Again I can read and see how much snow anywhere, but when I hear it's closed at exit 15 in Lafayette, or exit 14 in Tully do to an accident, now I get the picture, or the traffic in downtown Syracuse is 10 minutes at Adams street, Fulton is closed, and so on. Then I worry and imagine about my friends sitting on their ford tractor pushing the crap out of the way just so the misses can get to work. I've heard the news and felt for my friends trying to get to the airport, the Dojo, or a job site to sample a well or any other aspect of work.
And then I have a beer.
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| New roof Trust being installed on one of the bath houses Guess they aren't worried about snow load Right Brian,... |
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| For Mark, Scott and all my other warehouses in NY, see you soon. |
We looked at the calender and realize it's time to call the taxi for a ride home,.....well to take Kasidah home. We have a haul out date of April,l 7th, so we'll look for a crossing window weather around the 27th of March, ONLY A WEEK AWAY. It looks like between 7 or 12 boats will be looking for the same window of weather and going together. We have plans to visit with family and friends in the Stuart area and there is always work to do on Kasidah. Food and other stores had been shopped and planned very well this year, looking back as always, we've made a few changes to the supplies we need next time out here.
Last week we went with two other couples by bike to do a couple of things in Freeport, there was fishing, supplies, a few groceries, Rum, and we were stopping for lunch at the little place Arline and I have enjoyed at the straw market. We've talked about how clean it was, how cold and reasonable the beer was.
I have to take you back a few months ago; remember that most people here at the time share arrive and leave on Saturday. It's usually slow on the marina side as we watch the new people come in we carry on with pool, tennis, hot tub, and boat chores. I remember one group of newbies walking about with their Complementary welcome Bahama Mama drink and still in their travel cloths, (because the rooms not ready) viewing the grounds and taking it all in. I wasn't there, but I knew who it was. They met up with the rest of their group at the 2nd pool and talked of all they took in on their walk about. "Did you see the swim up bar, at the big pool. How about the hot tub filled with TORP?" "Yeah saw that!" So we had to find out what TORP is or was. As it turns out, it's an acronym, as is DINK (Duel Income No Kind), DINKWAD (Duel Income No Kids With A Dog),....Ready for it, TORP (Tanned Old Retired People) LOL,... Yeah the hot tub was fill with cruisers,....
Back to the bike ride/parade of TORP on bikes. It really does go well. I was worried that we'd get bunched up, separated, lost, or hit by traffic. We did stop at a couple of hardware stores, and then the package store. I found My Gay Rum here is only $13 for a liter, Golsing Rum from Bermuda $15 and Arline's wine wasn't that bad either. We get a discount if we mention we are from the Resort. Like they couldn't tell. At the food store with the 3 bottles in my front basket I stayed outside to put air in my front tire, it seemed a little,...something. Once we saddled up and started to roll I saw I had an issue with the front wheel bearing, too much play. I took it apart and found out there was not race for the bearings to ride on. I put it back together and put the rum in the back to take the weight of the front of course. but the wheel was so wobbly that I had to take the front brakes off so it would turn free, albeit I still looked like a DOB, drunk on a bike. It was a short ride to lunch and only one traffic circle or roundabout. As we pull in Arline and I saw that it was closed for the day. That's kind of our luck, "3rd Time" that's another story in the edit mode, how the first and second time somewhere is good and then better, but the 3rd time there with friends family or what ever, it's a disaster, closed, burned, or worse. So one of the other TORP had a place in mind and as my wheel was real bad now it was on the way home and near a bike shop. They have one of those here? It was maybe 2 mile to lunch every once in a while the bearings would line up right or something and the bike was good, then I would hit a bump or turn a little and it was back to being a DOB. Lunch was at an old McDonald's which closed (we hadn't been there before) and turn into a local bar diner. Really good food, cold beer and prices right, there was even WiFi so you could get on the line. Dick pointed the way to the bike shop we found Mac and a young man there. The young man looked at the bike and saw the front hub wobbling as it shouldn't and said he'd have to take it apart to see if the inside hub was ok,..I helped him pull the tire off and he stopped me saying I'd get dirty, I pointed to my shirt and shorts and said it's already been a bad day and handed him the tire. Well we found the race had screwed it's way into the middle of the hub and destroyed the hub. The boss came out looked at it and said that a new hub is needed.
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| New hub, with Quick Remove Lever |
I'm thinking,.. great push the bike home, 4 miles because there's no putting this back together to nurse it home, 2 weeks from the states for a hub, yeah dah yeah dah yeah dah. 10 seconds later he shows me a new hub and said $40. Yeah but how much to put it on I ask? $40 + 40, Great, twice what I paid for the bike. BUT no it was $40 for the new hub with labor on the bike, and I only had $35. I'll come back and give you the rest when I pick the bike up tomorrow. We'll finish it today sir, Well I'll come back tomorrow and give you the rest, "I don't know who you are man!" he said, "Well" I said "I don't know who you are either" and laughed making lite of the whole thing. So I go out to the bike grab the bottle of Mt Gay and show it to him telling him I'd give him the $35 and leave the bottle of rum which is wroth $20 and then come back and give him the $5 and get my rum back. His laughed said he doesn't drink and I could bring the money back but take that dam rum out of here.
The young man (I'm sorry I didn't get his name),with in 30 minutes, tore every spoke off the wheel (Do you know how many are on there) and then added them to the new hub, put it all back together and straightened it. We had a great time laughing and talking about the boat, living in NY, the owner had been there twice and that was enough. Several people came to his little shop which was a shed on an extension cord while we where there for other parts or to pay on a repair. We made it back to the boat I grabbed some money and hi-tailed it back to him and a tip for the young man, as he said they were there till 5 or 5:30 that day. I got there at 4:15 and they were gone, AGH!!! I made it back the next day and I think he was really shocked to see that I came back to give him the $5. The young man was so polite always calling me sir, yeahs sir. He said let me look and made sure it''s right and still good. Of course no issues.
Never would I have guessed there would be a hub in a little shack for my bike or even somebody that know how to do this. We've been told by people waiting on tables and working at a restaurant here to go somewhere else to eat because they couldn't get to us for a while, cashiers in the store that couldn't and or wouldn't sell us something because they didn't see a price on it, and they didn't know if it was onion rings or large calamari, (really) so they couldn't even find out the price. There was a day that a new drink was paraded out at the pool for free as they are trying new ones out. Raymond said the red one was really good, the following day he went in asked for the red one again. "Sorry I wasn't here and done know anythin bout dah new red drink". So I was really happy to find a real tradesman on the island here, a real owner that trusted with out knowing. We have had been to a few restaurants with good service, one little local girl served like 24 TOPR in the side room. She wouldn't let anyone else in to help, she knew how to serve and wait on us, getting just about everything as right as right could be, and she got good tips.
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| Emily reminded me of Amy and has our thanks for her commitment and service to our country. You'd all be proud of her. |
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| Arline and Emily with her mom and Dad. |
This weeks' Time Share people included a family from NH with their daughter and a friend of hers (She left on an earlier flight before we got her in a picture). Gerry, and his wife sat and talked a couple of days with us, he rented the small boat here and we went by dinghy to show them where to snorkel on a reef. Emily was a Jr in College and in the Air Force ROTC program to become a nurse. America you have another strong woman out there to be proud of, we wish her luck and owe her our thanks.
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| Gerry and Family following us out to a snorkel spot. |
So as our time winds down here we are very tickled we chose to come here this year, we have it on our plans for the future too.
Check out this video Arline made while we snorkeled on a reef just East of Bell Channel, we went by Dinghy to this area. There were hundreds and hundred of fish. You have to really look as you think you're looking at some coral but it's a huge wall of fish.
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