Wednesday night. Today was interesting: I spent the first half of the day talking to my contracted lawyers about my permanent residence application: apparently, one reason it’s taken them so long to prepare it is my ~16 addresses over the past 10 years. Heh. However, they did make several mistakes that I had to identify and call out. With luck, the whole thing will get submitted by the end of the week.

I spent the second half of the day at the commercial mine – the Quadeville Beryl Pit. For just $10 CAD, you get secret directions to an unmarked mine: after parking and then walking for about five minutes, you can pick all the fluorite, quartz, and amazonite your little heart desires! (Other minerals are also there, but not as evident.) It’s a bit on the nose that I, an Amazon employee, collected a bunch of amazonite. Might make a ring out of it… Heh. The actual ground floor of the mine had very high radiation readings (yay Geiger counter!), so I skedaddled the hell out of there. Still found some nice shiny rocks, though.

While I was out there, finally using the shovel I’d bought before my vacation, I overheard some locals: looks like the CN dump pile near Bancroft is a real thing, and you really can find some gems that glow under the UV light. The plan for tomorrow is to explore that town, hang out past sunset, and find some of those gems for myself. Alas, the famous mineral museum is shut down due to covid. Ditto for the annual gem convention, the Gemboree, which takes place here. On the upside, my AirBnB host told me about a local legend – the woman who makes the best donuts in the world. I’ll be driving by the Bancroft farmer’s market on Saturday morning, and will be able to buy some of her famous donuts then. I’m more than a little curious about the hype.

The host also uncorked some of the cider he’d made earlier this year: it’s sour and tastes pretty good, and it also seems to have way higher alcohol content than the usual stuff you’d find on sale. Life is good.

In covid news: congressman Louie Gohmert has tested positive for covid after deliberately avoiding masks or any other safety measures. He announced the news to his staffers in person – once again, without wearing a mask. It’s unclear how many people he’s managed to infect thus far… Like the saying goes, “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” I have no sympathy for militant stupidity of this sort. I only wonder why the people of Texas kept re-electing someone like him. Is it the plain old “jocks vs nerds” issue where no one wants to vote for a boring brainiac? No hope for human race… (Or at least not the US part of it.)