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We’ve been here about a month now, and we’ve gone to about a dozen street fights with friends and family. Every village has at least one a year, and many have more. They stop traffic, turn a bull out with a rope on it for about 20 minutes, put it away, drink for 15 minutes, and then get out another one of four bulls.

We were invited to watch from a friend’s house this week, and happened to be next tot eh video camera. Run this one up to about 45 minutes, and you’ll see Sofia and I. It’s a riot to watch the bull, the crowd, and hear the stories. Had a lot of fun.

https://www.facebook.com/casadasonhos/posts/1929615603781234?notif_id=1538908954932331&notif_t=page_post_reaction

 

Every language has nuances; I’ve lived in many countries and have learned this the hard way. I speak (or can survive) in several. After 25-plus years of marriage and annual visits to Terceira in the Portuguese Azores, you’d think I’d have a better handle on the lingo…so today shouldn’t have been a surprise. To Wit:

1. When the wife says the new house needs cleaning, I should expect some assignments. I was slightly surprised (and downright happy) when she said “You can work on your tan and the water is great.” No, in Portuguese, that means “The new hose for cleaning the sidewalks at the house has warm water, and you can take your shirt off and get sun while you’re cleaning windows and scrubbing the aluminum window tracks.”
2. My old Leatherman tool has been in the family for years. It has taken stitches out of legs in the Sahara, cleaned untold game animals when needed, fixed motorcycles, cars, dorm furniture, office furniture, etc.  So when it was shipped by mistake, I reluctantly picked up a newer, more versatile Leatherman with 19 tools on it. 19 tools! You get the idea. So imagine my surprise and pride when she asked if she could borrow my new Leatherman…finally, years of lectures and patient education have paid off! After her initial discovery that it was sharp (doh) she put a band aid on her thumb and handed me the tool. “Go around the house, there are little patches of glue on the tile floor, and this will scrape it off.”  Nineteen tools with which I can rebuild a motorcycle, and I use the large knife to clean the floor?
3. The island also has it’s own vision test. When I’m driving my father-in-laws truck, I usually can see the trucks or donkey carts coming out of the right had lane on a circle…and slow down to get by. I thought this showed I had good vision. WRONG! The real test is when the wife comes around every inch of the 1900-square-foot (665 square meter) house with a tile floor and stone window and door ledges and says “You missed that blue paint spot here” and “Can’t you see that glue drip…from now on, after you’ve scraped it, run your fingers over the floor to see if you got it all.” So how is it that she can see a drop of paint and totally miss that I just spilled oil  all over my jacket?

So if you’re adjusting to a foreign culture, you need either a lot of patience, a very understanding wife/warden/supervisor, or you need a lot to drink!!! Guess which one I recommend:)

Just remember you heard it  from me first:)  And good news, tomorrow I get to clean under the new refrigerator! Moving to a new land is not challenging, you’ll still end up cleaning under the refrigerator..as if every house guest looks there first!

We got here just in time…to our Island Paradise. The weather has been very pleasant for some weeks, and now “fall and winter” will come, which I love. High winds whistle around our new place, with Sea States reaching much higher numbers, wind surfers, surfers, and much less “traffic” on the beach. While not optimal for the tourist industry, I have always loved the winds and the high seas and rain. Bumper just sleeps through it:) I have always been taught to enjoy whatever weather you get; and in Terceira, I love the bad weather as well as the good – my father would say Bad and good are relative and judgmental…it is what it is:)

Got to spend some time with the builders, punched out some minor changes, and learned that we have passed all inspections and now must begin the bureaucratic challenges. But here’s a photo or two…we love the house!

The View:

Well, cloudy days, but the water is “Muito Boa” and we swim at the beach, watch the boats, and wait…and wait…and wait…and wait (Apologies to the Narrator of Casa Blanca:))  My advice for anyone going overseas and working with both the American Government and the Portuguese Government is … ” be ready to exercise patience.

Tonight we were honored to help a relative here celebrate his 30th birthday; his wife threw a great party, he and some friends cooked chicken, we drank cervazas, and had a wonderful get-together. It felt like home and familia.

This was after spending the morning chasing yet more paperwork around town from various government agencies prior to arrival of our container with all of our property in it. You need to provide letters from the Social Security and Tax offices that say you don’t owe the government any money; you have to go to yet another office to get permission to park said container on your street to unload it, and you have to sort out if that “last leg” of the shipment from Mainland Portugal to Terceira is actually booked, even though it doesn’t appear on paper anywhere:) Life is an adventure, and we persevere. There’s many people in the world who don’t have anything to ship in the container! We are lucky, blessed, fortunate, and happy!

Pretty Awesome. Since Sofia and I married 26 years ago, we have visited almost every year. Between mortality and civil realignments, births, marriages, and the like, our nearly-yearly visits have held change, delights, and pain. Such is life. Our return this week has been delightful, educational, and of course, fattening. I’ve learned to like (not yet enjoy) Shoshurush — little fish slightly bigger than anchovies, Octopus (grilled–I love it) and Lapash (I’m spelling it wrong, but little shellfish grilled with garlic and wine – vis a vis Anthony Bourdain) and of course, Vinho Tinto (Red Wine). I feel certain Drs. Darcy and Bach would take exception, but hey, when in Rome. And the fresh fruit is healthy!  Overall, the only thing better than the new house is the family. Stay tuned!

we’ll see.

Tonight two of my girls said goodbye for a few months, and I think the thought hit them that there will soon be an ocean between them for an extended period of time. Lots of waterfalls. Glad I could hold it together. I also said goodbye to Michigan, some  very dear friends and family; I often fail to realize how blessed we have been with strong relationships. I know they really love Sofia and just put up with me:) Our flight was cancelled (Booo, American Airlines) for crew rest, which I fail to understand, so we’re staying in East Lansing, alone:( But it is what it is, and we’ll have one less day to get our darling kitty cat ready for travel. Good news is, I’ll have an excuse to do less cleaning before we check out of the apartment:) Time marches on!

If you’re signing up to start receiving Social Security…it’s easy. Online form, mostly well-worded, mostly self explanatory. Pretty good web form works overall. HOWEVER, if you’re using a foreign (non-U.S.) bank account, it won’t work. So press “Learn More” and it will tell you to go to your Social Security Office. Four hours in Vienna VA office, just to learn that “You should not have click on Submit, and we can’t put in your bank account for a week or two.”

“To be safe, give it a month, and then you can change it online…” except we’ll be gone in a few weeks, and to change it online, my foreign bank account STILL won’t fit in the US format, so I’ll still get an error that says “Come in to our office…” The good news is that when you do get to the front of the line, they are friendly, empathetic, polite, professional, and equally frustrated….but still can’t help.

So assuming there are no further glitches…I will start drawing benefits…we just don’t know where the money will go. We do have a solution, however. “We can’t make appointments, so come stand in line in a few weeks and perhaps your claim will be in the system and we can amend it.”  🙂

 

Sofia’s sister Mena inspects today’s addition…Kitchen cabinets. The Cozinha is Sofia’s favorite place, and we’re loving how open it is so she can cook and entertain:)

Getting ready to retire. Cleaning up loose ends. Dental Insurance will go, so today I had a bridge cut, an old tooth pulled, and they didn’t even give me good pain meds….plus I went right to work. So don’t put off until the 45 day mark before you retire and move to an island:)

I’ll play a little until I get the hang of it.

Haven’t had time to finish this site yet, but then again, it’s designed to talk about Life AFTER I retire…so I’ll have time soon. Lots of moving parts to this retirement, moving out of the country, building a house, storing items for daughters, etc. So it’s a challenging process, and I expect the adjustment will present some challenges as well. So if you want, you can read and watch them here:)