Thoughts On A Sunday

We’ve seen a preview of summer with nice sunny weather with temps in the 70’s, light winds, and the wide open lake. Very few boats have been venturing out on the lakes, and those that have have been mostly fishing boats, trailered in and launched by their owners for the day. I have seen only a handful of boats at their slips in the marinas and coves here in my town, but that will be changing with every day as the boatyards, marinas, and residents launch their boats and get them to their summer berths.

About the only dark cloud making itself known is the cost of gasoline, up about $1/gallon from a year ago. (Gee, I wonder why that might be?)

Despite the higher gas prices, the enthusiasm for the upcoming boating season here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire is quite high, with the demand for new boats outstripping supply.

Despite the age of the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout (28 years), it is still quite serviceable and I expect to get quite a few more years out of it. (I would like to get a new boat at some point, but I have other priorities for my money for the time being.) With regular maintenance I should be able to keep it in running shape for as long as necessary, something that, for the time being, is a lot cheaper than buying a new boat. But some day...

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Are we seeing yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences coming to bite President *’s administration in the butt? Of course. This isn’t the first such instance nor will it be the last. This latest iteration?

His threat to order the banning of a whole host of ‘scary’ guns has driven the sales of AR’s, ammunition, and “ghost” guns to unbelievable levels.

Then again, SloJo has already stated he believes the Constitutional restrictions on government can be ignored because none of them are absolute. It seems he (or WRBA) thinks the Second Amendment can be ignored despite the phrase “Shall not be infringed” being part and parcel of the Amendment. In effect, Biden’s proposed gun policies will treat everyone as a criminal, except for the real criminals, of course.

Once he disposes of the Second Amendment the focus will shift to the First.

They are about to find out the hard way that a majority of the American people won’t stand still for that.

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At least our governor has gotten one thing right: He says New Hampshire will not have so-called “vaccine passports”.

Requiring citizens to have a government-issued vaccine passport to travel and to attend public events would needlessly stir more controversy over the risk of contracting COVID-19, Gov. Chris Sununu said Tuesday.

“Washington is so removed from what is happening on the ground. We shouldn’t be mandating anything. These vaccine passports, creating the haves and the have-nots, you are just going to create a lot of problems and anxiety,” Sununu said.

Sununu said the passport runs counter to New Hampshire’s tradition of treating vaccines as voluntary.

“I am very hesitant about any of that. At the end of the day, it is an individual choice,” Sununu said.

Of course the Left will need to silence the Governor because he is refusing to follow the narrative, refusing to create or follow a system that will ask “Papiere, bitte!”

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A quote from Pete Buttigieg: “Freeways were built on a “racist” system, and built at the expense of communities of color.”

So now even highways are racist? What’s next? Water mains and sewers? Electricity?

If everything is racist, then nothing is racist.

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One of my friends was up visiting today and on his way back home he called me on the phone to share a sign he saw outside a business:

We warned you about Joe Biden, but did you listen?

No. No they did not.

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One thing that has become a concern, at least here in New Hampshire (but also seen in other places), is the spreading phenomenon of short-term rentals, particularly those booked by way of services like AirBnB, VRBO, and other similar operations. There has been a growing problem with such short-term rentals, both here and in other towns, one of them being poor behavior by those renting the short-term rentals. None of those problems are the fault of the rental servcies. Some of the problems are resolved by the owners of the short-term rental properties, particularly those who also reside in or nearby them. (Some owners only offer to rent their properties during certain time periods such as for a couple of weeks when they are away on their own vacations.)

A more recent phenomenon has been properties bought for the sole purpose of using them as short-term rentals. That has been seen here on an increasing basis. What’s even more disturbing is corporations – LLCs – buying up such properties, sometimes paying well above the market value for ‘vacation’ homes, then listing them via the aforementioned services. This has certainly skewed the housing market, making homes that would have been occupied by owners, i.e. families, unavailable, particularly since some corporations have been paying well above market value to acquire them.

The problem we’re seeing with this? If there are issues regarding the property, who do the parties concerned contact? Some anonymous LLC in Boston or New York whose only concern is that they keep making money back from their investment and not quality of life issues caused by those renting their properties? Will it be a property management company who will handle it? One of the members of the LLC? A law firm representing the owners? Who does a municipality contact of there are immediate problems...or chronic problems that constantly plague neighbors, and by extension, the town?

We haven’t figured out the answer to that question...yet.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer has been been giving us sneak previews, summerfolk have been showing up to get their vacation homes ready, and where everyone is anticipating the summer restaurants reopening in a few weeks.