big boxes of warm and cozy stuff for next winter. The average person living at Vincent House has $600 a month in Social Security, of which 30% goes to rent under the Title 8 housing subsidies, which pick up the remainder of the rent. Buying food, phone service, clothing, and just getting through the month is hard enough on $400, so decent clothing is usually the first item to drop off the list.
- Miguel sorted through a whole bunch of shirts and routed a good-sized box to Vincent House. Miguel still has about half to sort, so the gentlemen of Vincent House have more to which to look forward.
- I took 4 carloads of stuff to Goodwill - whew! (see photo #3) They are getting to know me well at the Goodwill on 65th at 6th!
Additionally, we got some paperwork started.
- We have an immigration lawyer in David (Dah-veed), which is the second-largest city in Panama and about 30 minutes from Boquete.
- We got a start on the 4 main pieces of documentation that we need to collect and have apostilled (an international version of notarization) so that we can apply for a residency visa.
- We were fingerprinted last week for the FBI reports, and I am pleased to say that neither of us has a noteworthy federal record.
- Our next conquest is signed documents from our local Social Security office saying what our monthly stipend is under that program - the trick is getting an overworked government employee to sign. Being in rural North Dakota there is a chance, but in a major city, the likelihood goes way down for someone to be willing to risk a signature on something that a supervisor-type might think would have better been done another way. Luckily, through the Panama Relocation Tours, and the kind advice of a woman who used to work for the Social Security Office, we have a Plan B if a signature is denied, but it is a hassle and a half.
I talked with a property manager about renting our apartment for the two years allowed by the HOA - our idea being that in case anything major happens in the first two years, there is a Plan B allowing our return to Seattle at a still-reasonable mortgage. Based on surrounding rates in the neighborhood, the rent would be around $3000 per month! That pretty much flabbergasts me, though the mortgage plus HOA and taxes are around $2000, and my mortgage is very low. A unit on the first floor that looks at the hedge, as opposed to our view of Elliott Bay and West Seattle, is on the market for $520,000, which means that we couldn't afford to move into our own neighborhood! Whew, too!
Over and over, we are both being reminded that living in the USA has taught us that more is better - and we have stuff that might come in handy someday, but that someday has not happened in the past ten or twenty years, and still we have it! The sheer bulk of stuff that we have, even in a 1000-square-foot apartment, is intimidating, and once waded into, overwhelming. And, I am not yet looking at the 10 x 10 x 10-foot storage locker that we have in the basement which has been in a state of "stand at the door and toss" for three years after a major cleanout in 2018; among the things in storage is enough great yarn to see me through retirement. Whew, #3!
I have gotten a couple of prospects for taking furniture that doesn't otherwise have a home - important because Goodwill and Salvation Army are not currently accepting furniture. One prospect is the property management firm for the rental is buying 5 houses hear Children's Hospital to house families of kids in care there to stay when they have to relocate from afar during the child's care. Furniture and artwork and carpets are so individualized to taste that I feel like I could spend a big chunk of time trying to find homes for our stuff, and I don't have the time, even though many of these things are our treasures. While I am glad to have had a life where I surrounded myself with art and treasures from my travels and passions, and I choose to move away from all of them to live n Panama, it is still a bit heart-wrenching to know that I am the only one to treasure that carving of mother and baby we picked up in Bahia, Brazil.
We haven't yet told the birds that we are leaving. They are excited for warmer and sunnier weather, as they enjoy their neighborhood friends and spending the day on the balcony watching the world go by and chatting with the neighbors. Books say that they will only miss us for about three weeks - and I note that when they come inside for the winter and mourn the loss of the neighborhood gang for a few weeks before they get to go out again in the mid-Spring. But, I think that I will miss their company longer than three weeks. Paloma and our two parakeets sing along with me to music I play when we have the house to ourselves; they especially like classical guitar, Mariah Carey, Adele, and Celine Dion, as do I. We have a cooing, cheeping choir. Miguel probably won't miss that part so much, but I will.
Miguel is back to working 50%, and being down to one car, that reduced work schedule is allowing me to get more things out of the house rather than just shifting things around within the apartment. I need to see progress, or I get quickly overwhelmed by the sheer bulk of stuff to go through, which is worsened by the fact that it has to come out of hiding in order to get sorted, and once sorted, it has to sit somewhere while awaiting transport. Having the elevator our for over a week meant that even those things going to the recycle or garbage didn't get out of the way!
Let me tell you about the photos before it is June, and I missed my chance!
June should be eventful. I feel like things are starting to shift and we might actually get through this huge downsizing to 4 suitcases - perhaps not all of everything, but close enough to walk away in September. We are looking at departure the week of September 15. Seems so soon!
More before an exciting Independence Day! Thank you for coming on this journey with us!
Mary Bea y Miguel