Another Lifetime to go

22nd September 2016

There are times when the things that John does makes me laugh, not that he intended to do that, but it makes me want to go over to him and pat his head.

We had been working on these wooden tablets that he wants to donate to his church. I had been machining the timber, getting them to the desired thickness then giving them to John to sand. We made a batch in pine, John got his orbital sander and started sanding. I was tied up on something I was doing not taking notice of what he was doing. I could hear the machine and vacuum, so I assumed he was busy. 

When I had finished, I walked over and saw the result of his work. He had sanded the shit out of the tablet, it was so thin you could see light through it. Fortunately he only did it to two panels, so we had a laugh, and had our sandwich.

He was suffering with his back, possibly because of his Parkinsons, he struggles with a lot of pain in his joints.

Woodwork is the thing that keeps him going, he looks forward to our sessions, and I’ve told him that I will keep coming down as long as he is able.

On my way back I stopped off at an auto parts shop to see if I could get a new piece of pipe for the power steering for the truck.

The guys were very helpful and we managed to find the part and get it ordered, the next part will be fun, the fitting of it.

21st September 2016

I had to wear socks, the weather has changed, it’s chilly now. This is when the flannels come out, and things change.

We now have to decide to drain the pool, it’s unlikely that it would be warm enough for a final splash.

We had a potential buyer for the dresser we had posted a couple of days ago, after a couple of rearrangements she finally arrived. She brought her son along, and she liked the piece, but she had an issue that the drawers could be pulled out. Her point was that a dresser she had the drawers could be pulled out. From that moment it was a lost sale, even her son said that could be fixed, but she was adamant that this was the criteria she wanted. I explained that very few dressers have that feature, and there are retrofit parts that can be purchased, but she passed on it anyway. 

There have been a handful of fussy people that we have encountered, fortunately we’ve had many more who have been satisfied with their purchase, and often become returned customers. I know you cannot satisfied everyone, but that’s the world we live in.

I had to jack the truck up to track down a leak in the power steering system. I followed the hose from the reservoir to the pump, and right at a corner where the steel pipe curved, there was a small hole. This is in a tricky access area, I should have fun doing this job.

We cleaned up the four poster ged frame, took pictures and posted it, fingers crossed.

20th September 2016

Having two puppies in the house was never going to be easy. When they are good(which is rare) it’s great, but today was a challenge to our patience.

Winnie is fairly predictable, mad as a hatter, but we know what to expect with her.

Tateo on the other hand is still going through her trauma period, and that is the difficult part.

He left two steaming dookies on the floor even though we let him out regularly to do it all outside, but obviously it’s not often enough.

The whole situation tests our resolve, because he is so chilled, his soulful eyes melt your heart, but that changes when a smell wafts under our noses.

I blame the weather, it’s wet and raining, and not good for animals to go out in, and that might be the reason for the accidents.

We did give the dogs a shower, we only like clean ones in the house, surprisingly they seem to like it.

We were supposed to have someone coming to collect a dresser, but that was a no show, annoying.  But we did get ice cream, so that made up for it.

19th September 2016

Oh it was a bad night, it was stormy and it disturbed Winnie at around 4.00am. She was shrieking loudly, so I got up to attend to her.

It was raining heavily, both her and Phoebe did not want to go outside, and there was no way they would settle down again. Rather than disturb Kelli anymore than I had to, I spent the rest of the night on the sofa with Winnie asleep on my lap. For the next three hours I watched the lightening light up the early morning sky.

Winnie was snoring away and dreaming. Once Kelli was awake I crept back into bed with both Winnie and Tateo asleep at the foot of the bed. I managed to grab about an hour of sleep but it set back breakfast, and it became brunch.

I did a bit of scraping on the rocking chair, but didn’t feel like doing much more.

18th September 2016

Are computers that reliable? Well judging by airport delays and businesses getting hacked the answer is no, but yet we continue to trust them. Of course there is no alternative, we have integrated them into our lives, and there is no way back. At first they were a useful tool, not always needed, but convenient, and cool.

That drew us into the digital realm of clarity and perfection, and now everything is computer control. I still use it as a tool, it’s not linked to my oven or sound system, I’m still able to push a button thank goodness. 

With cars there is so much reliance on technology, a service now includes a software update, but no one can tell you what changed.

When it becomes something you can turn off, it becomes a threat, and rather than controlling it, it controls you, and that’s not good.

My own laptop now won’t let me use what’s inside it, yes I have a back up, but I have to buy a new one to access it.

Today was the usual shopping expedition, but this time I had to buy a sack of puppy food, not cheap, hopefully soon they will move on to normal dog food.

Kelli also announced that we were picking up a double sized four poster bed from Zeeland. This of course added to my concerns about space for storing things in the garage, but, one dresser was being collected later, thank goodness.

Fortunately the bed frame just needs a clean and polish, but they usually go quickly, I hope.

17th September 2016

It’s not often that I get totally absorbed in my work, but I did today.

I was working on the rocking chair stripping the old paint finish off. I wanted to chip off the paint on the horizontal bars that the wooden rods fitted into, this is the most difficult part of the job.

I was using a small scraper and a narrow chisel to do this work. Luckily the paint was very thick, so it chipped off in small pieces. I set my sight on completing the top surface on all three bars.

And that is where my problem started.

I was merrily scraping away unaware of what the time was, under normal circumstances that wouldn’t matter, but today I was meeting Lloyd at the Curragh at 3.00pm

In a panic I gave him a call, explained what happened, he told me my beer was waiting.

I was half an hour late, the beer tasted good, if not a bit warm. I should have complained, but Lloyd would not have seen the joke.

16th September 2016

My workload anxiety level is at maximum at the moment mainly due to us finding a number of furniture pieces for free. Now free is best, but it comes at a different price.

Free stuff can rarely be flipped, we’ve had pieces that were good quality and just required a clean and a polish, but mostly they require some attention.

Now the flipping is Kelli’s department, but more often than not they require my attention.

The three pieces we picked up, two of which were matching, were painted with a roller, so heavily textured. They are a known brand and well built, but the thick turquoise latex paint is not pretty.

The other piece is a small bedroom cabinet, made cheaply in pine, will require some work. Whoever had it before kept the floor panel in the drawer box by a series of nails that the panel sat on.

I can’t believe someone thought that was a good ides, so my “talent” will be require to tidy up that, if, I can get the bottom drawer out.we did finish one dresser that I got from the roadside yesterday, that was a clean up, but it needed two new drawer guides that I am struggling to get to move smoothly.

I currently have three large dressers that require work that only I can do, plus the rocking chair, not counting what we got today.

So I’m a little frayed at the edges. 

15th September 2016

There was doubt that John would be fit to go to the barn today. When I rang his wife at the usual time she though he might not be well enough due to some aches and pains he had over the weekend, but after asking him, he couldn’t wait to get picked up.

So picking up a sandwich at the corner shop I headed down.

John was waiting in his rocking chair, he walked a bit slower, but he seemed ready to do some woodwork.

I had a lot of walnut to cut to make the slats for the lounger, but John had the tablets to sand, so that kept him busy for most of the day.

We had our coffee and biscuits, and our sandwich for lunch, it’s more like a social gathering than work, but he likes it.

We worked on until 4.00pm, did a sweep up, then drove to one of his mates to take a load of egg cartons, as this guy runs a chicken farm.

He was kind enough to give me a couple of dozen as well. 

On the way back I stopped off at Aldi to buy some meat for the doggies, they only get the best, and then I usually walk round the garden scooping it up again.

14th September 2016

I did a stop and grab today. Scott from up the road stoped to tell me that there was a dresser at the side of the road. Kelli wasn’t available, so I was dispatched to rescue the piece.

I had thoughts that if it was crap I could just drive by and ignore it, but as it happened it was decent, although and all it needed was bit of love and attention. I quickly pulled over(probably illegal in this country, but I did it anyway) pulled out the drawers and manhandled the carcass into the back of the truck followed by the drawers. I likened the speed I loaded it to that of a pit crew in Formula One. In and out in seconds.

I had been working on the stripped top for a dresser, stripping the up-stand on the back, and a pair of side cheeks. All this was stained Early American, and left to dry. I managed to get a coat of sealer on at the end of the day.

There continues to be intrigue at the guests across the road, they are rarely seen, and all the curtains are drawn all the time. This is the third set of guests at this place, and everyone of them act weird, this  must be a pre requisite for renting the place.

13th September 2016

Easy like Sunday morning, so the song goes, the autumnal feel is here. The coffee was hot in the pot, and the eggs sizzling in the pan. The dogs wait patiently for anything to drop their way, and I only had a couple of jobs to do today.

The nameplate had come loose from the back of the truck, the adhesive had done its job but now it had reached its limit.

I had bought a reel of the special tape that’s used to fix panels on coaches, so it should be good for this. The worst part was removing the excess, even with a scalpel it took time. Scraping off the old residue wasn’t easy, but once cleaned and de-greased I was ready to a fix the nameplate, that was easy.

The next task was fixing the glove box in the truck. This didn’t close properly since my accident so it was my job to get it to stay shut. There didn’t appear to be any damage, the plastic didn’t look distorted, so why didn’t it close?

The design was very simple, removable pins on the hinge a bit of twisting wand the glovebox was out. I took the opportunity to look at the removable filter that lurked behind the glovebox, but there wasn’t one, I guess the previous owner was too tight to get a replacement.

I checked all the hinge points that seemed undamaged, now it was time to put it all together. 

Trying to refit the hinge pins had to be done by feel, there was now way to get in the footwell to see what I was doing. One pin slipped in easy, the other not so. In and out the glovebox went, I tried several different fitting sequences. One of the hinge parts must have been distorted. After about an hour, of frustration I did manage to slip the pin into position on the suspect side. The other went in easily, to my joy I found the door was perfectly aligned and closed as it should.