And Speaking of the Beach ..

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

Click here: http://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

Miracle At The Beach!

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.

Disaster at the Beach

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 http://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.

Our New Fridge

Our old fridge (the yellow one below) wasn’t working too well .. it was old .. it was small .. pieces were falling off of it .. it’s an ugly color .. and we wanted a new fridge!

Yvonne was watching the flyers and it seemed that the best deal was at Sears Home Appliance Store. I met her there last week, but was early – so I walked across the street to The Brick. On display was one of the nicest fridges I’ve seen! I really really liked it! It was about $1400 with the Ice maker and stainless steel, so working backwards to a white fridge without all plumbing would be about $1250 or so. The nicest thing was, it was 24″ depth. The spot where the fridge went (the left edge wall) was sticking out 28″ and the door handle was currently sticking out past that. We had an island to worry about, and didn’t want the door to hit.

Yvonne and I finally met at Sears .. I just didn’t like the fridge that was on sale. DIDN’T LIKE IT AT ALL! I convinced her to go out for dinner across the street at Zesto’s Subs and then walk over to The Brick.

Yvonne agreed to go across the street to The Brick and see this magical fridge I was talking about .. and SHE DIDN’T LIKE IT AT ALL! I think it was because of price.

Okay! So, we were even 🙂 But – then in the clearance room – we saw a fridge we both liked. Firstly, it was a BOTTOM FREEZE FRIDGE .. and it had a few ZINGS on and was discounted quite a bit! Sale price: $798.00 CDN and it’s a MAYTAG. WE ended up buying a 5-year warranty with it, only because if it was banged up – (probably from a fork lift) – you just never know.. $109.09 CDN Warranty … plus Taxes and Delivery. The salesman screwed up and forgot to write on the bill to haul away our old fridge, and the delivery drivers wouldn’t do it – unless we “tipped” them $20 for their troubles. Ah, whatever …

Yvonne is happy .. so HART is happy too 😀

* The freezer is at the bottom (which is great because we don’t have to bend down as much)
* The fruit and vegetable containers have a slider to let air in depending if it’s vegetable or fruit (A new invention since the late 1970’s I take it!)
* All the shelves are adjustable (to fit our needs, not organize the fridge to fit its needs)
* Clear shelves! (So, you can see what’s in the fridge)
* Lots of space for our fridge magnet collection! (WooHoo! Now we have to collect more)

So – we bought this fridge on Friday before close, and delivery was supposed to be on Tuesday July 31. Well, we totally forgot about the island where the stove is .. and Yvonne was quite sure that the door would NOT open because it was too big. We looked up the model on the internet and according to the dimensions, it was pretty well convincing that it would not fit. I thought it would fit, and for the record – I stand by that comment!

We scooted over there Saturday morning and remeasured the fridge – and, *whew* it fit! We were prepared to finally buy that 24″ model fridge if it didn’t fit, even though it would have been about $500-$600 more. But, it’s all relative… Yvonne was eyeing some furniture – I had to get her out of there – Fast! (although, I did find the bestest loveseat in the world which was two leather reclining chairs attached together, but that’s another story!)

It arrived early Tuesday, because delivery was trying to schedule all the deliveries that night and found out that I work at home, so I would BE at home… it came around 5pm.

Yvonne had me remove the door handle from the left side to the right side to open up facing the kitchen, instead of away from the kitchen .. and let me tell you something – if you don’t have ALL of the right tools – don’t bother! It’s a big pain in the butt! However, if you do have the right tools, I think it’s worth it – if you need it that way .. Ah Whatever..

Yvonne is happy, so HART is happy too! 😀

Here are pictures of our old fridge

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Here are pictures of our new fridge

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