A couple of weeks ago, Gnome gave me the mission to find a J Roller in Belize.  My first question was,

“What’s a J Roller when it’s at home?”

So he told me to look up pictures in Amazon and read the descriptions.  I am not sure how he came up with the tool name because he had never mentioned it before…he probably read instructions somewhere…he is the only person that I know that reads instruction manuals with great interest and enjoyment.

A J Roller is a “J” shaped roller made of rubber.  It is used to aid the adhesion of  surfaces with a sticky underside…you basically roll it back and forth on a surface to make it stick down smoothly.  They can be used for adhesive tiles which is what we had for a new project.  Aha…he read the back of the box! 😉

The task of looking for an uncommonly used tool in Belize can be quite a challenge.  I started my mission in the hardware stores in Punta Gorda.

When I said,

“I am looking for a J Roller.”

I would usually get a perplexed look and,

“…what’s that??”

So, then I had to modify my first question and say,

“Do you have a J Roller?  It looks like a paint roller but it is made of rubber.”

(This did not work because the shop assistant would automatically turn the conversation to paint rollers being made of foam in Belize).

Okay, so I had to further change my method of questioning and point to their formica counter tops and say:

“…what do you use to stick that (formica) onto the countertop.”

These were the answers that I got from a few hardware stores (I feel like I was conducting some sort of survey on how to ask silly questions and how to get silly answers back!!):

“…errh…you just smooth it out with your hands…”

and:

“…you get a big old smooth stick…”

and:

“…what???”

Hmmmm…needless to say, I wasn’t getting anyway.  So, I asked for Panda’s assistance since he was driving out to the big city.  He said that he even printed out a picture of the J Roller and showed it to a few hardware stores.  No luck…at least they knew of the existence of the tool but did not think that it was of much use hence the reason they did not stock said tool.

Okay…Okay…so, we had to do it the Munchkin and Gnome way.  Get a marble rolling pin and use that instead.  No shortage of rolling pins in Belize!!  When I presented the rolling pin to Gnome he said with a smile,

“…well, if it doesn’t work, we can always roll out some nice pasta noodles with it…”

Well, it does the job!!  So, if you are looking for a J Roller in Belize, try the kitchen section for a heavy rolling pin instead!!

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