December 2020

 A lot of us have been saying that 2020 has been a hellish year, and I'm betting "Lucky" Boardman would agree with you. He's the guy that owns that boat that is sunk and awash at the Indian Joe pond access on Route 2. I had a note from Jamie Stewart, secretary of JPA a day or so ago and here's what he told me: 

    Several people have inquired about the boat sunk near/on shore at the waterfront of Injun Joe's cabins.  The owner of the boat is Lucky Boardman.  I know that Joe Hebert called him before he left and I talked with Lucky today and he is working on a solution to get it out of the water.  He brought in an excavator to try to lift it onto the trailer parked on land but the excavator was too small.  Lucky said he and Tom Lauzon are locating a larger excavator/crane to lift it out of the water.

   

I'm guessing Lucky feels like his name has let him down right about now. I gave Jamie a couple of suggestions of professionals who can get the boat out - but I would caution Lucky and Tom Lauzon to act sooner rather than later as the temperature is going to drop this week to near zero, starting a downward spiral on Monday and Tuesday night could be zero or below here at Joe's Pond. It is, after all, mid-December. 

On the bright side, here is a cheerful photo of the Cassani home, all decked out with
Louie's cheery greeting to Ray Rouleau across the pond. Louie and Mary Anne are on Old Homestead and Ray and Cyndi are on West Shore Road - just about opposite. Great way to social distance in these crazy times.

 

I expect there will be a lot more lights showing around the pond this winter as some folks have decided to ride out the pandemic here in Vermont rather than taking chances traveling to warmer climates. It's a difficult choice to make, I'm sure. For those of us who normally stay here in the north country, it seems like a no-brainer; but some people really suffer in the cold, dreary winter months and have a difficult time dealing with the solitary life style our severe cold weather requires. There certainly isn't much going on here for social gatherings - and if the pandemic deepens over the winter months, as it is expected to, it will be even more trying. Some of the summer homes here really aren't equipped for cold weather living, and that can be a problem. Nobody wants to experience frozen water pipes and exorbitant fuel costs - so it's a really hard decision. Others welcome the challenges and will find ways to entertain themselves. Thank goodness for Zoom!

 

That's about it from here. We've had a spring-like day with only a short glimpse of sunshine but very warm (in the 40s) temperatures. That will begin to change tonight and by Tuesday we'll be back in more normal mid-December weather. We had rain overnight and have lost a lot of our snow cover, but I'm sure we'll make that up soon. There is no more rain in the forecast, and that's really good news - no quick-freeze on highways. In fact, we may see the sun on Tuesday and again of Friday and Saturday, for brief periods. However, the whole week is going to be a lot colder, with nights in the single digits. I expect the pond will freeze over very soon now and it looks like we'll have more snow and temperatures that will assure a white Christmas - and won't that be nice!