HARTandYVONNE.com

I’ve finally uploaded pictures taken this year so far at Victoria Beach ..

Click here: HBSMC.com/victoriabeach/

Unfortunately, the pictures are sorting alphanumerically and not in date order so, the pictures might be a little mixed up .. but, there are now 300 pictures uploaded

Today .. lady luck shined bright on me. From an anonymous individual, I was pointed to a person who’s part-time hobby while here at the beach is .. to repair bicycles!

I took my banged up tire expecting something .. but not repair. I thought this person could direct me to a place where I can reasonably buy a new tire and get it out to Victoria Beach as soon as possible.

Lo and Behold, he took the tire apart and replaced the spokes! That was the first cool thing I saw.

Then, he pulled a machine out that attached the tire to it, and tried to spin it. It was all wobbly. Then, he pulled out a little circular device, like a .. mini wrench, and he played with the spokes until magically all the bent tire rim became straight and whole again.

Bottom Line: $28.65 CDN to repair and the tire is perfect and I’ve got a bike again! WooHoo!

I didn’t have much cash on me, as I really wasn’t prepared to think that a fix was available .. but I did have $35.00 cash on me - I gave it all to him. He definately deserved this and I would have paid more .. if he charged me!

MY BIKE IS WORKING AGAIN! YAAAY!

What Luck.

Just before the restriction started here at Victoria Beach (June 22?) I filled the propane tank for the BBQ. Well, last night it was empty in the middle of a steak and potato and corn bbq fest - with company.

Normally … we fill up the BBQ tank once a year, or maybe even twice in three years. We were quite shocked it was empty, but you know - ever since we’ve been having potatoes on the BBQ and cooking for about 1-1/2 hours each time .. well, it kind of made sense from the 10 minutes BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs.

Anyway .. I took the propane tank up in the bike with the “dog trailer” and drove to Traverse Bay to get it filled.

When I came back, I was taking the propane tank down in the trailer .. which is downhill. There was a clan of about 10 bikers coming up the hill so I moved over to the side of the roade out of there way. My trailer tire hit a bump, the propane tank jolted a bit, it moved the back of my wheel, the wheel jammed against the back fender and froze up, the back wheel stopped with the bike and it fork-knifed, I flew and somersaulted over the bike into the ditch, the dog trailer arm twisted into the spokes and broke about 10 spokes, and the back wheel is all bent up and doesn’t spin anymore.

Yvonne went ahead home walking the dogs while I drove the bike back, and was mad that I took so home, thinking I had a heart attack or something.

The reality of it was, I was trying to straighten out the wheel and take the fender off so it wouldn’t jam the tire, but all I had in my bike kit was a lousy pliers … and I needed a “star” screw driver

Mental Note: I have to create a nice tool kit that has a tool for every piece that’s on the bikes .. a wrench, pliers, screw drivers, etc etc.

I’ll upload pictures eventually to hbsmc.com/victoriabeach/ .. after our vacation from the desktop home computer (it takes up too much bandwidth to do it via the EVDO cell high speed access)

It’s definitely out of commission for the summer. I’m afraid to think what it might cost.