Fun to review those posts from Wassupdoc (above). This member disappeared with GypsyWoman, so it was probably one of her many sockpuppets. The writing style is an amateurish attempt to hide any recognizable characteristics that might expose the author's identity. Ah, the games sociopaths play!
Today, I fixed my wheelbarrow. A couple of years ago, I was putting air in the tire and it exploded, probably from rot and old age rather than any error on my part. Both the tube and tire were ripped up, so a replacement was called for. It turns out that wheelbarrow tires are expensive! Seeing as how I have dropped out of the economic system to a large degree and don't have an income to pay taxes on, I was going to have to find a used tire. But even those were expensive, so I put the project on hold. A year ago I found some used wheels with tires for only $10 each, but it was 50 miles of driving each way to get one so I let it pass.
Yesterday, I was at a garage sale, and what should I see under a table but a wheelbarrow wheel with a tire! I ask the man in charge, "What do you think the odds would be that someone would buy that thing?" He says, "That's probably the last thing I would expect to sell."
"How much is it?" I ask. He replies, "50 cents." Yes, I bought it.
The tire was like new, but it was tubeless and deflated. The man said it would hold air, but getting it pumped up again would be tricky, since the bead was "broken" and would not create an air-tight seal. Back at home, I discovered I couldn't get it to seal. So it was time to search the Internet and learn how to solve this problem!
And sure enough, here's the trick! (
1 2 ) I used a ratcheting belt I found long ago abandoned in the road, and the trick worked perfectly!
Then I took off the old wheel, put on the new one, and my wheelbarrow was good as new! And I found myself chuckling...
You see, there is a story about my father growing up in the backward hills of northeast Alabama that he liked to tell. He's just a boy out poking around behind the house, and he hears his aunt call out in a thick southern accent, "Delbert, yew git away from that wheelbarra! Yew know yew don't know nuttin 'bout machine-ree!"
