Trash and Treasure

The weather was cool and cloudy today, but still very windy. We had a nice afternoon out on the bikes, but it was tough slugging against the wind, so we didn’t go for a marathon ride. It seemed like we were peddling into the wind both ways too. How can that be? Maybe it was a cross breeze. At any rate, it was hard work, but we did it. I am now relaxing and John is making dinner. Yahoo.

We went to the bike store (about a 15k ride there and back) to look for bike shorts, and a holder for the GPS. We found nice shorts, but no luck with the holder for the GPS.

We have a Magellan Sport GPS that we use in the car all the time, and also up north when we go out hiking in the woods. I thought it would be nice to use it out on the biking trails too, so I went to Radio Shack to see if they could order a handle bar mount for it. They said they could, but it would take a month to come in, and it would cost $68 – before taxes!!! Yikes! 'No thank you.' I said emphatically 'I will figure something else out.' Then I set to work to do just that.

I went to the bike store to see if they could help me. I explained to the owner what I was looking for, but he didn’t have anything suitable. I wondered out loud if I could make a holder for something else do, so he went through his scrap box of things I might use to make one. He gave me an old lock mount, a reflector mount, some screws, and some rubber shims. I came home all set to do some creating. I already had some pieces of Velcro and flat nylon cored, so I put my hands and brain to the task of creating. What fun.

I had to take the lock holder apart and remove a piece of plastic, but after I did that, it was easy to attach a sturdy, short piece of Velcro to it. I then sewed another longer piece of Velcro to the shorter piece and wrapped the longer piece around the GPS. Perfect. It took we awhile to figure out how to get the holder to firmly grip the handle-bar, but after experimenting with different configurations of the rubber shims, I finally found the right combination and it worked perfectly to do that job.

The GPS now sits securely on my handle-bar, but it is easy to remove too. I can see how fast I am peddling, what direction I am going in, how many k’s I have gone, what time it is, and all sorts of other interesting information as I ride along. I found it interesting to learn, that today I hit speeds up to 19kph at my fastest, but usually ride around 12-15kph. Not bad for this old gal!!!

Anyway, I made the perfect holder for the GPS and it didn’t cost me a cent. How neat is that? I love it when I can make something useful, out of scraps of this and that, and other useless items. Don’t you?

I can’t wait to go back to the bike shop on Wednesday and show them how I put the scraps they gave me to good use. It is fun to make something out of nothing, but it is even more fun to share it with someone else. Joy is always doubled when you share it. Grief or sorrow is halved when shared, but joy is doubled.

I hope you all had a good day too, and made something to treasure even if it was just a happy memory to brighten any future dark day.

Share your joy and double your pleasure.