Wednesday, July 14, 2021
HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY TO OUR FRIEND EILENE
Eilene lives in The Dalles, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge, where the Columbia River serves as the state border between Washington and Oregon.
We are very disappointed that we were unable to visit Eilene at this time, and participate in her birthday celebration, as we had planned for many years.
AND … on another note … <sputter> … reluctantly and unexpectedly, I sold our our minivan today … <sigh>. Yesterday I took the minivan in for a Manitoba safety inspection. Well … there’s a hundred and seventy-eight bucks right down the drain ! ! ! The Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation … Manitoba’s registrar and insurer of automobiles, takes a very hard stance against cars with rusty rocker panels coming into Manitoba from other provinces. AND … <sputter> … apparently they take an even harder stance against cars with rusty rocker panels that have been repaired with fiberglass. Like our minivan ! ! !
During our month long stay at the RV park in Oliver, BC, in April, and then during our two week quarantine in Virden, Manitoba in May, I put a lot of time and effort ... and a bit of money … into grinding off the rust on our minivan then repairing it with fiberglass. All for naught ! The minivan failed its Manitoba safety inspection, due to a minor problem with its emergency brake cables, and … fiberglass repaired rocker panel rust ! Today I spent much of the day getting cost estimates for repairs from auto body shops, then trying to sell the car ! The value of the minivan makes the cost of the repairs prohibitive. So … I sold the minivan to a local used car dealer ! For pennies on the dollar, so to speak !
No, no … I’m NOT pleased !
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Went to Dugald today to view a 2013 Chrysler Town & Country minivan for sale at a small, family operated, used car dealership, similar to the one in Steinbach that bought our old Dodge minivan yesterday.
Friday, July 16, 2021
The owner of the Dugald used car dealership phoned me this evening. We negotiated. I bought the Chrysler Town & Country minivan.
