Snowblowers and broken pins

It happens to me all the time. The snow around the house is too heavy or too thick to clear by hand with my shovel and I need the snow blower. 

As I run it against the edges of the driveway, I try to be “cute” and eventually get too close to the edges where I’ve placed some rocks, the machine’s auger seemed to feel them and get into them as if attracted by their shape and BAM! I hit one of them and broke the auger’s safety pin. 

It’s another cold morning and everything is snowy everywhere. I get down into my shop and find another replacement bolt and nut, and when I return to the blower, once again, I realize that the replacement pins bought through Amazon seem just a tiny tad too short to engage into the bolt. 

I struggle for an hour trying to tighten the whole assembly up to no avail, yet they worked last winter, the couple of times, even when I broke them then, but now I don’t understand. Evelyne, witnessing the commotion, does her best in trying to help me, but the two parts still won’t engage. So, that’s when I need to get creative. 

First, I decide to flat-file the face of the bolt A coming against the auger C, so I reduce the conical entry. I try it on the machine, the screw D that seem to stick 1 mm out of the auger still wont take, so I return to my workshop and file-flat the best I can the interior facing B of the bolt. 

When I return, I’ve removed enough steel that it finally begins grabbing into the bolt and I now can tighten the whole thing. Now, I just need to find longer bolts!

Struggling with soap dispensers

Do you have a soap dispenser built into, or next to your kitchen sink ? We do, and in fact the first one we had was 12 years ago when we built the house we’re now living in. I doubt the plumber even tested the device after it was installed, but what’s certain is that it never worked! In addition, after many fruitless attempts I never was able to make it function, so was the device dysfunctional, was I doing something wrong or just plain stupid? 

Well, soap dispensers are one of those deceptively simple devices that can be maddeningly tricky. If it hadn’t worked for so long, chances were it was either a design flaw, a clogged mechanism, or a small installation issue rather than anything I was doing wrong. 

There are in fact many possibilities for this. First the soap can thicken or dry out inside the straw/tube, blocking suction. 

Also, if the pump isn’t sealed tightly to the bottle or tube, it won’t draw liquid. Many systems like mine were attached to the bottle and if it wasn’t seated properly under the sink, the pump couldn’t reach it. 

Pump dispensers designs also vary and are notorious for failing after a short time. Some brands simply don’t hold up. Finally there’s the nature of the soap that can gum up the pump. Dish soap or thinner liquid soap works better. 

Recently, I finally decided to address the problem with more determination than ever. I first flush the tube after removing the pump and rinsing it with hot water until clear. Of course, I checked the straw and made sure the straw was fully seated and not cracked or too short. Then I refilled the bottle with water, primed the pump more than 30 or 40 times and nothing came out of the spigot. Crazy, isn’t it? 

So, after doing all this I’ve finally decided to replace the built-in dispenser with a new pump kit that will directly feed inside a detergent bottle located under the sink, on its floor and will make sure to switch to a thinner dish soap or dilute it some (about 30%) to make sure it flows better.

I’ll let you know how this goes!

Kohler, a great company?

I can’t even remember why we got all of our faucets from Kohler when we built our current home 13 years ago, but over the years, I’ve been impressed by the company’s responsiveness in terms of customer service support. 

In fact, much more so than any other, American or European consumer product firms. In digging deeper when I hear good things about that Kohler brand, it's typically based on a combination of the company's long-standing reputation, product quality, and market position. For one thing, it’s been around since 1873 and has been a leader in the kitchen and bath industry ever since. Its long history gives the brand a sense of stability and reliability. 

Further, its faucets are widely praised for their quality as they’re made with durable materials that resist corrosion and normal wear and tear. While some components may include plastic, the core structure is quite robust, leading to a long-lasting product as acknowledged by plumbers whose sole criticism might be that some specific models can be harder to install or repair than competitors. 

Kohler is also considered an industry leader in design. Their styles are widely varied and fit any decor while also standing at the forefront of innovation. Then there’s the Kohler warranty that’s hard to beat and so easy to use. It’s also a strong reason for the trust the brand enjoys. About 6 years ago, I had a shower water mixer that stopped working. I contacted customer service that sent me a replacement mixer with easy instructions on how to install it, and since it was easy to implement the switch was a cinch!

A couple of years ago it was a frayed pull out faucet flexible tube that they replaced. Recently, our 12 year old kitchen pull-down faucet began to stick, I found the Kohler video showing me how to repair it (watch it below, its quality and simplicity shows the consideration this company has for its users), it looked so simple that I couldn’t wait to order the free replacement kit and that was it. 

Sure when I got it, I discovered other problems that negated the ease of the video, but nonetheless, Kohler stood head and shoulder not just over its competitor, but largely ahead of major household name companies that have yet to learn, understand and apply what exemplary customer service 

is!

Cooking and video editing

After viewing a video I made about a vacation trip, a good friend of mine said “Nice to be able to have a cameraman shooting film as you move around!” This comment brought home that generalized misconception that producing a video is all about shooting it, when there’s much more – in my opinion – about editing the final piece than just pointing and shooting one’s smartphone here and there!

Then, I realized that shooting a video and editing it is just like shopping for food and cooking a meal. Most people know how to more or less gather stuff at the store or in the veggie garden, but only a chosen few have the expertise and talent required to cook to perfection. If ingredients have been forgotten at shopping time, or are of less than great quality, or there is any kind of other problem the cook must creatively improvise and still deliver a delectable meal in spite of supply shortcomings. 

Only an expert chef will pull from their experience, knowledge and creativity to make a miracle happen. It’s exactly the same situation facing the video editor that must make do with less than stellar footage. Over the years, I have produced over 500 small videos and have learned through countless trials and errors, persistence, imitation and even books. 

Similar to certain fantastic cookbooks, “How to shoot video that doesn’t suck!” was a game-changing book for me that taught me the essential of editing and also influenced my picking the raw material I needed to tell the story I wanted to come through. 

Just as few dinner guests will understand the hours of preparation, seasoning, and presentation behind a gourmet dish, most viewers of a video have no idea how much time and thought went into crafting the final cut. 

The editor’s work is invisible—but it’s what makes the experience seamless, engaging, and emotionally rich. Sometimes, the footage I thought could be the main course turns out bland, while a throwaway clip becomes the secret sauce. 

Editing is where I taste, adjust, and re-imagine the recipe. It’s not just about assembling, it’s about transforming. I would also add that editing is also where emotion lives. A well-timed cut, a pause before a line of narration, a swell of music—are the spices that turn raw footage into a story that lingers. 

Just like a memorable dish, a good video leaves a feeling behind. The mission is to tell a great story with simple, well picked visuals, a good narration and music to match. So as you spread your director wings when you shoot a scene, be ready to spend 10 to 30 times more editing your final work than it took you to collect your initial footage!

K2 Revolve or Dalbello Cabrio?

In my quest for finding a boot easy to get in and out of, I’ve finally tried on two models that I thought might help me. I began with the K2 Resolve, a re-incarnation of the old Raichle Flexon, now marketed under the K2 brand and that seems to be popular with the teenagers gravitating around the snow-parks. Perhaps was I subconsciously hoping to rejuvenate myself in the process? 

That might have been possible, but I also quickly found out that passing the cables and closing the buckles around that forward-pivoting plastic tongue required some time and dexterity that I wasn’t willing to provide. 

I then tried its cousin, the Dalbello Cabrio, with a similar forward-articulated tongue, and found it to be almost as difficult to close as the K2, and in addition the fit around my ankles felt terrible. In spite of Marty’s patient efforts at Jan’s, I wasn’t convinced. 

So I was quickly back to square one with few alternatives like the Nordica “mid-entry” HF series or returning to an overlap boot like mine, but if at all possible, easier to put and take off. I’ll keep you apprised of where my continued search takes me...

A knee-friendly ski binding?

While ski release binding technology has stayed stagnant for half a century, I wonder what’s behind new ski bindings designs like Tyrolia Full Heel Release, Knee or Howell Binding. All allege protection of the ACL tear, that would show a marked improvement over traditional bindings, but are these claims backed up by some serious evidence or are they just hype? ACL protection is a complex and still misunderstood issue. 

While traditional ski bindings are primarily designed to protect against lower leg injuries, like tibia fractures, they’re useless against knee injuries, particularly ACL tears, which often occur from backwards twisting falls. 

Tyrolia claims that its “Full Heel Release” (FHR) is based on solid scientific research and development in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck. 

Its technology allows for lateral and vertical heel release, in hope to reduce the risk of knee injuries, including cruciate ligament tears (ACL). These studies are said to show that this heel piece can reduce knee stress by more than 50% during falls involving backward rotation, which today are among the most common causes of ski injuries to the knee. 

Knee (Kneebinding) claims that their own research has found that their binding with fast-release characteristics and pivot points positioned strategically can reduce strain on the ACL during falls. In one of their studies using a biomechanical knee model they claim that their bindings with dual pivot points (front and back) could sense twist loads more effectively, reducing the occurrence of ACL injuries. The company also claims KneeBindings reduced the risk of ACL injuries by 82.5% and all ski-related knee injuries by 75%. The proprietary research involved over 1600 participants across multiple ski resorts and seasons. 

Again, all of that is company controlled and difficult to believe. As for Howell, its founder that was previously involved with Knee, has presented his findings at orthopedic, biomechanical engineering, and sports science conferences over the past 20 years. Some of this research has been published in peer-reviewed journals like the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Like for new innovations in health and sport medicine, the proof is in the pudding and only one or two decades of widespread use of these designs will provide the ski public with more satisfactory and tangible results. 

To me, this “improvement” is mostly fictional, as there’s no mechanical nor electronic way to measure the stress applied to the knee as opposed to what a mechanical traditional binding senses at the level of the foot and ankle levels. Short of having a measurement tool to sense and measure that energy, all the rest is hocus-pocus! As with any new products, marketing often grossly amplifies the benefits of new ideas to attract consumer’s attention. 

I’ll be waiting a few more years to see if there is any figment of truth in these attractive claims...

Coffee, grinding time and quality

After trying a bunch of coffee grinder brands over the year, we settled on a basic Krups that we found to be durable, reliable and seemingly indestructible. 

Yet, what I’ve never been able to find, was the relation between grinding time in seconds and the taste of coffee. We used a very high quality (should I say costly, which might bear no relation to taste?) medium brown coffee bean, but I’ve always been wondering about the grinding time. 

I finally undertook to conduct some research and it would seem that as I’ve always suspected, grinding time can significantly impact the brewing quality of coffee beans. 

Here's a breakdown of how grinding time affects the taste of coffee: 

1. A fine grind would take between 20 to 30 seconds. It would extract more flavor and oils from the beans, resulting in a stronger, more flavorful cup. It would however lead to over-extraction, resulting in a bitter taste. 

2. A medium grind falls between 15 to 20 seconds and offers a balanced flavor profile, suitable for most brewing methods (pour-over, drip, French press). Its downside however is that it might not extract as much flavor as a fine grind. 

3. Finally, a coarse grind that lasts only 10 to 15 seconds allows for faster brewing time, with less chance of over-extraction. The argument against it would be a weaker, less flavorful coffee. 

As for the kind of coffee machine used in relation to the grinding qualities, espresso would require a very fine grind for optimal extraction, a pour-over would work best with a medium to fine grind, a slightly coarser grind would be perfect for a French press and for drip coffee (the one we personally use), a slightly coarser grind should work fine. 

It’s certainly a good idea to experiment by trying different grind settings in order to select one’s preferred flavor. Sure, water temperature, brewing time, and bean freshness also influence coffee quality. A good quality coffee grinder is also essential for consistent results. Now you finally deserve your own cup of coffee!

When unforeseen incidents add to knowledge

We love our Bosch dishwasher. It’s perfectly conceived and engineered, works well, is silent and now after more than 8 years of intense use, still cleans impeccably. 

This said, and in spite of its solid track record, we recently had a problem that posed a real challenge to me. After a wash, the water was still pooling at the bottom of the appliance. 

I got the printed instructions for the device that I always keep, went through its troubleshooting section and couldn’t find a solution, yet alone my particular problem. 

I persisted and went on line and providentially stumbled on a recent Bosch video addressing my situation, that was deliberately ignored in the printed brochure, presumably because it had never happened or was simply too rare an occurrence to even be mentioned in the brochure 8 or 9 years ago. 

The video, accompanied with a written description, is clear, perfectly produced and helped me resolve my clog problem that was a very serious one as it involved a large piece of plastic film sucked up by the pump! 

Our mystery “Grandpa’s Weeder”

A few days ago, we found a garden tool, that was used but still fully functional, left standing against the wall, by the entrance to our backyard’s lower level door and wondered who could have left it there, as a thoughtful present. 

Thoughtful, because whoever left it there, must have seen my dear wife toiling all day long as she is chasing weeds all around our property. 

The Grampa’s Weed Puller was invented in 1913 and still is a blessing to all who like their weeding easy, with no bending over and no hand pulling. 

They simply position the two gripping prongs over the weed, press into the ground, and then “lean” the long handle in the direction of the foot-pad lever. Out comes the weed, root and all! This weeder is a simple, effortless tool to use. 

It can be purchased for about $40, but ours was a gift from some mysterious, not yet identified donor! 

My engineer neighbor

My neighbor graduated as an engineer and today in his mid-forties is a man of many talents. What I’m not excited about is that he plans to build a small house, called a “casita”, that he plans to rent out. It will be located between his and ours, be just one-floor, its living area no more than 1,000 square feet, with no more than two bedrooms and 18’ in height. 

As a public hearing has been set up and a sign posted in my neighbor’s yard, I asked him to send me the plans, since I’m the neighbor most impacted by his project and will have an opportunity to address my comments during a public presentation before the City Council. 

He hasn’t sent me the floor plans yet, but just a positioning sketch showing where the planned dwelling will sit. Even though I’m not quite an engineer I spotted a few egregious mistakes that made me feel good about my technical knowledge compared to someone who ought to be more skilled than me. 

It might also suggest that today’s degrees aren’t quite worth the paper they’re printed on...

Seeking speed on skis

Recently, my blog about the “Jerry Tuck” made me think deeply about seeking and gaining speed on skis, as we are going through an unprecedented warm period in the end of our ski season.

I’ve also combined some regular testing with my daily ski outings and this is what I’d like to add as a list of key facts in order to move fast on any snow. Following are my most recent observations and conclusions: 

• Snow: Snow quality plays a huge role, from sticky slush to super-fast ice, but has the same impact on all skiers. It also includes exposure to sun, shade, etc. 
• Skis: The base and edges should be as well prepared as possible. Adding certain texture to the base will improve gliding performance on some snow. Wax is of course paramount. Longer skis glide better than short one and of course, they should be kept flat on the snow, geometric position that is often compromised by too stiff a position or a narrow stance from the legs. 
• Weight: Plays a key role and is the sum of the skiers natural weight and their equipment, including skis. Generally, its fair to say that the heavier skier moves faster. 
• Clothing: The key is to break the air in the most efficient manner and minimize air turbulence, so a speed suit will provide the best attire to attain top speeds. At the Flying Kilometer level a special helmet and lower pants with airfoil will enhance aerodynamics 
• Poles: Can play havoc with speed as they create significant levels of turbulence. A bent downhill pole should be preferred as long as traditional tucking is used. 
• Body position: Tests in wind tunnel seem to show that the traditional tuck works best and minute positioning of the hands, arms and legs have a large influence on reducing turbulence and affecting a skier’s aerodynamic resistance. To my knowledge, nothing that I’ve heard shows that the “Jerry Tuck” performs better than the current Tuck used by Alpine racers. 

That’s it; so, if I forgot anything, please let me know. So in order to be sure, and to be aerodynamically correct let’s bring it and test it at the Audi wind tunnel!

Partial power outage...

That Sunday morning I get up early, goes into my office, turn on the switch, no light! My WiFi isn’t working either, all is dark, yet the furnace and the fridge are on, but there’s no light in the kitchen or elsewhere. I go downstairs and check the circuit breakers, nothing is tripped! 

I call Rocky Mountain Power and notify them of the situation, I’m told a technician will be sent to my place after 7 am. I check if we’ve gotten some new snow, turn on the outside switches and surprise they work and there’s more snow! 

I can’t understand what’s going on. Around 7:30 am my wife tells me the lights in the master bedroom and bath work. I bring the coffee machine there. Around 8 am the tech is on the ground, moving snow around to find out the location of the underground junction box, and explaining that this is a partial power outage caused by a missing phase in the circuitry. 

He works on it and reestablish the 130 V, not the 240 V supply, and tells me it’s either the cable to my house or the transformer that’s the problem. It later turns out that its the junction box serving both my house and my neighbor’s was completely soaked in water and in, large part, badly corroded.

The tech fixed that problem and the power was restored. I was impressed with the speed and quality of the service. We learn something new everyday!

How do chairlift seats get heated up?

My grandson is interested by technology and when he skis with me, by all the ski lifts we ride. One day, he asked me how the heating system on one of the chairlift we regularly use, works. 

The one in question is at Canyons, in Park City, and has been in operation since 2010. It is also equipped with a protection bubble that can further protect skiers against cold winds, frequent in that area. 

Made by Doppelmayr, this chairlift with heated seats has been launched in 2004 and is now in service on over 225 lifts worldwide. 

When the chair gets to the bottom station, two power rails bring the electrical current for 15 to 20 seconds, through friction, into the detachable grip assembly, and then to resistances placed inside the seat to warm it temporarily as skiers take place on the chair. 

The power flow stops once the chair leaves the station and dissipates into heat through the seating pad that’s heated enough (420 W per seat) to provide the passengers with some comforting warmth through the first few minutes of their trip. 

 

In terms of reliability, we can generously say that the one we regularly ride works 60% of the time, which is better than nothing, but probably not worth the enormous extra expense involved!

Remembering how to change a tire

Two days ago, I experienced a flat while riding my bike.

As I was stopped by the side of the road, I did my very best to remove the rear wheel, take of the tire as well as the tube and put the whole package back together.

All along, the operation wasn’t smooth and was rather an unmitigated struggle. Sure, I had not experienced a flat for at least two years and didn’t remember how to efficiently proceed.

Clearly, I should regularly refresh my memory by watching a video on the subject prior to riding season, but that’s a lot easier to remember when it's too late and I am up against the challenge.

As always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

Revisiting binding placement...

Maurice Muffat, my former neighbor from France,works at Dynastar and helped me untangle the quandary I have with the right way to correctly position the bindings on my skis.

I'm not there yet, but will work on fine tuning that spot. All seems to revolve around the mid-sole mark on the ski boot, which is a standard that was hastily pushed by DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung), the German institute for standards.

This, in my view, was a bad idea because the mid-sole point is arbitrary and do not relate to any anatomical placement or function in skiing.

What's more related would be the axis of the leg or the ankle that are pretty much regardless of sole length.

This placement is way too far forward, which exacerbates an excessive backward position with long boot soles. I certainly don't have a good answer for what a better method would be at this point, but intend to get to it through further observation, evaluation as well as trial and error.

Rock-eating snowblower!

My 28 years old Honda snowblower has been a loyal servant all these years and is remain priceless asset this snowy winter.

It always has started on the first pull and aside from changing a broken shear pin it's been working flawlessly.

This is not the first time that I must change broken shear-pins on my snowblower, but this is the first time I broke the pin securing the impeller that blows the snow upward into the discharge chute.

Usually, it was always one of the pins holding the two horizontal augers. The impeller is much harder to reach and ejecting the broken pin as well as replacing it with a new one involves the use of a mirror and is no easy task.

I checked YouTube and there wasn't a single video on how to do the job (yeah, I should produce one!). So, I had to think, improvise and the machine magically resurrected, I tested it, finished the work I had left the day before and all worked perfectly.

If your snowblower gives you trouble, and if it's a two-stage design, don't hesitate to ask me for tips!

Yakisugi anyone?

During our recent trip to Japan, and particularly when we toured the older areas of Nara and Kyoto, I couldn't help but notice the siding on older, beautiful houses that used a special wood treatment that I only previously noticed in and around my home valley of Morzine, France, in the siding or exterior wood adorning new, expensive homes. More recently, I know of one new home using wood siding prepared with this technique.

My countrymen call that “bois brûlé” which stands for “burnt wood”. My native Savoie might be one of the few Western places where that technique has been used as I have yet to see an example of it in the United States. The process, known as “shou sugi ban”, is a ­centuries-old Japanese ­technique for preserving and finishing wood by charring it with fire.

According to an article I found in the New York Times, the treatment which leaves behind a dense, carbonized layer of blackness has been around since at least the 18th century, though earlier examples exist. It began as a practical process used mostly for fencing and for the facades of rural homes and storehouses that held vital commodities like rice, that families wanted to protect from fires.

That's right, even though it's a bit hard to believe, burning the wood surface makes it fireproof. The external combustion neutralizes the cellulose in the wood, stuff that termites, fungus and bacteria love, making it undesirable to these same pests and resistant to rot.

The resulting charcoal layer repels water and prevents sun damage as well. By some estimates, boards that have undergone this process can last 80 years or more, but Japan’s Buddhist Horyuji Temple in Nara prefecture, whose five-story pagoda is one of the world’s oldest surviving wooden structures, has been around for much longer. Initially built in A.D. 607, the pagoda caught fire and was rebuilt in 711 using shou sugi ban.

In Japan, the process is called yakisugi, which roughly translates into ‘‘burned cedar board.’’ Traditionally, three boards are tied together lengthwise to form a triangular tunnel. The interior is then set on fire and the scorched surface cooled with water.

In France, a high-pressure water treatment is used following the burning process to remove the charcoal. I love the process, but find it lacking in brightness and colors. My brother who had his chalet redone in burnt wood some 10 years ago loves the process and told me that the only downside was the presence of many nasty splinters in the wood; watch your fingers !

As a last resort, hit it!

We've had this Sharp atomic clock on our kitchen wall for just a dozen years, and for the most part, it's worked fine, except when the clock or the outside sensor batteries were dead, or the two were out of synch. On Thursday, that old clock suddenly beeped to announce that it had ceased to work.

I thought it might have been the batteries that needed replacement and immediately took care of it, but to my dismay, the display stayed stubbornly blank. I checked the polarities, tried another set of batteries, to absolutely no avail, and finally decided that after having a good life, that old clock had counted enough hours.

Since I'm not someone to procrastinate, I immediately began to shop for a replacement, from Amazon, to Home Depot, Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond, I looked for the same product or an updated version.

Well, for one thing, the Sharp brand, in that category, seemed to be no longer available, and I looked for other makes on all these sites, called the local shops, but couldn't find what I wanted.

Later on, as saw that clock still sitting dead on the counter, I decided to dump it into the garbage, but as a last-ditch gut-feeling I shook it, hit it hard and suddenly the screen when from blank to filled up with its default setting numbers. The atomic timekeeper had resurrected!

The take-away from that technological miracle is that in case of breakdown, following attempts to repair and replacement and search on the internet, it always pays to hit the failing product before ditching it. It might resurrect.

Now, I'm beginning to understand why so many men beat their wives!

Are new home appliances pure junk?

In the past 10 years, we've had our share of terrible experiences with brand new appliances. In most cases, they all broke-down right after the warranty had expired.

We had never purchased extended warranty coverage before we realized that “the appliances were not made like they used to”.

Our woes began with a nice, high-tech, LG refrigerator that broke-down twice, once under warranty, then again after we were on our own, and was immediately trashed and replaced, a 2-year old GE dishwater and 12 month later, a 3-year old GE washing machine that were both replaced.

That was until, last week, when the replacement washing machine, still-under-warranty, quit working. The service company came to repair it, but didn't have the central electronic processing unit that was fried, so we'll have to wait another week before, hopefully, everything works again.

The Whirlpool machine cost us less than $900, but if it were not under warranty, our repair costs would be a whopping $500! A five-year extended warranty at $330 looks cheap compared to the prices we were asked to pay.

What is causing this tide of terrible home appliances?

Outsourcing to Mexico and Asia has got to play a role; add to it an invasion of cheap plastic inside the devices to cut cost and make everything lighter, so less energy and water are needed, allowing for feeble and inexpensive motors. I almost forgot cheap, unreliable electronics and we have a perfect storm for a downward spiral into engineering mediocrity.

Of course, this kind of radical value-analysis pays for cute colors, sexy styling, low prices, high profits at the expense of reliability.

While cars have improved markedly over the years, appliances are going to the dogs and it's time well all start screaming bloody murder!

Just a simple snowblower wheel...

At first it looked like just a simple job; changing both tires and tubes on a 27 year old snowblower.

I recently had a previous problem with one tire that tore off just by the ream, but the mechanic that was supposed to fix the problem didn't see what was causing it, only changed the inner tube and charged me $65 for it.

Two days later, I realized I had to change the defective tire as the tube bulged out of the rim. I looked for some aftermarket replacement parts (Honda's genuine ones are simply too expensive), ordered a pair of tires and tubes and went to work.

When all what said and done, took me two days and about 8 hours of hard work to get the job done, because I had never done it before and also removing and installing such a tire gets extremely strenuous and complicated if you don't have the tools professionals use.

Yet through perseverance and sweat, I finally got the job done right a felt very proud of my accomplishment.

Now, where's the snow?