Auctions and Armours

Took a thousand bucks worth of customers orders across the border Friday morning. The more I do this, the more I think I should just move my operation South of the Border, in around the Thousand Islands. Looks like more than 90% of my product moves to the US. And I see a couple of nice factories lying empty in the Rust Belt along the St. Lawrence. Well, that is just speculation. A couple of lads from the University of Potsdam asked me if I would do demos, and possibly even teach a class like I do here in Ottawa on sword fighting and/or armour and sword making. A few minutes at the border chatting with the immigration officials showed clearly that I have a huge amount of paperwork involved if I was foolish enough to want to work in the US without planning to become a citizen, and even more if I was planning to become a citizen. The guy told me if I want to do a demo at a college in the US, it would be no problem providing that I am invited (show the invite....) and that I don't work for money. Expenses are okay...but salary is right out. So out of curiosity, I just asked what would be the difficulties involved in moving my sales booth from Toronto (where the festival has been shut down) to Stirling (which has an excellent festival). The list of paperwork involved started growing again! He as much as told me that I need a US citizen as the "front man" to "own" the business and that I would have to operate it by remote control. I could be there to look over the investment just like any tourist, but I can't actually work there. Right! We all know that businesses run themselves...grin! And what about running a factory in Ogdensburg? Clearly he was torn between the idea of foreign investment employing his neighbours and the letter of the law, but the up shot was "do the paperwork". If it is a good business, the paperwork will be just a minor "cost of doing business". At least is wasn't shady like so many border businesses!
Ah well...food for thought. I think I shall simply build shops here in Metcalfe until the neighbours start to complain....I bought the adjacent lot, the back lot, and I see that the church property next door has just come up for sale....Hmmmmmmmmm. Brenda says "don't buy it". I say, hmmmmmm. its land...they arn't making it any more.... Besides, it goes UP in value, not like our tech stocks...grin! Hey, maybe they are going to make it into a parking lot. If so, it would be about time.
So, hit the auction on the way home last night. Lots and lots of stuff. I left after 5 hours and 75 dollars. There were several pieces of furniture which I liked the looks of, but could not justify hanging about until after midnight. I notice that cleverly, he has put some of the fine items like Hummel figurines into display cases. Guess he was getting tired of them walking out under their own steam. Well, enough of this...Perhaps I can convince Zanth to pick up the priests' house next door....we need a hard drinking deamon to dispell the odor of sanctity which wafts over the back yard from time to time.