Day 2719 A good day out.

24th January 2025

I did a solo run to Caledonia which was about thirty five miles away to deliver a dresser.

I did it on my own because Kelli had a bad night with very little sleep. I had never been to the place before so I quite enjoyed myself, it was an adventure. 

The roads were pretty good, although my windscreen wipers had frozen to the screen, it soon got dirty. Trying to find a place to stop was annoying, apparently you can’t pull over to the side of the road in this country. Eventually I found a driveway to block while I chipped away the ice, then everything started to work perfectly.

The house was surprisingly easy to find. I pulled up at the rear of the property, then the man of the house gestured me to reverse up to a barn.

Inside the barn were many other pieces of furniture, I asked him if he was opening a shop?

He chuckled and said that they refurbish them, much the same as we do. This one however was going to his daughter who saw the posting and wanted it.

As I was heading back, I knew I would be passing the workshop of the guy who made the counter top for our kitchen, I thought I would stop and say hi to him.

I parked the truck outside and gave a heavy knock on the door before opening it and calling out.

I didn’t recognise the man that came up the stairs to meet me. He had a bushy white beard and didn’t look like the man I had met before.

I asked him if John was about. He looked at me strangely, and muttered that he wasn’t here.

It appeared to me that he didn’t know who I was talking about. I mentioned John several times and received the same vague response. So I delved a bit deeper, only to come to the realisation that this was John, the guy who did the work for me. Bloody hell that was hard work.

We talked for a while, he was making stair treads out of hickory, but the shop was clean as a whistle, and warm, oh I wish I could work in a place like that.

I took the opportunity to ask if he had any walnut offcuts, I had a drawer front on a desk that I bought a couple of years back. He led me down some stairs, and as I reached the bottom I could see the basement was packed with planks of lumber of every species, a treasure house of wood.

He fumbled around and pulled out an eight foot long plank, I explained that I only needed a short piece. We continued to look around and found a few pieces that he gave me, so now I can finally finish that job.

As I left, I was smiling, John is happy in his own little world, he may not know who he is, but he’s surrounded by the material that he loves to work with, you can’t have things better than that.