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12 July, 2012

Is He Live Or Is He Dead?

With fond memories of Black Sabbath's early days with 'Iron Man'

B O O M !

Things immediately stopped. Was I still alive? It took a couple of milliseconds to make that determination. Yes, I was still alive. But, what the f*** happened?

I was pulling a just-filled 100-pound butane tank from the gate to the pool house when the very loud boom occurred and with it all forward (or is it backward?) motion immediately ceased. Oh my God! a blow-out... on a hand cart yet. Who ever heard of such a thing?

I could'a been killed. In fact, literally, I did check to make sure I was alive, it was that unexpected. But, it is in keeping with all the occurrences - just another in a long line of them that I've been documenting here recently.
Blown Hand Cart Tire
Once I got my heart rate back down below the red-line, I took stock of myself and the tank and the hand cart. I still had to get the tank to its destination at the pool house. No easy task now with a flatter-than-flat tire. Eventually, I made it there, got the tank positioned and hooked up to the piping for the pool house.

I put the hand cart into the Isuzu with the idea that I'd stop by Caribbean Tire or Northern Tire and see if they could either 1) fix it, or 2) put a new inner tube and tire on.

After hauling the hand cart around for good part of the day and a couple of trips right past both businesses (OK, so I completely forgot I was hauling it), I did manage to stop at Northern Tire to have them check it out.

What made me remember, was, I had to stop at Courts, where we had bought the washing machine to pick up our free ironing board for making the purchase. When I went to put it in the back of the Isuzu, I saw the hand cart. Oops.

So, back to Northern Tire... Can they fix it? "No Mon. Can't do it. You need to go to Phillip Batty's. They got the whole ting, Mon." I'm thinking he means buy a whole new hand cart. "No Mon. They got the tire and all, Mon."

Down to Phillip Batty's, otherwise known as Cinty's (of course). Why didn't I think of that in the first place. That was where I had bought the hand cart in the beginning. I stopped and talked to Junior, who runs the place. I asked if he had a replacement tire or inner tube that would fit.

Well, of course he did. He had just the inner tube that I could buy for $22.00 BZD, or I could buy a new tire, inner tube and wheel (same as on the hand cart) for $18.00 BZD - which was $2.00 off it's normal price of $20.00. Hmmm, which to choose.

Why there was a difference between the inner tube and the complete wheel set, I don't have a clue and neither did Junior. All he knew was that the costs to him for the items made the prices the way they were. High finance, I guess.

In case you're wondering, the carpenter's pencil in the photo above of the blown tire is just there to show the extent of the hole made by the blowout. It had nothing to do with the actual event itself.

Anyway, the hand cart now has a new set on the left and I have a leftover blown tire and tube on a spare wheel.
Ready To Go
If I get those repaired someday, I'll have spare tire setup for the hand cart for the next time it has a blow-out. Which probably won't be until my next life-cycle. I've never heard of a hand cart ever having a blow-out before, and probably never will again.

3 comments:

JRinSC said...

Man, you didn't even get close to making it to the end of the month without something else flying through the fan... wow! I am impressed!

Glad your heart proved up to the challenge this time! All those miles of morning walks have really paid off.

Do be careful today as it is Friday the 13th and that naturally worries me when thinking of you two way down there... lol.


Good luck with today and the rest of the month!

Julian

Alan said...

Thanks for the laugh Dave! I had quite the chuckle when I thought about the tire blowing out while transporting the butane. My wife calls it "bad energy" and hates when I give it to her by giving her a scare. Glad to hear it was only a tire.

In case you are wondering this is Alan (Earl and Gails son in law from Canada). I'll be down again in early September for a couple of weeks. Let me know if you need anything brought down from Canada.

Cheers.

Dave Rider said...

Hi Julian,

We didn't even realize it was Friday the 13th till I was getting Carlos' pay ready, and by then, it was too late to worry about it.

I need one of those bladeless fans by Dyson, as much stuff as we've tried to shove through.

Thanks for the good wishes - we'll probably need it.

Cheers,
Dave

Hi Alan,

I like it - "Bad Energy". I'll have to try to remember that.

Thanks for the offer. I'll keep it in mind. We're actually doing pretty good now.

Glad you liked the posting.

Have a safe trip when you do come down.

Cheers,
Dave