My parents have a cottage in an area that has very few residents during winter months (under 8,000 spread over a huge area) bit increases to huge numbers (about 100,000) between Victoria Day and Labour Day (late May to early September). The local residents are pleading with people not to come to their cottages early to self-isolate, because their infrastructure can’t handle it. In the summer, they hire on extra staff at grocery stores, hospitals, etc, to meet the needs of the cottagers. None of those things are in place. There are entire stores and services that don’t open until mid-May. It’s very worrisome for the local residents.

I hadn't seen that, Quirt. Thanks for posting it.

We know John well. He and his wife Peg own a lovely store called the Blue Dolphin House that we shopped at often. Check out their website; they have some really nice stuff. Some of my hostas are planted on the shop grounds; I schlepped them up there and gave them to them.

edit: Mr wtg just read the article and saw one of my giant hostas behind John in the photo in the NYT article).

Thankfully, the sale of our Door County vacation home (in Liberty Grove) closed on February 21st; it had been up for sale since July of last year. And we hadn't reinvested the proceeds before the market tanked.

We cannot believe how lucky we were on multiple fronts.

There’s an article I read yesterday ... in Norway, they are requiring people to stay away from their second homes, and instituting fines if they don’t. Same infrastructure concerns Dol mentioned.

I also saw something that said one Cape Cod island ... either Nantucket or the Vineyard ... has only one ventilator.

A good friend of my daughter's has moved from Manhattan to her family's cabin in Maine. Smart move for her.

quote:

the sale of our Door County vacation home (in Liberty Grove) closed on February 21st

Good for you!

Mr. SK and I were just talking the other day about how glad we are that we bought house *last* year, not this year! We closed a year ago this month, and moved in at the end of May 2019. If we had been dealing with all of that in the middle of corona, well I don't want to think about what nightmare it would have been, and all the uncertainty!

As it is, we count our blessings every day that we can spend the era of social distancing in this house as opposed to other options.