What is a Loyalty Discount?

The new guy at TREK said he call Vince back and he did.  Told Vin that he was in luck because he qualified for TREK's 'loyalty discount' and for only 2200 dollars he could buy a replacement frame to replace his relatively new cracked TREK carbon fiber frame.  I wonder who wouldn't qualify for a loyalty discount since this is the first thing Vince has ever bought from TREK and will never buy anything again.  As flattered as he was, Vin turned down their generous offer and asked if it could be repaired.  In a "yeah right" tone of voice the new guy told him it was gone forever.

Below is proof that a carbon fiber frame can be successfully repaired if you're Vince and have a couple sheets of unidirectional and woven carbon fiber, epoxy putty and lots and lots of sandpaper.

ps.  please notice my edits and new pics in the eggplant bathtub post below too.

A Bathtub With Eggplant Legs

Today I reached a new high (or new low...I can think of it either way). I did almost nothing and actually felt OK about it.  Besides riding my bike and making organic whole wheat chapatis and curried chick peas....I really don't remember much except everything was comfortably fun.  I remember something about visitors, packing up some shelves to return and sorting the recycling.  Stretching my frozen shoulder a couple times, icing my knee and falling asleep during a movie.  I went to Ione (10 miles south of Metaline Falls) but I can't remember why.  Ione has a bank but that's not why I went.  I remember noticing a guy reading on the bench outside 'Mountain Chicks', the secondhand store, and thinking "Reading a book outside.  What  a nice way to spend the morning".  Leaving 'Mountain Chicks', (without a plug for the bathtub which is not the reason I went to Ione) the reader on the bench was still engrossed in his book which I noticed was a TV Guide. 

Vi

I remember taking a shower AND a bath outside in the bathroom that Vin just finished and could pass as a museum installation.  Vin wasn't that into the idea but made it for me anyway so I feel obligated to use it every chance I get.  He even plumbed it...cold AND hot.  Just like an inside bathroom only outside.  Other than when I helped move the tub a couple of times and gathering a few interesting stones from the side of the road, he did the whole thing himself in 95 degree weather.  A craigslist vintage tub with eggplant colored legs.  Leftover local walkway stone and plumbing hardware.  A salvaged steel post, not originally intended to hold a showerhead, from Ryan the welder.  My shower coincided with the magic hour and sun drenching our field in a intense golden light.  My bath coincided with an outside noise from inside the house which turned out to be the dryer*.    A sock plug kept the 110 degree water at an embarrassingly high level and once Vin turned off the dryer I enjoyed soaking surrounded by 50 degree air and shampoo bubbles.   The moon wasn't full, but it was big. 

My online obsession today was the movie "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" by a couple of local filmmakers just over the pass in Creston BC.  "Just like Vin and me"  I thought.  "Comrades".  Forty-five minutes into my search (I was really obsessed) I connected information that revealed the keynote speaker from a Final Cut (editing software for movie people) conference Vin and I recently attended in Boston (we're geeks) was the young female director's father.  Do you have to know somebody? : (

* dryer , noun

1. an appliance to be used only in case of emergencies

used in a sentence:

It's 1 am and the bedding I washed this afternoon is still wet.  I think I should use the dryer.

Photos top to bottom:

1. In the beginning.

2. Near the beginning. Tub with eggplant legs that you can't see.

3. Vin mounting shower on salvaged steel post.

4.Vin with an un-tanned torso.

5. Dad and Vince.  Dad grew up with an outside bathroom.

6. Outside bathroom in progress.

7. Kathy approaching tub with a sock wondering if it will work for a plug.