Tires and tune-ups

Tags

car, life, Tires, tune-up, winter

Today was another beautiful day and mild weather, it helps Maritime Electric do all the repair work needed to finalize re-powering the last 9,000 people who have now been without electricity for 11 days and very little to no support from the Government of PEI.

We are told that by Sunday everyone should be back on which will be a relief.

Today I decided after the morning at the Hospital with Will to go look for new Winter Tires at a reasonable price. I have been told by a friend who knows a lot about cars and mechanical things, that all tires have a year of fabrication on the wall of the tire. It is important because you do not want to buy old (new) tires, a tire that was made 2 years ago or a tire that was stored outdoors in all weather, etc… I went to my dealership and looked at what they had, amazing the price of tires from $100 to $1200.

My consideration is first I do not drive the car that much and in Winter we tend to stay within Charlottetown, I do not go running around on Island roads some of which are not paved or poorly cleaned of snow. I want a good reliable tire. I settled on one brand that should do the trick with very good performance reviews. My car tune-up is on 18 October. I always do a tune-up twice a year, Spring and Fall that way I avoid problems. I hate to have a car that is dirty and poorly maintained.

Tires cracking

Tags

2021, beaujolais, hockey, life, PEI, racism, Tires, Wine, winter

I had my winter tires installed last week and was told that they had some weather cracking. I did not know what that meant and asked to be shown. Sure enough there are cracks, it also turns out they are 11 years old. That last bit amazed me, because I was convinced that they were 2 years old. I did by a new car 3 years ago and usually you have to buy new winter tires because the wheel size change after a few years and a car is remodelled. I can still keep them for one more Winter, I really do not drive the car much and most of it is within this small town. Next Winter I will get new tires.

We had the very first lighting of the Hanukkah Menorah (9 branches) in Charlottetown. The Jewish community is small in PEI about 200 people, but they have been here for 120 years. Something that is never mentioned. This year the Jewish community given the anniversary of the beginning of their community, erected a Menorah in the park by the Legislature and several politicians came, including the Premier and the Speaker of the House. It was a nice evening, singing traditional songs, etc. The town of Stratford across the river from us also has a Menorah this year.

What is commonplace in most other regions of Canada, is not here. PEI is very insular and change comes slowly and it is a big challenge for many. We have 1000 Buddhist Monks in Brudenell which is a small settlement with a few families. The monks have beautiful farms, they do a lot of good work with the poor, bake bread, and are very peaceful. The local at least some of them hate that, bunch of foreigners. The junior hockey league got itself in big trouble a few days ago, a young 16 year old player thought it was ok to say to non-whites that they did not belong because hockey is a white man sports. This was said in front of the coaches, parents, referees. All pretended that they heard nothing, until it hit the news and now it’s the old “zero tolerance for that sort of thing” and we are doing an investigation. Sure you are, it’s a cover your ass exercise. In the meantime teams from Nova Scotia are boycotting PEI and will not play games here. Change is happening slowly and it’s a good thing.

In other news, today I bought a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau 2021, a young wine that must be drunk before the end of the year, it does not keep. Strangely enough they kept the display with the whiskey section. I had to ask in order to find it. Beaujolais nouveau has to be served at 15C which is considered room temperature. That is cool but this is the way to enjoy it.

This year it is said to be very fruity and the French also make a new Beaujolais Nouveau Rosé. Will have to see how it taste.

Of mattress, tires and Cruise ships

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, cruise ships, Dealerships, mattresses, PEI, tall ships, Tires

As we prepare for our impending move to PEI, we now have a new 3 bedroom apartment and will now have for the first time in five years an actual bona fide guest room with guest bathroom, we ordered furniture for that guest room and bought over the phone, long distance, a mattress yesterday. I knew what I wanted to buy but I wanted to see it before with my eyes, so I went into one of those mattress shops and looked around, I cannot imagine what a terrible job selling mattresses must be, if all work is noble, selling sleep ware cannot be that exciting. I did see the mattress I wanted in the price range I was willing to pay for, took down the details and then went home and phone the mattress and appliance shop on Mount Edward Road in Charlottetown.  The daughter of the owner took my order and date for delivery, so all is arranged.

What I cannot understand is the unit pricing on mattresses, it makes no sense, prices are all over the map, sale prices are even more strange. How can you offer a top of the line mattress at $4000 dollars and put it on sale at $1500 and still make a handsome profit.

Any mattress at $1000 can be sold on sale at $499. really? How? Well it is all a crap shoot as far as I am concerned. I also saw a line of mattresses which sells for $300 called memory foam and comes in a small box. This is a Queen size mattress stuffed in a small box, how can this be. The salesman showed me that once the mattress is out of the box, you lay it down for one day and it will, like by magic, reach its actual size, like some kind of giant soufflé just rising to the occasion.  It is good for 5 years apparently, I was not convinced.

The tire story is even more bizarre, I will not go into the pricing for tires because that is also a huge fraud on consumers. Prices fluctuate wildly depending on the Season and when and where you are buying.

Since I have no room at home to store my tires (winter or summer with rim) for a fee I leave them with the dealership to store for me until it is time to change them. Now two years in a row the dealership lost my tires and rim. No explanation given, they are lost, we do not know what happened to them. How can this be? They are stored with you and I paid you for the service. The first time the tires were found within one day and all was well. This time after 7 days of being lost I was told to come very early, in fact before opening time. I showed up at the appointed hour has the Sun was rising over the horizon, the manager was just unlocking the door. I am told to just have a seat in the waiting room and all will be well, why all the drama. One hour later, big smiles all around, all is ready, handshakes and I go out the door. The car was parked right at the door, now that is strange, usually the car would be in the lot, in row 4590 about 3 Km from the garage, go find it, amongst a sea of parked car. Not this time, it was at the door, how nice I thought. The only problem was… these were not my tires or at least not those I purchased with the car 5 years ago. The tires are brand new, they still had the white sticker usually found on tires when you purchase them. They also came with new rims, my winter tires stuffed in the trunk of my car.

At that point I thought better not ask any questions, it would be pointless, the dealer silently admitted that he had truly lost them and preferred to avoid a scene like the ones in the movie Godfather part 1 in a waiting room full of customers. I simply drove away thinking good for me. I am not returning to this dealership anyway since we are moving.

The port of Charlottetown, PEI

It was announced this morning that the first Cruise ship will arrive in Charlottetown on Monday. In total 60 cruise ships are expected this Season (May to October). They usually stop for 2 days and excursions take the happy wanderers all around the Island. This means some 180,000 people will come up Prince Street by our house on horse drawn carriages, it’s scenic they say. Should I open a lemonade stand on my front steps and charge $5 US dollars per thimble full?

In 2017 for Canada’s 150 Anniversary of Confederation we will have the parade of tall ships on the Hillsborough river. That should be quite the spectacle and we will have a perfect view.