New Math is ….. interesting?

Let me start by saying I know much of the continent is dealing with unreasonably hot weather. We, by comparison, have less to complain about but …. day after day of humidex readings in the 90sF is driving us nuts. Some, like myself, are sniveling wreaks.

I’ve managed to persevere and split/stack wood, mow the lawn, and in general appear to be a responsible adult. In truth I’m cursing the weather Gods who keep sending the thunderstorms and rain to the east of us. Blech

Quick updates for those who can’t come back this summer: lilacs have been and gone, turtle crossing signs are up, I’ve lost track of the number of weirs being built but there are stakes everywhere, two power poles have been taken out by cars so far, some apple trees have fruit this year, there’s an explosion in the feral cat population, and the small ferry is running.

I went to St. Stephen last week and took the ferry for the first time since the summer I moved here. It costs $54 round trip. This brings us to today’s math lesson.

For those of you who haven’t been here, it’s a 15 to 20 minutes ride on the barge ferry to Deer Island. Once there you drive to the other side and catch the Government Ferry to the mainland. In this Province Government Ferries are free to use (certainly for residents and in most cases for tourists).

The Premier has stated that the population of my Island isn’t large enough to justify the cost of a Gov’t ferry. This seems reasonable, there are only between 800 and 840 permanent residents. Also I guess they figure we can always just drive through Maine.

These days driving into or through the US isn’t very appealing. If you’re heading to much of the mainland it’s a long annoying detour at the best of times. My recent voyage on the barge ferry made me start thinking about the calculations required to construct a business case for Gov’t resources.

As easy as it is to say our population size doesn’t justify the expense of Provincially funded transport there is some part of the formula I’m missing. You see the latest number I can find for Deer Island gives them a head count almost 20% smaller than ours. Go figure.

I’m sure I’ll get my computer fixed eventually. In the meantime I’ll describe a scene I would have loved to share.

We stopped next to the big pond on the way to Mill Cove to watch the beaver. One of the adults has survived somebody’s itchy trigger finger and was swimming through the water with a giant bunch of branches in its mouth. Paddling behind was a tiny baby with an even tinier twig. S/he was helping. I melted and not because of the weather. 🙂