Why did the Canadians have to go back? Also, we visited a friend in Ft Meyers who had a condo on a golf course with a wildlife sanctuary across the road. We saw alligators out her front and back window.
She sold it and moved back to the Buffalo area. Even after 12 years, she missed her friends, going to Bills games and good pizza.
Most are on strict time limits for visa, income taxes and provincial health insurance eligibility. It is almost always less than 6 months. We have many Canadian friends and neighbors here (from different provinces all over Canada), many own condos here, many are members of our golf course, and they can’t stay as long as they’d like to. Many left even earlier this year out of fear the airlines would cancel flights because of the virus.
That would be fun to see, but we just don’t get gators here so close to the Gulf. About once or twice a year on the news there are reports of gators in Sarasota or Manatee Counties spotted or captured, but it’s always east of us. We have had coyotes on the golf course, though.
Wow, we have to be here to see most friends and relatives. Most have already moved here and the others are working on it. Fortunately for us, we don’t watch sports, but we do play sports, and we don’t eat restaurant food, fast food, or junk food. We go back north, fewer days each year, but there is little we miss and that’s considering our home is on the shore of a beautiful, tranquil lake there and we belong to a local golf course.
We are in no hurry to go back where there are government restrictions because of the virus thing.
We are outside and active nearly every day of the year and you’d never really know there’s a virus situation anywhere. Everybody we know, here and there, considers this to be Paradise.
CSA
To each his own, my son and his wife love Florida, me, well it is nice to visit for a week or so. One of my grandchildren has already moved back here, he job was mostly outside and she could not take the heat. Isn’t Ft Meyers right on the gulf coast?
I know that the Buffalo area has a terrible national reputation but, a friend of mine who was a VP of Dunlop tire introduced me to an executive recruiter many years ago and that recruiter told me that the second hardest thin he did was persuading someone to move to Buffalo. I asked what was harder than that and he said getting them to leave.
I am free here in Nevada, I go to work or the grocery store when necessary. It will be 90 degrees tomorrow but 76 degrees on Tuesday, so I plan to drive my 1973 Plymouth while it is cool.
It didn’t take me 65 years to find a warm place to ride a bicycle.
I do have a gold detector but have not have had the time or desire to set out into the mountains to use it.
There have been nine sightings of Burmese pythons in Manatee County. It’s more a problem for pets and small children than adults. Pythons are ambush predators and probably would hunt at night. Good news: they eat those rats you don’t think you have. Bad news: the bite is pretty severe and because of the way their teeth are arranged, it’s hard to get them off once they bite. Most people should be concerned about constriction since the usual six to ten foot variety can kill you. It’s a good thing your are a scratch golfer. Chasing balls into the woods could be dangerous. Probably not, especially at the course you live on, but it’s worth being informed. Hey, it’s probably more likely you will contact Covid-19 than meet a Burmese Python any time soon.
That may well be true, but let us not forget about the disease threat from those Armadillos!
Fun Fact: Armadillos are the only animals capable of transmitting Leprosy to humans, and it has been documented multiple times.
While we’re on the subject, I have this rash between my thighs and my…?
Oh wait!
What the hell was I thinking?
This is Car Talk!
Tester
This thread drift reminds me of Car Talk’s most famous “Chicken Thread”.
Anyway, after one day no sign of the rodents returning.
I know from experience they don’t procrastinate when they want something.
They re-dig burrows overnight.
I’ll do an update in a week or so.
For the newer folks:
The Car Talk forum started out as “Cafe Dartre” in the late '90s, and someone (Cat Lady) was nice enough to archive some of it here.
I try to remember to check the engine bay of my car every week for any return of mice. I keep ground cinnamon liberally sprinkled there and around any spots even remotely possible for mice to get in the garage.
The sticky traps also finally caught one mouse. Haven’t seen any new mouse droppings since. And the cats have lost interest in the garage. 
What kind of 73 Plymouth?
1973 Duster 340. I also have a 1970 Plymouth Fury III but that needs restoration.
Nice. I’m not a big Chrysler fan but I do love all the 70 Mopars. When I was a kid our neighbor had a 70 Three Hundred. One of the most beautiful cars ever. That Fury is a great car too.
In the early 1990’s a friend spotted a 1970 Three Hundred convertible in a mobile home park, he talked the original owner into selling the car for $2000. Three months later he sold the car, he told me that his wife would not feel safe driving this car to work, she might be attacked though the canvas top.
Wife? Why would anyone’s wife be driving a vehicle like this? An oversized car with a 440 engine? They bought a Plymouth Sundance.
I find that 98% of the people that are snooping for old cars are not sincere about owning them, Counting Cars?
Funny, but not funny, worried about being attacked through the canvas top. The car my neighbor had was red, black vinyl top and interior, Appliance spoke wheels, beautiful car with not a scratch on it. One night he was coming home from bowling league in a not so great part of town. Sitting at a stop light the cars in front and behind boxed him in, one guy put a gun in his face and took his car. Never saw it again.
Maybe your friend’s wife was right?
There had to be a better way to get home. That’s just asking for trouble. I guess he’s OK, and that’s what counts.
Really these are not unusual stories. I heard similar stories for guys having to drive through parts of Minneapolis back in my youth and don’t think it has gotten any better. Especially before freeways so going through neighborhoods was required. People especially that were on the night shift so driving through in the wee hours. Everyone had doors locked and actually most kept some type of weapon under the seat. One family friend related going through a red light with a guy holding onto his door handle with the doors luckily locked. I think he drove a 56 Ford at the time or similar with the door handles. It was just something everyone kept in mind.
This neighbor had nothing but trouble with cars his whole life. I grew up watching all the car troubles he had. He had a 68 Chrysler Town and Country wagon that he wrecked and his arm was never the same. He then got a 70 wagon that someone sideswiped in the street in front of our house. Then the 70 Three Hundred that he was relieved of at gunpoint. Replaced that with a 71 New Yorker, one night he dropped a wrench across the battery and it blew up in his face, we called the paramedics and his skin never fully healed. By the time he retired he was pretty banged up.
As a 10 year old I would wait after school for him to come home and he would work on his 53 Studebaker Commander. He thought he had the overdrive fixed and was running up and down the street when the throttle stuck wide open and overrevved the engine. After that it was parked in the driveway with a sign “parts for sale”.
As @Tester said many years ago: “Sir, put the tools down before you hurt someone”.
My youngest sons first car was a 70 Valiant 318 with 3 on the tree. It was surprisingly quick and only 4 years younger than he was.