'Hoser' being an affectionate & endearing term for a bohunk Canadian.
The bonanza is...the hoses all came with vacuums - except one. Guess which ones as I once again spin a wandering tale of the weekend trip down to Ohio and back.
Opening Week at the Stratford Festival (where-in we get all the Elephants on their feet and dancing) having reached it's pinnacle achievement on Saturday Night, I had made plans to spend the next two days retrieving a certain vacuum ensemble cross border and stopping in Sarnia for a pulchritudinous Pete visit long overdue.
Following Opening Week as the summer vacationer season swings into high gear is the weekend that our official day off moves from Sunday to Monday. In order to accomplish this without having actors and crew topple over in a sleep deprived faint, it is the tradition here that we are generously accorded two days off (our second two day break happens over Labour Day weekend although Monday remains the one day off).
It's a 4 hour drive to where I was going and so I had the car pre-packed and hit the road at 8:30 Sunday morn. There was not time to stop at Pete's first and I headed directly for the Bluewater ferry crossing in Sombra over to Marine City MI.
The St Clair River has swans! These were clustered around the Ferry dock and accompanied us across the river for the most part. Looking north up-river there is the Lambton County Coal-fired Electric generating plant that was built decades ago to power the Oil Refineries clustered around Sarnia as far inland as Petrolia and Oil City.
From Marine city it's a 15 minute country drive to the I-90 freeway down to Detroit. From Stratford this shaves about 30 minutes over crossing at Windsor/Detroit and of course the ferry eliminates the bridge crossing lineups, inspections and hassles that can and do add another 20-30 minutes. The ferry holds 12 cars or three transport trucks, costs $6 a car per trip, takes 13 minutes and is altogether scenic and enjoyable way to cross the border - especially when the border guards know you as a frequent traveler.
Familiar 90 roadside signposts include the Gibralter Flea Market, which is a complete waste of time - keep driving.
OK, heading down to Perrysburg Ohio, a small charming town just south of Toledo sited beside the Maumee River that leads to Lake Erie.
Perrysburg is also the location of Fort Meigs. Fort Meigs is the largest reconstructed, wooden-walled fort in the United States. The original fort, built in 1813, withstood two sieges by the British. Historical interpreters and museum exhibits tell the story of the fort's role in the War of 1812.
But I was going to see my excellent friend Rod (aka VacMom) on his farm overlooking the Maumee River. Rod refurbishes and sells mostly modern vacuums on Ebay around the world. Occasionally his pickers bring in something vintage that is good enough to clean up and sell but mostly they are beaters he sets aside for the likes of me, now he knows my tastes.
I had a vacuum to pick up, as I have before many times.
A few days previous this area of Ohio got record breaking torrential rains and Rod's storage barn sustained massive flooding of the dirt floor. All the parts vacuum stock there sat in 4" of water a few days as the level slowly fell. Only vacuums in the far corners remained above the water...and that's where the beaters are stacked.
On the receeding shores of Kirby Lake. Yes, all these Kirbys sat in 4" of water. :-(
I spy with my little eye something that is Royal blue just out of frame beside the 3 red ones...of which I have the red one with the really really long hoses...
Can any of these be saved? Probably...
It is heart-breaking what total immersion in rainwater can do to a magnesium bodied Tristar's inards in just a few days. the Fairfax faired better with its plastic tub.
more lost victims of the flood. Sure they look fine on the outside but...the sodden cloth bags have rust pitted the interiors and motors and stripped away the enamel. casters are solid masses of corroded rust. The bottom paint has fallen off the Compact.
