Author: peterb51

30th June 2023

We had to drive to Zeeland to collect one of Kelli’s supplements, not ideal, but we all have to make sacrifices to heal ourselves.

This was an excursion that I didn’t want to make as I had a lot of things on my list to do.

Due to the miserable results for June I wanted to make up for it fo July, so I wanted to strip the paint off the latest pair of side tables and to examine the roughly repaired end panel on the mid century dresser, and of course complete the last drawer in the kitchen.

We also had word that there were more fresh eggs ready along the road, that meant a quick trip on the bikes to collect them.

I have been listening to interviews with Robert Kennedy junior who has thrown his hat into the next presidential election in 2024. He is a democrat in the old style and is critical of how money and corporate contributions have polluted politics in America. He also has strong views of how the Covid pandemic had been handled and how the pharmaceutical companies have cashed in on it. He is passionate about dismantling America’s war machine and use the billions of dollars to help the American people. He has a common sense approach to most things and is therefore unpopular with the majority of the mainstream media which is obvious. This is the major failure of these outlets that speak of the division between the right and left and yet do nothing to address the problems. Kennedy is listened, and respected by both sides, the first time I have encountered this. It will be interesting to see if his messages filter into the upcoming debates.

29th June 2023

It was the Birthday for Cameron and Kelli’s mum Georgia, so a quick stop off to give them greetings and leave them with a bunch of our wild flowers each. Not sure what Cameron would do with them, but they were in a glass jar, so should last a few days. His record for keeping plants alive is pretty short.

There is still the haze, although stonkingly hot, the sun is hidden. My exposed legs are certainly popular with flying insects leaving their marks, I guess I’m still considered as fresh blood.

We bought more dirt to fill in more holes in the garden, I swear we are just moving soil from one side of the town to the other.

Another drawer has been fitted into the kitchen, only one more to go.

I’m trying to balance the furniture business with the kitchen, and failing dismally, this has to be the worst month for sales since we moved, and there are no signs of any change soon. Side tables used to fly off the shelves even before the paint dried, but not so now.

Even though there is the forth of July holiday coming up it buying fireworks can’t be the reason why they’re not buying furniture.

Maybe the mid century piece will rejuvenate our enthusiasm.

28th June 2023

We had a visit from the local turkeys who had discovered the bird food dispenser hanging on the edge of the wild area.

Busily they pecked at the seed spilled by the bird filling their bellies. It certainly wasn’t the full flock, possibly the hungriest.

There was still the haze about, and the sun was hidden, but the temperature was up making the morning bike ride pleasant.

We took a slight diversion to see how things were progressing on a mega house close to the Macatowa Yacht Club. A large lawn was sold to build this structure. It is very modern with floor to ceiling windows and a flat roof, it will have commanding views over the Yacht Club car park.

Our ride took us part the house that sells eggs, and although we scratched together some change, there were none to buy. Shame, as I was looking forward to getting more blue eggs.

We completed our five mile circuit, then it was time to get some work done. We have had two bad months in a row, mainly with the work needed on the kitchen, I’m hoping that will be finished by the weekend, as we have friend over on Sunday.

27th June 2023

The weather outside was hazy caused by the forest fires in Canada. There were warnings on my phone of poor air quality and advising people to stay inside. I was planning a big bonfire to get rid of my timber offcuts, so I guess I better not do that at the moment.

We had to look after Morgan the hyper girl for an hour or so whilst her mother went to the dentist. Kelli had her making blueberry scones and various craft exercises. The scones turned out good, a little flat, but tasty.

Then we had to drive to Hudsonville to collect a free desk, it must be desk dumping time in Michigan.

Then it was back home so I could start replacing the drawers in the last kitchen cabinet. I was able to use some of the timber supplied by the fridge manufacturer in the packaging, thanks SMEG.

26th June 2023

Today all the handles came in. That eight year old child in India certainly pulled the stops out to get them to us. We also collected the two length of copper trim from the small engineering company in Zeeland for the tiles, they only charged us forty dollars for both pieces.

I couldn’t wait to get started fitting them. It was a cold miserable day, ideal for drilling holes and screwing on handles.

It took a while, but soon the bits of looped string were redundant and replaced with shiny coppery coloured metal things that did what was required. They do not shout out against the dark paint of the doors, instead they harmonise with the sink. I still have the four drawer unit to finish, but they are all drilled waiting for their embellishments.

Kelli was working in the garage, and managed to spill the paint that she had warned me of in case I did it. I’ve never seen her move so quickly as she rushed to clean the paint off her feet and sandals.

The weather had turned cold meaning that bike rides were off the agenda, this will last a couple more days before we get back to some summer temperatures.

25th June 2023

We decided that it was about time to go to another supermarket to do our shopping.

Before we would get everything from two places, Aldi and Nature’s Market, now we wanted to see if we could get what we needed from just one.

We drove to Meijer the colossal store in Holland. Not having visited it since before Covid we weren’t sure how we would handle it.

First it was finding a parking space, not as simple as it sounds. Normally with a place that big there would be ample parking, that is if you want to be in the same state, but eventually we found one, after waiting for someone to pull out. In through the self opening doors to be met by the greeter. “Welcome to Meijer” he said cheerfully, “ I think I could do that job” I said, “ no stress, and I could employ my English accent”, Kelli was not impressed.

Set out before us was a vast cathedral of fruit and vegetables, it was difficult to know where to start. People were like ants rushing all over the place, it was scary.

We started filling the trolly, although finding the specific items was difficult. It would have been simple if all the special foods that Kelli needs were in one place, but there seemed no thought given to that. After about half an hour of fighting against the tide we looked at each other and concluded that we didn’t want to be here.

Kelli was in favour of leaving the trolly and walking out, but with some frozen items that we had, that would not be good. So we retraced our steps and putting things back. To those viewing the CCTV instead of shopping, we were restocking, a totally unknown concept.

We then drove to Aldi our familiar territory, and although not so much choice, we felt safe.

By this time we had used up half the day, so stopping off at the corner store to top up our supplies we were able to start jobs.

Then the storm hit. The wind got up, the thunder and the lightning flashed through the dark grey sky. Kelli heard a crack, as a portion of tree fell on South Shore drive. By now the rain was falling like stair rods. A police car arrived to assist with traffic control, the blue and red flashing lights piercing the darkness of the small wooded area, later to be joined by the green and yellow lights of the city tree squad. The sound of chainsaws and tree munchers then concluded the afternoon entertainment

24th June 2023

There are often signs that a sale is going bad when a customer pulls out every drawer, every door, sides, back and top, then decide “to pass”. This happened today.

We were trying to sell a large dresser that had been advertised for a few day with no takers.

Then there was one offer that came in thirty bucks under our price, I said “tell them to go away” or words to that effect, Kelli went back splitting the difference, but that was refused.

Later, desperate for a sale, Kelli went back to the person accepting the low offer.

Later in the afternoon a large white open bed truck with big exhausts backed into the drive.

It had essence of Trump wafting around it.

Out got a mother and her two daughters who promptly opened up the tailgate as the mother started her inspection. Everything was scrutinised, “ looks like it had water damage” she croaked. She had that vocal fry that a lot of girls have where the sentences descend into a deep vat of fat. We knew there wasn’t any water damage, and Kelli lost interest and went to take the cover off the pool, leaving me to face the frying.

“ I think I’ll pass, sorry to waste your time”

“ I think you wasted your time “ I said in reply, and got on with my scraping.

I did think she would use the water damage as an excuse to drop the price a bit more, and I was ready to tell her to get her truck off our driveway, but that didn’t happen.

The truck started up and all the smell of Trump disappeared with them, good riddance.

“I’m going to block her so she can’t see anything we advertise in future” Kelli announced. I would have blocked her entering our driveway if I had known.

Later we had another interested person who said they would Venmo the payment in the evening, but we heard nothing further.

Then another person asked if they could come over and look at it, it was nine o clock by now, but we said yes.

I had to move the piece from the garage again and set it on the driveway.

At the slotted time a small SUV turned up and a tall guy with ginger beard got out.

He did the full check over, trying all the drawers, even pulling one out to check the runners. I did think this was going down the toilet until he said that he liked it, and if he could get it into his vehicle he would take it.

Man, we will get it in even if it kills me, and it nearly did.

That had been an interesting day, you can never predict the outcome, but thankfully the money was in my hand, and it was on to the next one.

23rd June 2023

The end of the week is here, it was warm but cloudy. We cycled to see if any eggs were outside of the house on south shore, but there were none, so we turned around and rode to the park. On the way back we went to the cemetery to retrieve a small vase of wild flowers that we left on Fathers Day. That was missing, but the flowers were laid on the headstone, apparently the staff had removed it as it didn’t conform to the strict requirements of cemetery policy. They must patrol this place with the same intensity as they do at the southern border. What a load of crap!

So disappointed, we rode home.

We unloaded the mid century pieces from the truck and started to remove the paint. What was underneath was a pale veneer that I didn’t recognise, but there is a heck of a lot of scraping still to do.

22nd June 2023

It was a sad day with the loss of the five people on the mini sub visiting the wreck of the Titanic. What should have been a trip of a lifetime was also the end of theirs.

It’s a grim reminder that everyone is vulnerable, regardless of wealth or position, when your time is up there no escape.

There was a lot of coverage on the various networks, it was more relevant than the constant crap Trump has been spouting.

Kelli found a free mid century dresser in Zeeland it had been painted black, we suspect there is something good underneath.

The house itself was a mid century style, recently renovated, the red brick contrasted with dark grey siding looked stunning.

The two furniture pieces were waiting in the carport, a feature common to this type of architecture.

Although painted, there were parts of the drawer case that teased as to what the carcass finish would be, I can’t wait to start on them.

First we had to finish what we have started. I had to repair one of the desk pedestals that had damaged to the base that had to be replaced, whilst Kelli finished the large dresser so we could take pictures and post on Marketplace.

21st June 2023

Well I don’t know where the bloody ladybirds went. I saw a few on the cherry tree, but if they eat fifty aphids a day, with the infestation on the tree it will take them forty seven years, I’m sure it won’t matter much to me by then.

Kelli went off to spend time with Greer planting stuff in her small garden whilst I could play my old git music to my heart’s content.

However I did have a meeting with Tom Newhouse in Grand Rapids at three thirty, so I was hoping she would be back by then.

Three twenty nine she still wasn’t home, so I was getting annoyed. She finally got back ten minutes later than we agreed. I was pissed because I had to stop at the bank and get fuel, and all that was eating into my travel time.

I hate being late, I sent off a quick email to Tom warning I would be late. Then set off.

This might have been the first time I had driven there on my own, so I was a bit apprehensive.

Our meeting site was Brewery Vivant, a converted chapel that served a great selection of German/Belgium beers.

I found a parking space, but had to hunt for the venue. Eventually I found it with Tom sitting outside under a large umbrella.

It was good seeing him again, the last time was pre Covid and I was eager to find out how his sculptures were developing.

That, he explained his sculptures had gone down the toilet due to the lockdown, but he had gone back to his fine art background and a few industrial design projects.

His artwork was primarily using Prismacolor pencils and was exquisitely delicate.

We lamented the past, the characters lost and the direction that Herman Miller was taking. He no longer does work for them, which he doesn’t regret. He found that the environment was toxic and was happiest working with small companies.

He then order a selection of beers from the list, I thought, “Hang on there Tom, I’ve got to drive home afterwards”.

It turned out these were small samples called a “flight” which were delicious, and I could easily have had the full size glasses and promptly fallen over.

It was great seeing him again, we made a tentative time to meet again, and then a quick walk round the interior of the bar, which was amazing, a quick handshake and it was back to the truck.

Stuck on the windscreen was a bright green envelope with a parking ticket inside. In my haste to find the place I forgot to pay for parking, oh well, at least they didn’t tow the truck away.