Author: peterb51

23rd November 2023

It’s Thanksgiving and a day that will descend into chaos very quickly.

We, as the hosts had set out what each family member should contribute.

We would do the turkey, Matt would make mashed potato and a macaroni cheese, Brenda would do the red cabbage, German style, Cameron would bring an apple pie, Greer and Dylan bread rolls and flavoured butter and Kelli’s mum would bring the pumpkin pie.

That was the plan, Brenda failed at the first hurdle not getting the red cabbage. “ You only had one thing to do” was my controlled thought.

We were then informed that she “got” a jar of the same vegetable, so we walked along to collect it, but it then turned out that she didn’t have it.

She did however find a store open and bought one then delivered it to us. So we were able to prepare it and make it available for the Thanksgiving dinner.

The turkey turned out really well, much better than we thought of as it was our first one.

Everyone enjoyed the spread, noting especially how good my stuffing balls were.

I did have a few drinks, always a necessity at any family event.

But just like every special day, we tried to play a box game, but no one had played it before and nobody understood the rules, just like being in England

22nd November 2023

Thanksgiving Eve once again, a good time to buy food. Kelli had more things to take to Plato’s, a real case of “You again?”, but when her closest crosses into another time dimension, there will still be clothes that have been forgotten.

So there first, then Nature’s Market then Aldi.

Being spontaneous I suggest going to New Holland for lunch, it had been weeks since we were there last.

The day began with a young lady finally delivered a coffee table that needed some work. I say finally, because I have been waiting for it for over a year since first contacted, I had given up ever seeing it.

So now it was in front of me in all its glory, a two foot by four foot oak table.

I was given a full break down of what had happened, a flower pot sitting on it causing a small area of water damage. Normally a water stain can be treated with oxalic acid, but due to the construction there was small areas of blistering.

To do this job probably I will have to strip the whole top, a Herculean task because it was a patchwork of inset veneers. This will be either a triumph or disaster.

We expected the stores to be heaving, like the pre Christmas rush, but it was quite the opposite, although a lot of the items had sold out, like orange juice, that stuff grows on trees, for gawrd sake!

We finished the shopping, took it home to unload, then went for lunch.

Since we started eating meat again, the menu choice is vast now, and it was a spontaneous act, that’s the best, and the food tastes better.

I have spoken about the state of vehicles over here, and the one we saw today epitomises that.

Just in front of us was a black Jeep where the rust was working its way up from the ground. The drivers window was lowered with his hand out holding the roof sill. Every so often he tried to slam the door closed but failing every time. So he was driving along holding the door closed.

His best bet was to continually make a sharp right hand turn in order to keep the door shut.

21st November 2023

After yesterday’s riotous experience, it was back to normal, Menards.

Well first I had to go to Lowes to buy a sheet of plywood. I had great fun getting it into the back of the truck. It took a few minutes of seat moving before I got the whole piece in. I can imagine some Japanese engineer designing the vehicle around a sheet of plywood, respect man.

In the US the engineers have to build their vehicles around their enormous guts.

I know whose truck I would rather drive.

After loading the material, I drove to Menards to further my orgasmic day of action. There I had to buy finish materials and bird seed.

We are good to our wild feathered friends, we keep the squirrels fat as well. Kelli had tried different methods for stopping them stealing the bird food, including adding chilli powder. All that does is encourage them to eat more spicy foods and drink beer to cool them down.

20th November 2023

I’ve never been keen on birthdays, well once the big presents that you got from your parents stopped. They became a stick in the ground, marking another chunk of time. I try not to think of the number, I guess I don’t want it to signify anything. I have come to believe that how I feel is more important, and that the age part is just a countdown to the inevitable.

I need to put that off, I have far more important things still to do.

I got birthday wishes for my friends and family, that warms me a lot because I treasure them.

They are my jewels, each one relates to a point in time that has meant much to me.

Kelli likes to make a fuss and usually buys me a gift that is special, these are things that I will own for ever.

So it is a day of reflection, did I have a good year? have I learnt something new? The answer is always yes. I have my childlike excitement when I buy a new tool or equipment, where I can’t wait to get it out of the box and working.

I still enjoy music, although some new stuff confuse me. I do come from a time where longevity marked a level of success, and I am aware that there is so much temporary things about, I certainly am grateful for growing up in the era I did.

19th November 2023

It was a special day, not as special as tomorrow, but special enough.

We were planning a meal for Dylan, Greer’s husband whose birthday was a few days ago.

He had sent Kelli a recipe for a steak dinner he wanted, so we went to the corner shop for the ingredients. There were a number of things that certainly weren’t the run of the mill items, like juniper berries and cardamom, I’m sure these are spices that rot in many people’s larders.

Anyway Kelli set about preparing and cooking the meat. Whilst in the oven a potato dish was slowly roasting.

The steak was frying in a pool of red wine, of course I had to check if the liquid was good enough, it was, but I had to check it periodically as the cooking progressed.

This was the first time we had steak for blooming years so we were nervous of the result.

There was no need to worry, it turned out brilliantly.

The next part of the special day was when the rest of the family joined us for a cake eating event to celebrate both Dylan and my upcoming birthday.

The amount of of wine I had drunk blended well with the chocolate cake, making the whole event a bit of a blur, but I’m sure everyone had a good time, I’m sure I’ll hear about it.

18th November 2023

The dresser that we have been pushing in and out of the garage for the last two weeks has finally been collected. I personally saw it loaded and battened down in the back of a Jeep. We were beginning to think we would still have it past Thanksgiving.

This left us free to do something else. Greer has asked us to join her to look at some houses she was thinking of buying, the downside was they were in Grand Rapids.

We met Greer and Dylan at the first house, a two bedroom place smelling of paint, a good sign I thought, all new appliances, water heater and a three year old furnace. It was obviously a flip house because nobody was living there. I thought. It looked good and wouldn’t require anything spent on it. The basement was a bit messy, but it looked like it was being worked on.

Greer didn’t like the area, so that was out.

We drove on to the next place.

After parking we noticed a dresser by the roadside, it was in a bit of a state with broken drawers, but the carcass looked okay, so we loaded it into back of the truck, like you do.

Then we crossed the road and entered the building. This place was the complete opposite to the first, more of a dump. It would require a complete gut job. The bathroom was a disaster, getting into the bath tub would expose your arse if anyone next door was looking through the fence, not a good experience for both.

So that one was out as well.

That concluded the house viewing, next we had to find the place that was selling some plates.

There were not any plates, they matched some we already had, and in most cases as rare as hens teeth.

The plates were made in Italy and were Kelli’s favourite. When I accidentally broke one it was hard and expensive to replace it, so these were a bargain.

We got to the address and were met by this odd person. He/she had the voice of a guy, but wearing a dress, over extremely hairy legs, it confused me because I had no idea what they were transitioning to or from.

17th November 2023

Yet another free dresser to collect from Hudsonville, and deliver one in Holland.

The small dresser that we got from a neighbour’s attic was sold to a lady who was within a couple of weeks of giving birth. The dresser was going in their nursery. It’s satisfying to know that the piece that we gave new life to is going to a new life for a new life.

The one in Hudsonville was the other extreme.

Although a well known name, it had had a rough life. It had obviously been stored in a garage or shed as there were plenty of leaves in it. The floors to the drawers had sagged and will need to be replaced, and a bit of work to the sides but it should work out well.

All this travelling about left us short of time, I continued to sand the third chair and Kelli started on the blue painted mid century piece.

16th November 2023

There was a full day planned, collecting two pieces of furniture as well as the weekly shopping expedition.

First stop was an impressive house set in its own wood. The lawns were immaculately trimmed and the driveway was flawless, not a crack or blemish down the entire length. In front of an impressive barn was a blue painted mid-century piece that was a pile of crap. How they owned such a piece seemed beyond belief, but it’s not the first time this has happened.

Some of the worst examples we’ve collected have been outside wonderful buildings, leading to the thought about what kind of furnishing they have inside.

The next piece was a bed frame from the north side, we’ve had quite a few of those lately, there must be a bout of insomnia going around.

Then it was the shopping. With thanksgiving just around the corner, we wanted to look at the bird we had ordered at Natures Market. As we were catering for ten people we needed one built like a sumo wrestler. The one we saw was priced at over eighty dollars, “wow!” I exclaimed “we could buy a whole flock for that”.

It certainly made the wild ones that come down the road more attractive.

We continued with our weight training prior to breakfast, I have no idea when my arms will show any improvement, not that I desire huge biceps, just enough to fill my sagging skin.

Then I returned to all the sanding that I do endlessly, and even that I would have expected that to help with my arm development. Time will tell.

15th November 2023

We have two dressers that have been paid for, still waiting to be collected, and today was the day.

Well that was the plan, all through the day we were expecting a message to warn us of the impending time they would be with us.

Eventually one rescheduled for Saturday, and the other tomorrow, so we pushed them back into the garage for the umpteenth time.

I continued sanding the second chair whilst Kelli completed painting two more dressers.

All around us was the sound of leaf blowers, this annoys Kelli, as a lover of nature, leaf piles are the winter home for useful bugs. This is why I have brushed all the leaves in the back garden, into piles on the flower beds. The leaf blower I have has been banned.

14th November 2023

The Beep! Beep! of the city trucks signalled the wake up call. Starting before 7.00am the clearing of the leaves had begun. I think there are two collection times that this happens which is just as well as there are plenty of the things still to drop.

The city team consists of a grabber and a fleet of trucks that take the stuff to god knows where.

They do the best they can, but there is always a lot of debris left that has to be piled up ready for the next time.

Kelli had found a free outdoor table top on a local free site and decided that we should have it, so off we went to collect it. Whatever it was came in a cardboard box, so I assume it was new, but where were the legs? So that is a project for the spring.

I started on the stripping of four dining chairs that Kelli acquired whilst I was away. Luckily they could be disassembled making it a bit easier to sand, even then it’s a days work per chair, oh happy next four days.