It certainly is great to be back in Florida this winter after a very long Covid-influenced nineteen month absence. My wife and I are Canadians which caused us to scamper home early in March 2020 before additional border crossing inconveniences were imposed. We drove twenty-two hours straight through but, sadly, we arrived a mere two hours after a two week quarantine requirement was imposed. Luckily we were able to hunker down at home for that period and, like so many others, survived by adopting various home delivery options. You may recall that back then the ubiquitous “supply chain” phrase had not yet overtaken our vocabulary, but “hoarding” was certainly the order of the day. A succession of ill conceived government mandates on both sides of the border, and some personal commitments, kept us in the north last winter. 

Imagine our trepidation when we finally made it back to Burnt Store Marina this fall and opened the door to our home. What would we find? I must confess that images of dead bugs and off color surfaces had danced through my thoughts. Fortunately, the home survived very well, but not without generating a few surprises and the need for lots of elbow grease applied to the pavers and pool cage.

If there is one word which can best sum up the type of challenges we faced upon our return it would be “batteries”. Smoke alarm batteries, garage key pad batteries, driveway solar light batteries, golf cart batteries, boat batteries and many more. In fairness, I knew that the boat and golf cart batteries were already on overtime, so was not really surprised that they did not survive in top condition. I had removed the batteries from most of the electronic gadgets in the house which at least saved them from meltdown. The ink in our inkjet printer and many of our pens also seemed to have dried up.

We got a big surprise when we tried to use our US cell phones. It had not occurred to us that these minute-purchase phones expired if no additional minutes were acquired within 12 months. By the time we got back and tried to reload them the phone company had reassigned our numbers to new subscribers. Yet another trip up Burnt Store Road looking for new phones, telephone numbers and plans was required. If you had our old Florida telephone numbers, now would be a good time to delete them! Amazingly, the home WiFi and Internet worked on the first try thanks to a request for a return to normal service the month before arrival. This is the first time in many years a service call was not required, usually due to cut wires (the phone and cable companies only bury them a few inches below the surface). Talking about cut wires, we did have a couple of emergency irrigation system repairs over the last year and a half due to a combination of strangler roots and over-zealous yard care workers. The early morning calls from one of our neighbors usually began – you have a new pond in your yard.

Diane thought this next item might be a bit too graphic for our more sensitive readers but I am far too proud of my limited handyman feats to not mention it. It turns out that after two successive replacements of our garbage disposal unit over the last eight years I am becoming quite adept at the task. I had tentatively titled the caption of the attached photo “Autopsy of a Garburator” but MS Word spell check does not seem to like that word, which I’ve since learned may be another of the uniquely Canadian words which keep our editors on their toes. No organic material found but lots of rusted metal.

One of the biggest challenges of this return to paradise has been trying to remember where everything in the house is stashed. Perhaps because we sold a home, rented interim accommodation for seven months and built a new home since last visiting BSM, we might be excused for this, or maybe we are just nineteen months older and more muddled. The proliferation of TV and sound system remote controls also seemed to require some remedial learning.

It has been wonderful driving around BSM and experiencing the renewal of both the marina and the golf course – what a positive transformation. I was also impressed with the progress Charlotte County has made on their Burnt Store Road expansion projects – Lee County, not so much! All of the palm trees which we have planted on our property have also thrived in our absence, as have Diane’s orchids and bromeliads. Time now, however, for some serious pruning, or perhaps I should say hacking. Each year upon my return I find a few frogs living under the side window fabric hurricane screens when I remove them. This year each screen had a colony of them.

I’ve heard a few horror stories from folks returning to much less pleasant situations than us, usually precipitated by broken down air conditioning units. For us our extended absence has just helped us fully appreciate how wonderful a community and environment we have within Burnt Store Marina.

This article was published in the January 2022 issue of the Burnt Store Marina Beacon.