End Of Season Storylines

If our summer was a TV drama, today was the episode near the end of the season when lots of threads start to come together yielding resolution. 

The round white kitchen table that looks great, but broke the other year when the contractors put too many things on it – and the carpenter tried to fix, but couldn't really – and I managed to keep together with wood glue, but just barely – needs to go. The base supports the table from the center, making it so too much weight or pressure dear the edges makes the base a fulcrum and the opposite side want to go up like a teeter-totter. I'm constantly telling the kids not to put too much weight on the table which not only sucks for them, but just isn't a realistic expectation for Airbnb or other guests. This summer I came to grips with the table being a 230 euro mistake.

When I went to the furniture store – THE furniture store – where I purchased the table, I asked for any other possibilities where the legs were near the perimeter and would avoid the problems of the current table. The very nice British woman who now works there and is married to a Patmian understood the issue, but couldn't find a table in any of their many catalogs that met my criteria. I told her the man who owns the shop – which I think is a small regional "chain" – kindly made me several pieces of furniture two years ago and I wondered if he could do so again? She called over to Leros where he and his wife run their furniture fiefdom and was told they couldn't at this time because it's so busy and they were trying to get many orders processed and delivered before the Greek furniture manufacturers shut down for the month of August, as is customary. I told the woman I'm in no rush and if anyone comes up with any solutions, to just text, email or call me anytime throughout the year. Then I began shopping online – which comes with a mess of issues due to delivery.

To my amazement, yesterday on the boat I received a text from the wife on Leros who said her husband could make me exactly what I want and the price would be 240 euros. So, for ten euros more, I'm rolling the dice again – but this time with a custom-made table from people who I think "get" the issue. They can have it delivered between the 17th and 20th – most likely before my first Airbnb guest of the season arrives.

At home, finding a new table is not a very big deal. On Patmos, it is an adventure at best. This serendipitously worked out.

Meanwhile, a simple piece of advice from my friend George to list my house on Booking.com yielded two new bookings. As he said, Greeks don't use Airbnb – the other European and American guests do. Greeks like Booking.com. Sure enough, two Greek bookings fill the the end of August through early September after my French Airbnb guests leave on the 29th. I've had a couple of other inquiries as well. Now we're cooking and my dream of Orthodox Easter business is looking far more likely.

Combine that with my new property manager Kostas who will manage the bookings and source new ones through local connections and things are looking up. Kostas has been texting regularly every day as he cooridinates with Immanoula, the cleaning lady and has found me a new gardener who will do a proper monthly servicing of my yard. I have had trouble getting Michaelis the current gardener to show even having prepaid him for a year's worth of service. According to Kostas, Michaelis is pretty busy and when he is, sometimes he just doesn't show up somewhere – which is easiest to do with the client who isn't on the island most of the time. Now, we have that solved and the two new bookings – one of which came through this morning – will be handled without my involvement and a local representative who can best assist the clients. I'm hopeful a few good first reviews will increase both volume and nightly price.

Stil, the most important thread – and the one with the most assiduous work invested – is my residency card. It took me almost nine months to get the D Class visa I need to be eligible for A Greek Residency Card. This isn't so much because of challenging requirements, but because of long wait times for appointments at the Greek Consulate of Los Angeles mixed with a touch of poor communication. My first appointment was scheduled November 1st. Only it turned out the visa application and documentation shown on the consulate's website was not the complete list of documents they actually need – most of which I could have run home and printed out, except for a couple of odd items like an FBI report on me and a medical certification form signed by my doctor which had an unusual and specific list of conditions including syphilis and malaria. Needless to say, it was an interesting visit to the doctor who because of the tropical diseases and STD's, felt obliged to run blood before he signed his name to the unusual-looking form, much of which was in Greek.

The very kind lady who helped me at the Greek Consulate told me that since my original appointment wasn't really able to take place due to the misunderstanding, they wouldn't make me wait the typical three or four months for another. I should just email when I had everything together, Only, when I did, I was told the very nice lady was perhaps too nice and I would need to book a new appointment – which took me to May. Armed with my two years' worth of 1040's, some bank statements, proof of travel insurance, a clean FBI rap sheet and a certification that I was syphilis and malaria-free, the second appointment went to plan – although one woman gave concerned and pained looks at my documents for reasons that were never made clear. I got my National D-Class Long-stay visa that allows me to remain in Greece without interruption until November 2026 – a date that makes no more sense to me than most other aspects of the process.

From the time I entered Greece with the kids on July 17, I have been eligible to apply for the Residency Card. Only my attorney Manos  - notably one of the two attorneys on Patmos and known for being "the good one" – didn't seem to feel there was any urgency to take action. I emailed him a couple of times and he asked for required particular pieces of documentation similar to the visa – mostly establishing I have an income outside of Greece, health insurance and won't be a burden to the state. Once I returned them a day or two later, he said nothing more for weeks. I wrongly assumed he was drawing up papers and would at some point contact me with next steps. When I pinged him about my issue last week – and again at the beginning of this week, it became clear we were now – as I had feared – on a tight timetable since Manos is leaving for vacation on the 11th and the kids and I depart the 15th.

After reviewing my documents, Manos determined he urgently needed more information on my health and travel insurance. He needed them yesterday – while I was on the boat with Sennen – and he needed them in a hurry. Thanks to the shocking pervasiveness of cellular signals and amazing capacity of what we can do on our phones these days, I was able to retrieve everything he needed. While Manos wasn't initially sure if my travel insurance and health plan would pass muster with the government, he called over to the regional government offices in Leros which said we were in the clear. All of this while Sennen and I were sailing from Patmos to our first swim stop at Makronisi.

With time of the essence, Manos scheduled me to report to his office at 10 am today to accomplish three critical tasks: 1. scan every page of my passport 2. notarize a document giving him power of attorney to handle my application 3. pay the government fees at the bank of post office.

These sound simple enough – but if I have learned nothing going through the six months of what we would call escrow on my house – it's that Greece may be a modern country, but much of its government is still Byzantine. There are two offices on Patmos capable of notarizing a document – the notary public who sits in a small office across from the Christodolous Bakery near the port and the Customs office on the other side of the very same building, facing the port. One should go to the notary for legal documents, but sometimes he's not there for reasons no one seems to question – and in that case, Customs will usually help. Indeed Kap the notary was not in his office, but a kind man at Customs who I found taking a smoke break – and who seemed unsurprised Kap was not working – was happy to notarize my document right away – free of charge. 

When I asked how much I should pay, he said notarization is one of the services made free to the public. Greeks pay a lot of taxes, so there are benefits meant to be free – and basically, people's taxes prepay their notary needs. To my surprise, there was no line and the task took five minutes.

The next step – paying the government fees for my application – was dicier going in. Manos didn't think I could pay at the bank because I don't have a Greek account. The Post Office may or may not accept cards to his knowledge in which case it would mean trips to the ATM and back to the post office at which point, I might as well just transfer the money to one of his trust accounts for him to handle. But he'd rather not because of some reason having to do with recording the money, so it would be great if the Post Office could work out. To top it off, the Post Office – like all Post Offices – frequently has long lines and slow service. 

Serendipitously, there was a short line and they did in fact take cards – and all was processed and handled in less than ten minutes. When I told the nice lady who helped me I was so happy that this worked out so easily, she told me "Of course it worked out!" even though three minutes prior she was asking her manager if she could process a foreign card for the transaction.

With these easy victories under my belt, it seemed silly not to stop at the bakery next to the post office to get the bread for the kids' sandwiches later. Nothing feels more Patmos than a quick stop into the bakery on the way back to your attorney's office after running errands for your immigration paperwork. Once returning the documents to Manos, he took my passport for scanning and will return it to me before Monday. The poor guy also has to personally translate my tax return and insurance documents because lawyer-written translations are always legally accepted – although he may well use Google Translate, clean it up and sign his name – or I certainly hope he does something like that to cut the tedium. 

In any case, once my passport is returned to me, we're off to the races – my application moves forward and if all goes well, I'll have a Residency Card in four or so months. Once I have that, crazy things like buying a used motorscooter and a used car open up to me – as does escaping if the United States all comes caving in, which is more than conceivable. 

Given the landscaping breakthrough two days ago and the completed house painting, I feel like I've checked off my list for the summer. Sennen and I even put up the mezuzah he made in religious school. Now each door has a mezuzah, even if both are not the most conspicuous due to color (the kitchen door's is white) or placement (the front door's is high). There's enough I don't know – especially about Airbnb guests – that I'm still more careful than I'd like to be. 

Overall, I feel content.

We have less than a week remaining here on Patmos – one week remaining in Greece because of our day in Athens between ferry and flight next week. This is the tricky part of the summer when the kids start feeling Last Week Syndrome. It's already begun. Anything that might be our last – like next Monday being their last session with Coach Thanasis – brings winces and sometimes tears. Panics about getting in favorite things one more time have set in. Each beach day will begin to be taken very seriously. It's the price to pay for a summer well spent and of being somewhere we love.

The kids don't get the contentment of a document notarized, a fee paid or a hard-to-find table ordered. the fun just comes to a close. At least for Sennen. Ailyn's more ready to embrace school. Still, even for Ailyn the sadness of ending our time in Patmos can live side-by-side with the joy of the next thing. Such is life. 

All I can offer them is advice to focus on the present. We're here now. We have opportunity still to enjoy. We're best off doing it rather than mourning what hasn't yet ended – and to which we will have the opportunity to return.