Status

Some things have been balling up and that gives me enough of a reason for another posting.

While the lack of American tourists is leaving me idle for the summer, I have been "inventing" things to stay busy. Staying busy is still the best excuse to get up in the morning. It's been a process to get through. Initially I felt restless and went about it aimlessly. Sending longing looks down the empty parking lot at the Roosevelt Park wasn't very satisfying neither in the short nor the long run. So I started looking at what kind of projects would be on my neighbour's agendas. First I painted a rail along a deck for a retired military lady. When that was done I discovered that the front entry deck at another neighbour's place had rotted out and broken down. That sure made my handyman's brain kick in and I offered to build a new deck for the guy. He is 83yrs. and has lost his wife of 50 years marriage last fall. And he is not the handyman-type of guy, so can need some help.

The plan developed to build the new deck with treated lumber, as one had the desire to make it last a wee bit longer than the previous one, build with regular lumber.

But I quickly ran into a problem. The building supply market, which happens to be the only one from Canada to deliver to this remote paradise, was out of treated materials. SOLD OUT was the message I got. So I had to call the other outfit in town. After a lengthy phone consultation they happened to "find" just enough for my order. So holding this for my project became the task of the day, and so I was quick to whip out my credit card to pay, and promised to pick up the load the next day. Now they say a guy is not a guy without a pickup truck, so, yes, I have one and was out the next morning to make the 55mile run to town. But before I could start the trip, I got a phone call from someone on the US side talking about bringing a boat across the bay to get it processed for import to Canada. And they had an appointment at 9am with Canada Customs, at my harbour. I call it "my harbour" as I happen to be in charge for it. That phone call happened while I was still deep in the woods walking with Dixie. So I had to turn around my dog and get myself into the harbour to make sure there would be space enough for a 58ft motor yacht. I had to chase away a skiff, and by then I could see a motor boat coming from Eastport, ME.  It was the yacht, alright, and minutes later I had her alongside the dock. Turned out it was a brand new 2.5Mill Dollar thingy. 
A Canadian family, famous for their super market chain, is the owner.
Customs came to the wharf shortly after for processing the paperwork for the boat. The whole visit was over one hour later, and I could finally go to town.

With 15% sales tax the total tax charged is gonna be $375,000. 

The deck was built the next day and since we had a few boards left over, I built a small bench for my neighbour.

And while I am trying to find some sense in not being able to do what I love most, which is talking about our paradise here, some of our American summer residents are getting a wee bit antsy, for not to say angry with Canada having closed the border. Some are sitting right south of the bridge starting to pull out tricks to get through the border. Some have even started to call our politicians to start making changes. While we do understand their eagerness to get to their summer homes, we also think that it is way too early and that a re-opening of the border at this point would jeopardize the effort put down earlier to keep the virus from entering this country as much as possible.
The U.S. is topping 60.000 Covid cases pr. day, and anyone with a brain must see that we don't need to partake in this Covid party which is currently going on south of the border. 

So how about blaming Trump for this mess, rather than our PM Trudeau?