A sad time for the Rames' in Ireland

We received some tragic news this morning.  Our dear friend and neighbor, Steve Dapogny, was killed in a car/pedestrian accident while walking in Chicago.  Though you might not have known him by name, I'm sure many of you would have known him from our stories.  He touched our lives in so many ways that we were never slow in relating a story about Steve, Carol, or the Dapogny kids (Alex, Cindy, and Maggie).

 Here are just a couple of ways he touched our lives:

Steeeve.  JJ had wanted a guinea pig for a long time.  Finally, last Christmas, JJ's wish came true, but he couldn't think of a name.  Steve was over and he suggested "Steve", in a serious tone.  It couldn't be just "Steve", so JJ added a couple of "e's" and thus was christened Steeeve.  Steeeve wasn't able to come to Ireland, but JJ worked the deal that he could get an Irish lass of a pig and bring Steeeve back a girlfriend.  Her name was to be Carol.  JJ mentioned this morning (after hearing this news) that he wanted to name his new pig "Dapogny".

The chiminea pit.  Matt and Sandi Rubio were the proud owners of a chiminea (a free-standing fireplace shaped like a pear).  The Dapogny's, Rubio's, and Rames' spent many an evening in Rubio's back yard enjoying each other's company and  (ALMOST ALWAYS) some of Steve's latest brew and marshmallows.  After a year or so, combined with the Pacific Northwest weather, the area became known as the chiminea pit.  It was getting a bit muddy with boards under our feet and the grass worn bare.  There were a number of discussions about making improvements to the pit, but usually after a few of Steve's beers, so progress was slow.  Joe and Steve decided that they were going to surprise Matt and Sandi while they were on vacation and build a Pacific Northwest chiminea pit.  Bring in the treated lumber, gravel, and a hot weekend of work and the new and improved chiminea pit was born.  When the Rubio's packed up and moved to Boise, the 3 performed an engineering feat by moving the pit 12 feet over into Joe's yard.  When the Rames' went to Ireland, the chiminea (minus the pit) found a new home in the Dapogny's back yard in the patio area that Steve built last summer.

Moving.  Steve was an expert in packing and moving things, a result of a few years of summer/college work.  His experience was highly valuable to both the Rubio's and the Rames' in the last year and Steve was a great friend during those times.  With his help, the Rames' house was packed into a 10x20 storage facility, with no room to spare.  You can see Steve and his son Alex's handiwork here.  And the Dapogny's also volunteered to host Tuna, our cat, until he is free to join us in December.  The knowledge that Tuna would be taken care of by the Dapogny's was probably one of the biggest comforts that helped our kids make this really big step.

Outdoors.  Steve was an avid bike rider.  During Joe's unemployment stint, he sought out Steve for some experienced advice.  Steve took Joe out for a bike ride and left him in the dust.  It took a week for Joe to recover and after that decided he'd stick to hand digging french drains in the back yard and re-double his efforts in finding a job.  Steve also made the trip up Mt. St. Helen's for JJ's first climb in September 2010.

Beer.  Steve had a passion for making beer.  His neighbors had a passion for consuming it.  It was a great relationship.  Steve was heading back into the job market.  I think his quote was, "If I'm going to get a crappy paying job, I might as well get a job doing something I love."  Thus began his journey to go back to school.  This is what brought him to Chicago as he was attending the Siebel Institute of Technology's brewing program.

Military.  Anyone that knows Rod, knows of his immense obsession with anything related to the military.  Having a former Naval aviator next door was the source of great pride for Rod.  I'm sure Steve felt like "Mr. Wilson" to our "Dennis the Menace", but he never let it show.  Steve even dug out his flight suit and helmet for JJ to wear during his presentation on Neil Armstrong in 4th grade.  Steve was also present at Rod's first Airsoft tactical going away party.  If you've never heard of this, think of shooting at each other with automatic bb guns for 3 hours.  Rod was very excited to have Steve join us and still remembers the red spots on Steve's receding hairline from a few precisely landed shots.

The pain that our family is feeling right now is difficult to measure.  I'm sure that pain is dwarfed by the pain in the Dapogny house.  Please put the Dapogny's in your thoughts and prayers.  

I'll leave with this thought.   There's no making any sense of any of this right now.  We were blessed to have a friend like Steve.  The fact there is so much pain in loss is the true measure of the friendship.  May God bless you with friends like we had in Steve.  The pain is great at this moment, but the rewards of having known him will eventually make up for the loss.  It will take a long time.

Joe, Martha, Rod, JJ, & Grace

Cable TV is a bit different in Ireland

Celebrating the 252nd birthday of Arthur Guinness was quite a big deal.  The office made it to the local pub (Bleeding Horse) and raised a pint to Arthur at 17:59, which was the year he was born.

I found something cheaper in Ireland!!!!!

As part of my saga to get licensed, I had to have an eye exam.  So today, I attempted to get an appointment with an eye doctor to perform the exam near my office.  They said they could get me in sometime in late October.  Not really ideal.  So I asked if she had some recommendations and she suggested the local SpecSavers (read:  Irish Lenscrafters).  I called for an appointment and they got me in this afternoon.  I was told it would be EUR 15, which is about what it costs to buy 3 normal items at the local store, so I was immediately suspicious of what I was getting.  "This will get me a completed D.502 for my drivers licence?"  "Yes".  "OK".

So I get to the store and am immediately taken to the big machine that takes digital images of your eyes so they can look at your blood vessels on a big screen.  This option in the US is one insurance often doesn't cover fully and costs about $100.  I said, "Hold on, I'm just getting the exam for my license test."  "This is part of that test, sir."  "And this is included in the cost?"  "Yes."  "OK".  Then I was taken in by the "almost" Dr. (student doing his practicals).  He proceeded to take me through all the tests I would normally get at my ophthalmologist except the eye drops for dilation, which I didn't need because I got the optional digital images.  The appointment took longer and was more thorough than what I normally get and I walked out with an updated prescription, my needed forms for my license, and only EUR 15 lighter.  I need to find places with food that deliver the same results...

Not so fast on that car...

It wouldn't be Ireland if something just happened with the government without there being some lines and some money to pass out.  When you see cars driving around Ireland, they all have this rather unsightly set of papers stuck to the passenger side of the front windscreen (like that use of the proper Irish word for windshield??!!!).  The lessons began late yesterday on just what all those things are.

1. NCT disk.  This proves that the car you are driving is road worthy.  It must go through a thorough test every two years to include stuff like headlight alignment (I knew you could do this, but in my 30 years of driving, I don't think I've ever actually had it done or done it myself.)  Now I get to pay someone to do it for me bi-yearly.  I'm sure there's a few other worthwhile checks, but haven't found them yet.  Good thing for us is that we don't have to pay to have this done for 6 months.
2. Insurance disk.  This one shows that you have insurance.  Pretty straight forward UNLESS you are a newbie American WITHOUT any current insurance.  Insurance can only be issued to someone with an Irish driver's licence.  This week we get to pay an optician to give us eye exams and a form to prove we took it.  We get to buy a book to study to take the Driver's Theory Test and then take the test to show we know the rules of the road and pass out a little more EUR.  Oh, then we get to find an insurance company.  AND ONLY THEN can we take all this stuff to the Motor Tax office (with some more money) to get our ....
3. Motor Tax Disk.  This one shows you paid your taxes to drive.  It is based on the CO2 output of your car and can vary from EUR 146 if you choose to drive an electric car that goes from 0-60 in an hour and a half, to EUR 1566 if you drive a Ford F350 king cab with a full bed and dual back tires (not that you could find it here if you wanted one.)  The Rames' had the opportunity to get on the lower end of the scale, but the Renault Megane we drove just seemed like a piece of cr&p.  Rod had the best response when asked what one he thought was better.  He said, "Dad, you can't really compare these two.  This one is not nearly as nice."  Very true, but we decided that rather than drive on the wrong side of the road AND get a manual transmission, we'd just drive on the wrong side of the road.  I think Martha stalling the car a few times on the test drive had something to do with it also.

Our week will be full of these little trips to get this stuff in order and we don't have a chance in hell of getting it all done before we REALLY need the van on Friday.  There's always someone willing to take some EUR from us to get our stuff moved.  We'll let you know how it goes.

Things to check off: Get a vehicle

It's been fun depending on our feet, DART, Dublin Bus, and today the LUAS, but it was getting a bit trying. We planned to eventually get some wheels, so we took the day to find a piece of transportation that would accommodate the 2 adults, 3 kids, and 1 dog arriving in December.  Conveniently, it will help us move into our new place next week.  It is a 2006 Mitsubishi Grandis.  In Ireland, they don't have minivans, they call them MPV's (multi-person vehicles).  Grace is happy that it is actually purple, but Joe doesn't see much more than a funny colored silver.  We're all excited to gain the freedom to make some longer jaunts.  Time to find some insurance and a drivers license before we take delivery!!

Our US phone numbers are gone...

So it was inevitable, but still a strange feeling when our cell phone and home phone numbers went away completely  today.  We're now on Irish cells.

Martha - +353 86 414 0220
Joe  - +353 86 044 4558

Email is still the same.

First Post from Ireland

The Rames family arrived in Ireland on the 24th of August.  We're missing a few of our family with Radley, Tuna, Charlotte and Steeeve not able to join us.  The great comfort we have is that they are all under the great care of people we love and trust.  Radley and Tuna will join us in December and Steeeve will stay with our friends Beth and Sam until we arrive back with his girlfriend.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We plan to acquire an Irish lass of a guinea pig and expat her to the U.S. to live out her life with some type of arranged marriage.  It's the master plan of JJ's and at this point, there's not much questioning related to the plan.  Charlotte will stay with the Moore's for what we can only imagine are her golden years as an 8 year old goldfish must be about 209 in human years.

We've been here for about 10 days, so I'll give you our top 10 list of experiences.

1. Moved into our temporary house in Ballsbridge, which is a close neighborhood to the city center (about 15 minute walk from the heart of Dublin.  Our house is a bit small, but 4 bedroom temporary apartments are tough to come by.  Who needs them anyway as all three have decided to shack up in the small bedroom with 2 single beds.  Rod has chosen the floor.  It's a great location with one great neighbor!  (On our list of  "Must do once in a lifetime" items, check off:  Live right next door to a major sporting complex.)  Yes, our home for the next few weeks is Aviva Stadium.  Home to the Irish National Rugby team and host to many other major events.  So far, we've had an Ireland/England rugby match, an Ireland Rugby open training session, and a Slovakia/Ireland football match.

2. Enrolled the kids in school.  Rod and JJ will be going to (St. Mary's Boys National School of Booterstown) and Grace will be going to Our Lady of Mercy Convent School, also in Booterstown. They are very good schools in a great area that we are going to be living in.

3. Speaking of living in:   Our new digs are going to be in Booterstown.  It will be about 8 minutes walk to Grace's school with another 7 to the boys school.  Here's the address, but we aren't expecting Christmas cards:  7 Hampton Park, St. Helen's Woods, Booterstown, Dublin 14.  It's a semi-detached house (read: duplex) with a nice small garden (read: back yard).  We are VERY excited to move in on the 16th.  Hopefully, by then, we will have the furniture on the way as it is unfurnished and we didn't bring any furniture.  Yes, Virginia, there is an IKEA in Dublin and we found it TODAY!!!  Pictures of the house to come.

4. Were officially accepted into the country by completing the mandatory tests required of all prospective immigrants to ANY country:  standing/sitting in queues (read:  lines), getting numbers, filling out paperwork (BLOCK LETTERS IN IRELAND), and paying money.  We were able to do all these to such a level they accepted us.

5. Did the requisite tourist stops at such Dublin landmarks as the Guinness Brewery, Trinity College (yes, Martha did get to see the Book of Kells and lecture the family on them), Dublin Castle, St. Stephen's Green (read:  Great big garden - see above), and Grafton Street.  Mind you this was all done on foot.  Martha's pedometer read somewhere about 7 miles.  Joe's repeated comment that day:  "Why would you want to ride a bus when it's so nice out and everything is so close?"

6. Mastered the public transportation system.  OK, mastered might be a strong term, but we have managed to log many trips on the DART (read: rail system for commuters) and Dublin Bus (JJ and Grace can check of their "Must do once in a lifetime" item marked:  Ride a double decker bus)

7. Hosted our first visitors from Duvall WA.  Vijay and Bairavi Raghavan along with their two kids Vaibhav and Teju  vacationed in Ireland and stopped by to share dinner .  It had been a long time since we were able to meet up with them in Redmond, so it was ironic that we both had to come to Ireland to make it happen.  It was a great time and the kids picked right back up from their previous encounters while Mom's and Dad's enjoyed dinner at an Indian / Irish fusion pub.  (Read:  curried mashed potatoes - No not really.  They just had dishes from both countries.)




8. Bought all our books and uniforms for schools and contemplated filing for financial aid.  Yes, uniforms are the rule here.  Jumpers (read:  sweaters), shirts, ties, wool pants, and black dress shoes.  Pleated skirts, peter pan collar shirt, black socks/tights, and navy mary janes.  They look sharp!!  The book ritual was a new one for us as we had to acquire them like college and THEN had to cover them with adhesive contact paper to protect them.  After 30+ books, we're no longer new to this ritual and will not be disappointed AT ALL if they move to eBooks.

9.  Had our first days of school.  Riding the train to school was a new experience and by the second day, Martha had figured out the schedule so we didn't have to get to school 30 minutes early.

10.  Tested the Guinness consistency at a number of locations, including the Guinness brewery.  And for all that know Martha, it didn't improve greatly from her perspective by drinking it closer to the source.  Joe on the other hand is of the opinion that Guinness is better when consumed in Dublin.  Please remember that as you plan your next European vacation destination.  We're waiting with a cool one.

More to come.