Ice! Tobacco! Alcohol!

Update below.

Woke up this morning to find an indoor temperature of 55 degrees and an outside temperature of 24 degrees (right at the house).  Older houses up here aren't really constructed to withstand such cold temperatures and the heating isn't designed to defeat them unless you have wood stoves.  We don't.  My, it's cold in here, trying to write with very cold fingers and decked out in hat, coat, and scarf.  Almost March.  Which I sincerely hope means something.

Yesterday, as we were going through the border with several vacuum cleaners we were finally collecting from a friend after moving out of our Canada house, the guard listened to us explain the vacuums with an increasingly bored look on his face.  Finally, he said, 'What I mean is, are you bringing in any food, tobacco or alcohol?'  Quel surprise!  I've never had them ask about alcohol or tobacco because Canadian taxes on both are much higher than U.S. taxes and it would thus make little sense to bring them in from Canada.  The Canadian border people often ask about both, but never the Americans.  The sign at the border says something like "Declare all meats, vegetables, and plants."  But then they have pictures of meats, vegetables, and plants, plus a picture of a parrot (What about the parrot??).  No pictures, no mention of alcohol and tobacco.  Are they just confused?  Or are they just trying to confuse me?

My daughter sent me a link to a Canadian government site which is very concise about what can't be brought in.  For unknown reasons, only a liter of alcohol into the U.S., and the cigarette rules are very complicated (probably just as well not to smoke for that reason alone), but here's the link.