You Just Ain't Gonna Believe This

I took this from an email I had sent yesterday to my neighbor Doug as we had talked about what I was planning to do on the previous morning's walk with the girls.

Last Friday, I talked to Jim across the canal about my pool pump motor and the fact that its bearings are screaming again and probably need replacing. He said Carlos (his caretaker) has taken his pump a couple of times to Orange Walk and had the bearings replaced. I asked him if he would have Carlos give me a shout in the next few days.

I called Jim yesterday and reminded him about Carlos. Within half an hour Carlos was beeping at the gate. I brought him in and showed him the pump and demo'd the noise it was making. He agreed that yes, the bearings were going.

I told him I'd bring the pump motor over to him at Jim's the following morning. Which I did at about 9:30 AM. I gave Carlos $50 BZD for down payment if they were able to do anything.

I then went into town to do several things. One, to get Elsie's battery charged (since I had been neglectful on my starting of her care). Two, to have my battery charger checked to make sure it was charging. It was, slowly, but it was still working. I had gone to Caribbean Tire to have that done. They said to come back noonish and the battery should be charged up. I made it back about 1:30 PM. When I went to pay for the service, I was told the fee for checking out my charger and charging the battery was zero, nada, nothing. Unbelievable and such great service. I told them they had just gained a permanent customer. I was impressed. Reminded me mightily of the quality service provided by Les Schwab Tire Co. up in the Northwest.

So, that was pretty amazing, right? But, that's not what you're not going to believe. This is...

About 4:30 PM, Carlos was beeping at the gate again. Dianna answered the gate and Carlos told her he had the pump motor. While she was doing that I headed down the front steps to greet Carlos. I heard him tell her the motor was broken. Oh, no. What rotten luck. Another 2 months waiting for a pump.

That was Carlos' idea of humor. He had the motor, alright, but it was fixed - new bearings in it and it spun quietly. Wow! That was what was unbelievable. He had taken the motor over to Terrence, the same guy who repairs my generator and weed whacker.

Apparently he had a hard time removing one of the bearings (he even has a bearing puller, or whatever the tool is called that will remove bearnings). He was able to eventually remove it. Terrence was able to find one of the bearings at Lano's here in Corozal. The other (of course, they were different sizes too) he got from Orange Walk.

Now, tell me I'd get service like that in the States or Canada. Doesn't that just blow your mind? And the bill. $46 for the bearings. The labor was $160. I gave Carlos the $4 change from the fifty plus an additional $10 for a tip. $220 BZD was the total. Amazing. It was worth every penny!

Bright and early this morning (of course, after the walk), I hotfooted it down to the workshop and began reassembling the pump and motor. It went together withou a hitch (of course, I've done it often enough now, that it should). I took the assembled unit down to the pump house hooked everything up and gave the juice to the pump. Wow! It worked perfectly.

A little later on in the morning, I figured I really needed to take care of a couple of minor leaks around the filter and the one fitting on the pump that I had worked on after the blow-out. I got those fixed after a trip into Lanos for fittings and some extra rolls of Teflon tape.

Huey is very happy now. He can spend his day cruising around the pool bottom vacuuming to his heart's content. Dianna and me? Well, we popped a couple of Belikins and relaxed in the pool. It's so nice and so unexpected to have it working again this soon.

Just goes to show you, Belize really isn't a third world country, it's a 'developing country'. There's so much more available most of the time than when we first moved here. I'm really glad they thought ahead and had the right bearings on hand. Life is good.

Cheers,
Dave

PS - I also stuck the charged battery in Elsie's car. Vrrrrooooomm, it started right up with no problems. Another good day! - d