For my latest edition of "Throwback Thursday", I have a new animal-related 'photo-op' - taken recently with my new smartphone...
Late last year (December, 2017, to be precise), I'd replaced my old, decaying bicycle with a brand new model I'd bought at my local Walmart (for about $100.00). I'd thought I'd get a lot of mileage out of it... until February, 2018, when the rear tire went flat!
I'd told my brother Glenn that I can fix that puncture from the flattened inner tube with an old bicycle repair kit - I'd had for years - but he insisted that I take the tire to a bicycle shop here in Margate, Florida, and simply have it replaced. Having talked me into it, I took the flat rear tire to said shop.
While waiting for the owner of the shop to find a suitable replacement, my bro and I were entertained by his pet: a cockatoo on a perch, just a few feet behind the cash register. He would talk, and laugh, bob his white feathery body up and down (occasionally unfurling the 'crown' on top of his head), and for a climax, he'd climb down a chain (on the edge of its perch), hang upside-down on it with its beak, and swing back and forth!
Were it not for said cockatoo, I would've stormed out of the bike shop in anger - for having paid $50 for the rear replacement tire! :angry:
Then, along came April 13th... a Friday the 13th... when the front tire of my bike went flat! This time, I'd told Glenn, "I'm fixing this tire, whether you like it or not!"
So, I took a tool kit (my sibling got for my birthday back in March), undid the front wheel from the bicycle's frame, separated the inner tube from the outer portion, partially inflated said inner tube, and placed it in a bucket of water (in order to find out where the puncture was), drew a circle around said puncture with a dark ball point pen, and got out a new tube of Super Glue and the old bicycle repair kit... and that's where things came to a complete halt...
There were NO PATCHES in said repair kit!
I'd called up Glenn, and told him about my situation. "We could go to the sh..."
"NO!" I'd yelled - cutting him off in mid-sentence - "I want you to buy me a new set of patches... I'll reimburse you for their cost."
"Why waste that money, when you can make a tire patch from an older inner tube?!"
"Good idea!" I'd exclaimed. "I have two spare tubes on my back porch."
Cutting a small square of rubber from an older inner tube, I'd roughed up the rubber of the new tube, applied the Super Glue to the 'surrogate patch', held it in place for a minute, then inserted the inner tube to the outer portion, placed the whole thing on the front wheel, added air to the tire, and reattached it to the frame. Sure enough, it worked (and I was able to ride my repaired bike to the public library within an hour)...
The next morning, when I was about to get ready to take my bike on another trip, I'd discovered that the front tire was getting flat again!
I finally gave up, removed the front tire from the frame again, and had Glenn drive me to the same Margate bicycle repair shop, to get this wheel replaced! (To add insult to injury, the metal wheel was slightly warped, so that had to be fixed, too. Between the unwarping, and the replaced front tire, I'd spent an additional $73.00! (I could've both a whole new bicycle - at someplace other than Walmart - for the price of those two decrepit tires!)
So the day wasn't a total loss, I took out my new smartphone, and used the digital camera portion of it to take a few snapshots of the cockatoo behind the cash register. The 'photo-op' you are seeing was the best of the bunch!
Late last year (December, 2017, to be precise), I'd replaced my old, decaying bicycle with a brand new model I'd bought at my local Walmart (for about $100.00). I'd thought I'd get a lot of mileage out of it... until February, 2018, when the rear tire went flat!
I'd told my brother Glenn that I can fix that puncture from the flattened inner tube with an old bicycle repair kit - I'd had for years - but he insisted that I take the tire to a bicycle shop here in Margate, Florida, and simply have it replaced. Having talked me into it, I took the flat rear tire to said shop.
While waiting for the owner of the shop to find a suitable replacement, my bro and I were entertained by his pet: a cockatoo on a perch, just a few feet behind the cash register. He would talk, and laugh, bob his white feathery body up and down (occasionally unfurling the 'crown' on top of his head), and for a climax, he'd climb down a chain (on the edge of its perch), hang upside-down on it with its beak, and swing back and forth!
Were it not for said cockatoo, I would've stormed out of the bike shop in anger - for having paid $50 for the rear replacement tire! :angry:
Then, along came April 13th... a Friday the 13th... when the front tire of my bike went flat! This time, I'd told Glenn, "I'm fixing this tire, whether you like it or not!"
So, I took a tool kit (my sibling got for my birthday back in March), undid the front wheel from the bicycle's frame, separated the inner tube from the outer portion, partially inflated said inner tube, and placed it in a bucket of water (in order to find out where the puncture was), drew a circle around said puncture with a dark ball point pen, and got out a new tube of Super Glue and the old bicycle repair kit... and that's where things came to a complete halt...
There were NO PATCHES in said repair kit!
I'd called up Glenn, and told him about my situation. "We could go to the sh..."
"NO!" I'd yelled - cutting him off in mid-sentence - "I want you to buy me a new set of patches... I'll reimburse you for their cost."
"Why waste that money, when you can make a tire patch from an older inner tube?!"
"Good idea!" I'd exclaimed. "I have two spare tubes on my back porch."
Cutting a small square of rubber from an older inner tube, I'd roughed up the rubber of the new tube, applied the Super Glue to the 'surrogate patch', held it in place for a minute, then inserted the inner tube to the outer portion, placed the whole thing on the front wheel, added air to the tire, and reattached it to the frame. Sure enough, it worked (and I was able to ride my repaired bike to the public library within an hour)...
The next morning, when I was about to get ready to take my bike on another trip, I'd discovered that the front tire was getting flat again!
I finally gave up, removed the front tire from the frame again, and had Glenn drive me to the same Margate bicycle repair shop, to get this wheel replaced! (To add insult to injury, the metal wheel was slightly warped, so that had to be fixed, too. Between the unwarping, and the replaced front tire, I'd spent an additional $73.00! (I could've both a whole new bicycle - at someplace other than Walmart - for the price of those two decrepit tires!)
So the day wasn't a total loss, I took out my new smartphone, and used the digital camera portion of it to take a few snapshots of the cockatoo behind the cash register. The 'photo-op' you are seeing was the best of the bunch!
Category Photography / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Avian (Other)
Gender Male
Size 810 x 1080px
What a pretty bird. What you described in the description is normal behavior domesticate Salmon-Crested Cockatoos. Except for hanging upside-down on it's perch.
Lovely bird, as Cheese posted, VERY demanding!
Oh, and LOUD!! When they decide o have a squawk session, they can nearly raise the dead!
But, still very pretty birds!
On a related subject for your post - You should use Rubber Cement instead of super glue on tire punctures. Super glue is pretty amazing stuff, but it gets very brittle when it dries, and it works best on nearly non-porous surfaces. Rubber is both too flexible and has too soft a surface for super glue to work well. But either a self-vulcanizing compound or rubber cement can turn a tire and a patch into a nearly seamless and definitely air-tight bond. And it won't crack and leak as the tire flexes.
Oh, and LOUD!! When they decide o have a squawk session, they can nearly raise the dead!
But, still very pretty birds!
On a related subject for your post - You should use Rubber Cement instead of super glue on tire punctures. Super glue is pretty amazing stuff, but it gets very brittle when it dries, and it works best on nearly non-porous surfaces. Rubber is both too flexible and has too soft a surface for super glue to work well. But either a self-vulcanizing compound or rubber cement can turn a tire and a patch into a nearly seamless and definitely air-tight bond. And it won't crack and leak as the tire flexes.
The cockatoo at the bike shop was quite quiet, limited to very few loud squawks, and a lot more muttering "Hello" and "I love you"...
As for your advice - using rubber cement instead of Super Glue - I suppose it will be another "live and learn" experience for yours truly...
As for your advice - using rubber cement instead of Super Glue - I suppose it will be another "live and learn" experience for yours truly...
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