#232 Good Morning Sunday, July 12, 2015

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday was a GREAT day!  I had a lot of fun and also a very productive day.  I love it when things fall together so well.  I got to ride RED to my meeting at The Naples Group and it did not rain on me at all.  That is when I am so happy that I have the scooter.  I know that during the mornings, the rain stays away, but the day begins to get HOT.  In the evening when there is no rain, riding a scooter is so refreshing!  It makes it all worth it for me.

I’ve been thinking about buying a bike and yesterday when I went to the “Clothes Mentor” Stuff a Bag for Charity event, I stopped in the Trek store which is right next door.  It is a beautiful store.  Reminds me of Florida Motor Sports but on a tiny scaled back version.  Anyway, a very nice woman (sales person) came up to me and asked me what I was looking for.  I said a nice comfortable bike for “joy” riding.  So she brought down from the rack a beautiful turquoise bike.  She said it was her “best” seller.  So I sat on it and slipped off the seat and the handle bars were too far away.   She said it could be adjusted.  But I was still game.  Anyway, I asked the price and she said $495.00!  Well, that was about $400 more than I wanted to pay.  They had 2 used bikes outside that were priced at $250.00.  Still more than I wanted to spend, so I went home (after picking up the food for St. Matt’s) and looked on Craig’s List.

I found an interesting bike, but there was no picture so I emailed the person and asked for a picture.  Haven’t seen a picture yet, but now I’m concerned about what type of a picture they’ll send me if they do respond.  Then I found another bike that had a picture.  It looked interesting.  So I called the number and a nice man answered the phone.  His name was Adam.  He lives on Morning (something) Road across from Fresh Market.  I figured it was a “safe” neighborhood to visit.  Get to the address and a very nice looking man comes to the door holding a baby (Charlie) in his arms and said he’d open the garage door for me to see the bike.  This is the ad:

Red 2 Bike Ad

I took this picture from my iPhone by scanning the QR Code that comes out on the ad when you print it out.  Just amazing how technology works – truly amazed by it.  Anyway, I’ve never heard of a Shimano Genesis bike.  But he said his wife bought it and put about 5 miles on it and it was essentially new.  So I bought it for $100 – he listed it for $115.  So it was a bargain and I’m VERY Happy, Happy, Happy!  Here she is in the garage:

Red 2 in pieces

I didn’t even realize that it was RED until I brought it back to the house.  Hadn’t thought about that when I was riding it.  It has all kinds of gears that work differently from the way I remember 10 speeds to work, but they are easier to switch.  There are 2 sets of gear changers on the handlebars near the breaks.  So now I’m going to go ON LINE to get a manual about the bike to figure it all out.  Adam showed me how to take the front wheel off – no tools necessary – and then it fit nicely in the back of TY.  Steve gave me the idea to ride along the Greenway.  I may try that today after church.  I think I’ll probably buy a bike rack.  In fact, I still may have a bike rack from my old place down town.  I could never use it on the VW but I think it might work on TY.  I’ll have to see if I moved it here or whether I gave it away in the move.  The best part about the bike is that there is an “oversized” gel seat.  It’s really comfortable.  I bet that would be at least $40 new.  So I really think I got a bargain!

So speaking of bargains…..I mentioned earlier about the Clothes Mentor Stuff a Bag for Charity event.  I was doing my “St. Matt’s” delivery from Food Angels and decided to stop into Clothes Mentor on my way (it’s in the same neighborhood in Naples Park).  You buy a plastic bag for $20 and then you can stuff as much “stuff” in it that you can and just walk away with it.  This is what I got:

Charity $20 Bag

AMAZING!!  For $20 I got two shirts I can wear to work, 3 light weight jackets, 1 pair of jeans and a pair of shoes.  I’m still shocked by the deal!  Can’t wait to tell Martha – she was so proud of her purchases last week.  This place is amazing.  Of course I am always looking for “Purple” clothes I can wear for The Grapevine and I really like purple anyway, so it’s not a “hard ship”!

Well, time to get rolling now.  I need to set up at church today and I need to get some work done before that, so I’m signing off now.

Oh but wait, I forgot to mention that I met Glennon Melton at Food Angels yesterday.  She wrote the wonderful book “Carry on Warrior” all about her addictions including Alcoholism.  It was SO COOL!  I’m re reading the book now.  So fantastic – mostly a “chick” thing though!  I’m going to have my sponsee Haven read the book and we can talk about it.  Yeah!

Thanks for visiting!