..that not only count, but totally get on the nerves!!
I guess one could say it is time to move on!!!
To what am I referring?
As I have said before, we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time driving up and down Hwy 41 in search of 'stuff'. Yesterday it was Bicycles, among other things....
Bicycles: The reason for this is the extension of the Insurance Saga. We have postponed thinking about and indeed, looking for, the appropriate mode of transport that might get us from A to B (close) with groceries et al, when we are in small ports and out of the way places where we don't want to rent a vehicle for same purposes and it is too far to walk.'
Another point here is that a rental car agency might not be within calling distance.
All this has come about because of our inability to find someone to sell us Non-Vehicle-Owners Liability Insurance.
We spent time yesterday walking in the front door of a couple of 'local' insurance agencies, who either hadn't heard of this kind of insurance, or didn't deal in it...but did health, life etc.
We had gone back to our car rental place first thing, to buy the needed liability cover for the remainder of our rental agreement. We had been told initially, that to ADD this cover to the policy wasn't possible, and we would need to start a new agreement for the remainder of the rental. This didn't make sense to us, but never mind...what do we know?
We were given the $$ amount it would cost us until the 9th April, the end of the current rental period (one month), and decided to go away and chew on it for the rest of the day, and frantically search for the insurance cover privately. BTW...the rental car company is charging $14.99 PER DAY for this kind of Liability insurance OVER AND ABOVE the cost of the car rental.
Feeling VERY stressed about this situation because the cover finished at one minute past midnight, this morning (the Geico cover), we needed to make the decision pronto.
Hence, the bicycle search. We ended up at K-Mart, where they have cycles on special until 9pm today (Saturday), IF the ones we tried out are still there! Chances are they are not.
Our friends on boats tend to have folding cycles for ease of storage and management, and Waz had found a truck load of different ones online. The decision was made NOT to buy the K-mart cycles until we had taken a good long look online. Such a wide variety!!!
It was good that we went to K-mart, though, as it gave me a chance to find what I didn't like about the bikes we tried out.
I have trouble even getting a leg over a bike...such is the state of my left hip, and I would require one of those nice fat seats because I refuse to have wedgies from the skinny kind..BTDT!
We had postcards to post to Waz's dad...he has now given up using the computer we set up for him, as he is almost blind. This is a bit distressing, because we cannot see him, and talk to him in person. He is 92! Waz's sister takes great care of him, though he retains his 'fierce' independence in a group living situation...but I digress....
We also needed to go to the Mall to try and find a light jacket for me, which was a fruitless search.
Coming back down the Hwy (you find you have to sort your stops really well, up one side and down the other) because there is no way you could walk from one stop to the other...well, it would take a LOT of time. As it was, it seemed to take us more than the rest of the morning, and well into the afternoon.
By 2.30pm we were back at the car rental place and accepted that there was no way we were going to get outside liability insurance..bah!...so we decided to take the rental car insurance offered.
The folks at the rental company were fantastic! They not only did all the math for us, but actively sought the best and least expensive solution for us, as well as giving us a discount! They rock! They saved us at least $200 for the remainder of the rental!! HOWEVER...we will not be renting a vehicle for the balance of the time here!!!
Hence the bikes!
So, today we need to make some decisions on the bikes. It makes sense to purchase them (folding bikes which you can get bike bags for) while we are here, so that we don't have problems with delivery addresses elsewhere. This will mean we can still go to the grocery store down the road, and anywhere else close by, that we need to.
We have a time line now, which is a good thing, otherwise we would 'cruise' on into the next month without dates.
We managed to get a couple of loads of washing done and hung, and dried (warm day coupled with good breeze!!) and a few other things accomplished.
No wonder I felt I needed a nap, by late afternoon.
My mother managed to get hold of us on Skype, around 4pm...our last communication on Skype had been off and on...late at night, our time...so it was lovely to have a long chat with her and see that she is looking great, after about 6 weeks of not being too well. She is 86 this year, and we are grateful for the love and care given by my brother and other family, in NZ. She also retains her fierce independence, in a Retirement Village, which we value.
Waz has an ongoing project down in the bowels (nothing to do with toilets, this time:) ) of the boat, so his head was down for the rest of the day.
We watched the news on TV...Don't know why we bother, none of it is good!! and decided that I was not up to cooking, so we would seek the easiest, fastest method of consuming food...(I think low blood sugar had something to do with this!) which ended up being a choice of Pizza Hut ($13 for dinner for two) or the Kentucky Fried Chicken Buffet...just down the road. KFC won the toss, and we (I wont say 'enjoyed') ate there. Not hard to take the batter off the chicken, and they have a good choice of veg. We ate a modest fill, and came home to some 'work'.
I have been choosing and editing photos for some time now, and finally had them where I wanted them to place on a website, for sale. Residual income of any kind is always welcome!!:)
This is an American site that is attached to a printing/art company, so that when someone buys an image, they also get to choose how they want it printed, all on the one page. I like that, otherwise we have to search for someone to print our images, and then send the finished product to the client, and that is troublesome. I don't know what kind of traffic I will get, yet, but need to do some promotion. When I have it all up and running, I will, no doubt, put the URL up here so you can go and take a look. Be warned...lots of roses!!lol. No, really?? and some French Country, as the category calls it, and some Abstracts. This is all under the banner of FREE Gallery, until I decide that I want more tags, key words etc in order for it to pay better and promote us better. Not sure when that will happen, so bear with us!
Well, time for shower and to get going for the day. No fog, as we expected, this morning (forecast!) and a beautiful day has dawned. It is already 75F in the Saloon!
Waz is eating his Grapefruit on the cockpit deck, and I need to go and eat mine.
Ciao for now.:)
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