BUCKET LIST

I haven't talked much about it here because sometimes I get superstitious and think if I talk about something it won't happen and then I'll be embarrassed. But then I think if you don't put something out into the universe how do you hope to make any progress or receive any encouragement about the task at hand.

So with that in mind ...

We're hoping to move to Tofino in a couple of years.*

There, I said it. It's out there.

Portland is a definite back-up should our plans fall through, or not work out, but as long as we keep our eyes on the prize I think this is definitely something we can do. Or should be able to do.

There's only one particular little snag - that whole immigration thing.

I have no problem becoming a Canadian citizen, but it's not as easy as all that as we don't fit nice and tidy into any of the immigration categories - student, spouse/relative, skilled worker, entrepreneur, or independently wealthy playboy. (Okay, so I made that last category up, but if you read the docs, it's actually not that far off.) Because our plans rest with us working remotely for US-based companies, Canada doesn't really have any reason to look too favorably on our applications - after all, a Canadian company won't be sponsoring our employment.

Technically, we could rent a place up there and stay for up to six months and then return to the U.S. for a bit (I can't get a straight answer on how long "a bit" actually is - a week, a few weeks, a month?) before returning back to Tofino. Actually, we do plan to come back to the U.S. quite frequently as Alan's family is here, my family is in Ohio, and I'll have to travel for work. As far as I can tell right now we'll end up with one of those extended tourist visas that lets us enter/exit the country a bunch.  That doesn't feel settled enough though. For heath care especially - which given my state of unwell being - we'll need to travel to the U.S. and visit our doctors. Given that it takes three months for me actually get an appointment with any specialist scheduling those meetings shouldn't be too difficult, but it's the things you don't plan for that you need treatment for - strep throat, flu, torn ligaments, etc. Definitely something we actually need a concrete answer for before we can make any concrete plans.



But yeah, there it is. A bucket list item we're trying our damnedest to make a reality.

*Initially we had said we wanted to do this before we turned 40. Alan's 36 and I'll be 35 at the end of summer. That's four years. Ideally I'd like to compress that timeline to be three years max. We'll see how it goes.