Wed - 15 Feb/17

Cooler, windier and completely cloudy today. Only 70 F temps today.

Wally, the OMS manager, arrived at the motorhome door promptly at 8:30 a.m. February is when present residents renew/reserve their lot for next year. It starts with the 6 month rentals. Today is the
4-5 month renters and next week the 3 month reservations are taken. Folks line up hours before the office opens to get the lot they want. Present renters with 3 month or longer terms have first "Dibs" on their lot. The 6 month renters can pick any unreserved lot and  "Bump" anyone with a lesser term length.

Today, Wally was here to check if we wanted to reserve for 6 months - otherwise we would be bumped from reserving this lot for next year. Over the past week several people have stopped in front of our lot and took notes. Today we got "Bumped" from our site (for next year) by someone who signed up for a longer term. We will be able to reserve for a 3 month term starting at 8:30 a.m. next Monday. We can pick up a list later this week of the available lots. We will make a decision at that time.

We had first chance at this lot if we would reserve for a 6 month term; however that is not possible for us. It is not Immigration; but the IRS that causes the problem. There is no problem staying up to 183 days in the USA; however the IRS calculates the days differently than immigration for taxation purposes. The total days for this year are (naturally) all the days you are in the country during the calendar year. Then the IRS math changes. The day totals for the present year also include 1/3 of the days you were in the country the previous year plus 1/6 of the days the year before that. This effectively totals around 120 days. By their formula the IRS can charge Income Tax on your income as if you are an American resident. (You can do paperwork to get around this; but is it worth the hassle?)

This law has not been actively enforced in the past; however new mechanisms are in place to make it possible. It takes 3 years for it to be applicable. In the past it was logistically quite difficult to calculate; but now Canada and the U.S. share computer entrance and exit records. Each border crossing counts as 1 day - even if you are just in the USA for a few minutes on that day. Both countries can now calculate how many days an individual was in that country.

Enforcing this regulation would be "Economical Suicide" as far as the "Snowbird States" are concerned. In the "Prime Months" (J/F/M) 20-30% of the tourists are from Canada. By doing so these states would lose a great deal of income if Canadians went to other countries.

Unfortunately, nobody knows what Trump will do in the future. This includes his folks. (He doesn't even know - grin). One minute his "Talking Heads" give you the "Absolute" information and an hour later the "Gospel Truth" has totally changed.

I'm not going to take the chance on Trump or on having to pay taxes to the IRS on our Canadian income; otherwise I would have locked in our current lot by taking a 6 month rental.

Wally's visit delayed our arrival at the Craft Room. We did not get there until 9 a.m. After carrying Charlotte's sewing machine in to the table she usually uses I went to The Lodge with the computer and proceeded to do "Internet" stuff.

I checked our Mailbox and had a "You've Got Mail" card. I then went to the office and picked up the package. It was my Car Squeegee.

I made Spanish Rice for dinner. Charlotte worked on knitting this afternoon while I continued working on my Computer Soduko Program.

The weather radio went off as did my iPhone. It was an advisory for a thunderstorm. The winds and rain were quite strong; however it moved through quickly. The main result was it became cooler.

We both used the "Rain on the Roof" as the catalyst for an afternoon nap.

Kat sent a few pictures of "The Kids". Naturally, we miss them!

We both woke up in time for Jeopardy and the usual TV evening.

That's it for today folks!