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Medical tourism and paying in cash wherever is convenient/inexpensive might also be an option to consider - there are a lot of places that will be cheaper than Europe.

I don't know what the interest or accessibility of edaravone (Radicava) treatment might be for your dad, but I'd be happy to share my experience with you by email if that is useful - my address is on my HN user page.

From the current research, the best conclusion I've been able to arrive at is we still don't really understand ALS. My opinion is that there may be several distinct motor neuron diseases, each with accompanying cause[s], currently grouped together in what we call ALS. There are notable differences in early vs. later onset ALS, slow vs. rapid disease progression, initial primary symptoms, genetic links vs environmental factors, etc. (I'm not a doctor or professional academic in the field, but I've studied ALS research extensively - a relative was diagnosed and died from it, suddenly, in their early 60s.)

Stephen Hawking is definitely inspiring, with a few unique points - he had an early onset of the disease, slow disease progression, and extensive resources/access to the most advanced care. With mechanical ventilation, caregivers, sheer will, some luck (basically, not contracting a fatal case of pneumonia), tracheotomy and feeding tube, etc - life expectancy with ALS can certainly be extended far beyond what was once thought possible though.

My experience with Lutron's smart switches and blinds has been great. For any new home construction, I would wholeheartedly recommend adding a lot more LED lights than any builder would normally put in, wiring in smart+motorized blinds, and using smart dimmer light switches. The way to avoid fussiness from smart home devices is to choose ones that are controllable in both the classic ways, like with a switch on the wall and/or remote control - and also through an app or by voice with your preferred device from Amazon, Apple, or Google.

With Lutron, beyond the things you mentioned, two more of my unexpectedly favorite features have been:

1) being able to add additional wall switches anywhere and program them to control any set of lights, without any extra electrical wiring (for 3-way or 4-way switches, or controlling multiple lighting circuits with one switch)

2) range-based programming (e.g. automatically turning on lights for rooms from the garage to kitchen when you're arriving home)

Other devices like smart locks, smart garage doors, water leak alarm sensors, and AV equipment have all been useful and generally worked well for me. Some of them have been slightly fussy, but not as a general rule and certainly not to an "unbearable" extent. Overall, they really do make things significantly better, at a surprisingly low cost compared to the rest of home construction.

Kenji and Serious Eats' work on cooking meat and roasts has transformational. When time allows, sous vide with a reverse sear is my current favorite/unbeatable technique for perfect results without any extra work or active time beyond the initial water bath setup.

Not to lightly throw around the phrase "life changing", because I honestly don't eat that many grilled cheese sandwiches where the difference substantially changes my life, but using mayonnaise instead of butter is definitely a revelation. I think I learned that from another source before Kenji, but I know Kenji has highlighted that tip at various points and it's well worth repeating.

If you're interested in baking, I imagine you already know of Claire Saffitz - but if not, she was previously at Bon Appétit and now has a great YouTube channel on desserts/baking that your description of things like "tacky" vs "sticky" etc being more directly/usefully explained in a video context.

And yes, I 100% agree that Kenji has been an amazing culinary content creator, researcher, and resource for years. Look at his recipes and insights on turkey/prime rib/etc for holiday meals, noodles, cookies, and more as a few outstanding examples. He reminds me a lot of many of the best things about Alton Brown and Jacques Pépin - a scientifically/analytically fussy approach to cooking and baking, but in the right ways - not in the "fussiness without usefulness" (or without useful explanation, at least) route that many chefs take.

I missed getting into Pokemon by a couple years, since it wasn't out until 1998. I was already playing MTG and Star Wars: CCG for a while by then, and didn't continue playing after ~2000. I similarly expected SW:CCG cards to grow in value more than MTG, especially with the prequels - but I think the production runs were significantly greater from the beginning and people had a long association with Star Wars figurines/toys/cards as collectibles being valuable before that. One interesting thing for SW:CCG is that the newer print runs can often now be more valuable than the older ones for SW:CCG, since each run saw fewer cards printed as the popularity dwindled.

Before the prequels, it was relatively easy to meet many of the Star Wars actors. I met Peter Mayhew and had him sign my Star Wars: CCG Chewbacca card at a comic convention. A lot of people seem to comment on what a nice person he was to meet, and I completely agree. David Prowse was less obviously likeable, but was also interesting to meet.

English is the most spoken second language in Spain, with ~35% of the population being able to speak it. Portugal is slightly worse at 27%, along with Ukraine (18%), Romania (31%), and Italy (34%). France (39%), Croatia (49%), Estonia (50%), Slovenia (59%), and Greece (51%) are all a bit higher. And then the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland are all between 60-70%+.

And although I wouldn't worry too much about language too much if your focus is primarily on work, Spanish is perhaps the easiest language to learn as an English speaker. You can achieve professional level fluency in 600 hours of study. Certainly with 80-100 hours of concentrated study and continued practice after that you can learn more than enough to get by in daily life.

Two big advantages with learning Spanish: 1) pronunciation is easy to learn and is the same for both written and spoken Spanish; 2) there are lots of cognates, so if your English vocabulary is good then you already know lots of Spanish words.

Spain is great, but for the purposes of picking a country for working remotely and having a longer runway, I would argue heavily for Mexico over Spain if you're picking a Spanish speaking country. The overall cost of living is low, internet access can be great depending on the area, you'll be on a similar timezone as the US, and services (cooking, laundry, babysitting, etc) are very inexpensive - leaving you with much more time to work (or to use your downtime more effectively than running errands/etc).