17th November 2019
Saugatuck in the winter is a sad place. Many of the shops close, some never to reopen. There are those that are “hobbies” often owned by those who fortunately don’t need the income.
Bars and restaurants are safe havens of refuge, the go-to places when the ones you wanted are closed.
This is the first time this trip I’ve been to the book shop. The owner Cheryl, has previously closed during the winter, but Kelli had experience of a reasonable level of business in the off season to, at least, cover the rent, so that was a good reason to try it.
So now the place is open at weekends and Kelli picks up some of the hours available.
The first thing I got involved in was building a Christmas tree out of books. Fortunately there is no shortage of those, but finding them of regular thickness is difficult.
I managed to build something that I call the “Elton John”, that is a bit short and fat around the middle with a pointed top. It was the best I could do without a full set of drawings.
I walked to the coffee shop for my “fix” and to observe the locals.
There were a family group entertaining a small child by calling her on their mobile phones. What a sad thing when the only way they could communicate was using a piece of technology. In the old days the only thing given to me to play with was a flick knife, or a hand grenade. Then that says a lot about my relationship with my dad who eventually started giving me road maps and a compass.
I’ve come along way without the need for a mobile phone, but now children are trained to be reclusive and lacking in basic social skills at an age of five.
I have been interested in the impeachment hearings that have been shown live. I watch whilst I’m working in the garage. This country’s devision is much worse than I thought it could go. There isn’t even recognition if there is a bad or nonsensical tweet by the President, the Republicans are adamant that there is nothing wrong.
I have never seen such a bunch of spineless sycophants gathered together in one place.
The one fun thing that happens every morning is watching the dogs rush out into the garden chasing the squirrels. There is not a hope in hell of catching them, but they do it regardless.
On the way back we had to collect a dresser. Like we need another dresser, but you can’t afford to let them go when they are offered. However at $30 it was at the high end of the procurement budget, so the minimum amount of work to get it out for sale is required here.
The guy also threw in four dining chairs for free. Normally we are not excited about taking chairs because painting them can be a pain, but these had an Eames style fabric on the seat, so we might just clean them up and sell them as is.
We had fun trying fit them into the back of the truck with the dresser. It was like a Mensa test. I managed to fit three chairs in but the forth was impossible. I needed just a half an inch more to get it in, but it just wouldn’t go. In the end we had to bungees it to the roof rack. This made the vehicle easy to spot in the car park.
Another Lifetime to go 