Reese Kaplan -- Missing Out on Live Baseball Recently

So I take a few weeks away from the ups and downs of the New York Mets and things progress as to be expected.  The team roster is hemorrhaging injuries (the latest one being the somewhat surprising Travis Jankowski out for 2 months or so with a fractured finger).  Edwin Diaz after looking unhittable for most of the season recently had a 2019 Edwin Diaz outing.  Jeff McNeil is still hitting.  Mark Canha has cooled somewhat but still respectable.  J.D. Davis had a 4-hit outing.  Francisco Lindor seemed to have shaken off that slump thing.  As May draws to a close in this late starting season Pete Alonso already has 45 RBIs.  Maybe I should go away more often.

Some of you may be aware already that next month I'm moving to Malaysia to begin early retirement from the daytime working but I'm going to try in earnest to keep up with what's going on with the Mets.  Their nighttime games coincide with my breakfast time and I've already confirmed the ability to run my MLB.TV broadcasts in Asia.  As long as that capability continues then there's no reason I can't continue to contribute here regularly (though my upcoming June 7th one-way departure for Malaysia again suggests another series of less time-critical pieces is forthcoming until I'm actually settled into the new home and have Internet service installed).  

Being mostly away from baseball for most of the month of May was both frustrating and freeing as I needed to focus on finding a new home and learning my way around the city I will soon call home.  There were ample locations around for playing soccer (football by most non-American parlance), velodromes for cycling competitions, natatoriums for swimming, and assorted tennis courts for folks who like to play in the rain (or 100% humidity).  Yes, moving to a new country will be a bit of an adjustment but I also found familiarity with chain store names we all know from the USA in the malls and around the city.  For the most part, however, it's going to be different as there is no all-purpose store that I saw equivalent to Walmart or Target.

Last night while watching an old Barbara Stanwyck movie on TCM I got a WhatsApp message from the renting realtor in Malaysia providing me with the Tenancy Agreement (lease) for the condo we selected out there.  It came sooner than expected and needed a few minor changes but it underscored that this international relocation has become reality. A truck had already been rented for June 4th to spend the day dropping off boxes of personal belongings to be shipped, donating the sparse remaining contents of the house to charity, delivering some consignment items to a friend to sell on our behalf and a trip to the dump for whatever doesn't fit into the other categories.  With the real estate closing on June 6th and the flights back to Malaysia the very next day suggests we'll be living either like squatters inside our soon-to-be ex home or we may just break down and fork over money for a hotel for a few nights. 

Vehicular considerations are upcoming as well.  I got notified that the dealer with whom I'd left my Honda NM4 motorcycle found a buyer on Thursday, so Friday morning I brought the title to them to complete the transaction.  The one remaining four-wheel vehicle needs to be sold on Monday, June 6th probably to the same dealership who took the keys to my 485 HP Dodge Challenger from my white knuckled grip a few months ago.  They provided a same-day check for the purchase, so that works within our time constraint.

Upon arriving in Malaysia we need to reverse that process.  We are not shipping any vehicles there and the location of the new condo we're renting is on the outskirts of town.  Not having a way around means we will be making Grab (local equivalent of Uber) very rich.  We obtained international driver's licenses yesterday so we're at least able to rent a vehicle until we plunk down money to buy one.  The Malaysian vehicle manufacturers are bargain priced compared to the USA (as is the half-price cost of fuel).  The timetable to get a car may accelerate as a result of both of these attributes, though learning to steer on the right side of the vehicle and driving on the left side will be a bit of an adjustment to the former British colony's style.  I already threatened my wife with the acquisition of a motorcycle, scooter, e-bike or other two-wheeled motorized vehicle so we have a means of transportation for one of us until a car enters the mix.

And so the new adventure begins shortly...