Author: peterb51

14th September 2023

My poor brain is being fried with everything that is going on.

You have the Democrats going after Trump, the Republican going after Biden, you have his son who is being indicted for tax avoidance, and I haven’t touched on Covid yet.

So this divided country is driving itself to the bottomed an enormous cess pool of corruption.

With Covid there is constant arguments about where it originated, a wet market or a viral research laboratory in China. As one of the first victims worked in the viral laboratory, I don’t think there is any argument, but they do.

Now there’s the thing, the main stream media here do not mention anything that is detrimental to the “story”, but I also watch other networks who go into much detail about what appear to make a lot of sense.

The truth about the vaccine will eventually come out, it may not be in my lifetime but it will.

It’s the same about the assassination of JFK, more facts are coming out that question the results of the Warren commission. So many suspected that the CIA were behind it, and soon this will be confirmed.

So all this is going on. And my small grey sponge is trying to deal with it.

On a much more simple level, I had to get materials from Menards that meant a short trip out, well it took longer because Kelli came along and added more stuff to the cart.

We had a lady call round to look at a small hinged chest we had for sale. “ It is smaller than what I thought” she said. Warning! Time waster.

We made our second batch of elderberry syrup, the aroma of the berries, cinnamon and cloves filled the house, I could even smell it in the garage.

13th September 2023

We got our eggs this morning whilst we were on our bike ride. It was definitely an autumn morning, even though we had our breakfast outside I certainly felt the cold. My hands were gripped tightly around my coffee mug, I needed the warmth.

We had to return a Pyrex dish to Kelli’s mum, and next door there was a dresser that looked to be ready to throw out. We knew the neighbour so when we got home Kelli messaged him to see if we could take it.

While we were waiting I made a start of pumping the water out of the pool. It was sad but there were no more warm days forecast.

It took a while to empty. I ran a hose to the street and let it flow down the side of the road.

When we got a response on the dresser, we shot off to collect it.

There had been overnight rain so it was a little damp, not good as the material used was chipboard, but it seemed to have survived.

Of course the drawers were full of crap that had to be emptied many of them had bird seed in them meaning they had been home to squirrels, but there was no damage to the wood parts.

It was heavy, even taking the drawers out made little difference, but we persevered even if we had to bungee the back hatch down.

Once we got home I cleaned out all the debris and had a chance to check it out throughly.

The top would need some love, replacing the edge band and removing the old finish, and a bit of work on the drawers but that’s all. It not a work of art, but should be good for someone.

I had laid out the pool to dry out before we attempt to fold it. From the time we got it I have never understood how it was folded to fit in such a small box, it was pure sorcery. We only just get it inside a large plastic crate.

12th September 2023

At least it wasn’t raining. The bike ride was brisk as a cool breeze was blowing from the lake. Luckily I was wearing a hoodie so I was protected. We did the usual circuit passed the house with the eggs, of which there was some, but neither of us had any money, so we sped on.

We had several dressers in process, and a buyer for the small green one, this was being delivered later on.

We had a treat in store this evening, we had arranged to meet John and Patty, our furniture restoring friends for dinner. We went to the Curragh, an Irish pub in downtown Holland.

But first we had to deliver the dresser to an apartment block on the south side. These can be dodgy places, and yes this was the one.

We found the correct block, and rang the doorbell, at the same time a big black guy burst out of the door, the strong smell of cigarette smoke hit us. Then the lady came forward holding a small dog. She followed us out and we showed her the dresser. She tried all the drawers and asked us if we would take less. I signalled to Kelli “no” and she explained that we had another person interested, and we did deliver it. Anyway she agree to pay the full price.

We carried the dresser into the lady’s small apartment, it was just large enough to swing her dog but that was all. Then it got a bit weird. She started talking about her kitchen, and what suggestions could I make to give her more storage space. As she was speaking, her little dog was chewing at my leg, it’s sharp teeth piercing my denims, I would flick it away when the lady wasn’t watching, I was poised to give it a swift kick aimed at the window.

Once it got bored it went over to Kelli and started chewing on her legs.

Also running about was a long haired rabbit, at first glance it looked like a toupee on legs.

All the animals, and a collection of carrying crates there wasn’t much space left.

Everything about the room was wrong, and I remarked that the whole room should be torn down and replanned. That was unlikely to happen as it was a rental, by then we had to excuse ourselves because we were meeting friends for dinner, and left.

11th September 2023

What a miserable day, rain was forecast all day, and rain it did.

When it rains here, it really pours, and it lasts for ever. In England it can pour, but only for a short time, then it’s like it gets tired after ten minutes and then resorts to drizzle for the rest of the time. American rain is tough, it can last for hours, it fills up the uneven road surface causing huge puddles, and when cars race though it, the water splashes into the air and joins the water coming down, making a god almighty deluge.

We had to go out to collect a table, I’m sure if we waited the bloody thing would have flouted to us. Anyway it was raining so Kelli looked around for an umbrella, it’s all of five feet to the truck, but she had to find the umbrella.

Once we got to the vehicle, the passenger side door was locked, so I enjoyed the droplets as I waited for her to unlock the truck. I watched as she tried to slide in whilst still holding the umbrella over her head . Now there comes a time when you have to make the decision to close it and bring it inside. That is when a drop fell on her wrist. You would have thought it was acid by the shriek she made.

Once she calmed down we set off to collect the table. On and on we drove through the driving rain, “is this still Holland?” I asked

“Not far now” was the reply. The GPS croaked into action, “ Take the next right” then more instructions followed, finally there it was sitting outside the garage with a plastic bag over the top. I was delegated to go out into the storm to collect the piece, not only did I get wet from the rain the water that had settled on the top ran down my arm and under my sleeve, oh I love that feeling.

Because of the weather it curtailed our work in the garage, although with clever movement of things kelli did manage to spray. I sat on a stool stripping another of its nasty paint.

10th September 2023

We went on the hunt for egg this morning. In our house there is high consumption of the little oval things. We have two places that we can get them, so we headed towards the first one on south shore. As we approached I looked if I could see the outline of the cool box that they are stored in. Was it or wasn’t it there? my eyes were playing tricks,” it’s there, damn it, it isn’t”.

We cycled on to the next one, a bit more expensive, but we’re prepared to pay the extra, even though we have further to travel.

The small stand at the side of the road loomed . Is there or isn’t there? No! Damn it. Aren’t the feathered bastards laying today? Will we have to go to the shop and buy them?

We felt defeated, we had doubled our ride and got nothing.

Kelli had arranged another dresser pick up, there seems to be a glut of them but no one is buying ours at the moment.

We got to the address and waited for the people to arrive. The garage door opened and there were a few pieces left. The chap carried out the dresser that we bought. They wanted 10 dollars for it, and nether of us had the cash except for a few notes, that meant we had to raid the coin jar. This is where I deposit all the small change I am given. Over the weeks it builds up to quite a stash. Kelli counted out all the small coins, and over here the size of the coin bares no resemblance to its value. We ended up with a large pile of small change that she place into an envelope. I was the lucky one who had to hold it as we drove to the place. The weight was cutting off the circulation to my legs so I was glad it was only a short trip.

Well we took the dresser, and Kelli handed over the envelope. I could tell the lady wasn’t expecting the weighty present.

Just as we were leaving other things caught Kelli’s eye, and they were free, alway guaranteed to get her interest and save things from the land fill. She picked out bird feeders, a seed dispenser and if I let her a statue of a child holding an urn, fortunately it was broken, so we left that.

Just as we were leaving she saw a sprinkler that fitted on a hose “we’ll have that” she said.

Now with all our treasures, we headed home.

“I’m really excited with all the free things we got”

I indicated that it was way down on my level of interest.

9th September 2023

We finished one of the small dressers that we picked up last week. Kelli did the finishing touches to the paint job, whilst I worked on making a floor and inside back panel for a hutch that we got from the organ man.

I removed the drawers runners, because one of the drawers had been destroyed I decided to make doors instead. I have already made the frames and cut the metal mesh to fit inside.

The general paint finish of the hutch was crap, so in between helping Kelli with painting the doors I started sanding back the rough paint.

During the afternoon the couple that we painted chairs for returned to bring back two that had got scratched. It is alway a risk that it can happen with painted pieces, but in general they still looked good. Usually it’s the legs that get beaten up, but there was barely a mark on them.

Later Kelli went off on her own to Plato’s closet with more stuff to sell whilst I started thinking about a repair to a guitar that her brother Matt had thrown into the dustbin ages ago.

I rescued it and set it aside as a side job.

The guitar had fallen and snapped the headstock right where it had joined the neck. He attempted to repair it with Gorilla glue, but was not confident that it would hold up to having strings fully tensioned.

I have watched a number of videos on this type of repair, so I thought I would have a go myself, what possibly go wrong?

8th September 2023

It was the usual run to the shops for the weekly food run. It was cloudy and cool, and of course I had short sleeves on which was slightly inappropriate as Kelli pointed out. This coming from a person who will cycle ten feet then turn back to change her clothes then spend the rest of the ride complaining about them. At least I do it right from the start.

We finally finished the dresser that had been half eaten by squirrels, with all the damage repaired it looked a completely different animal. This piece is different from the usual as it had a mirror, we have had them in the past but all are still in the garage.

For once we didn’t have any distractions, no pick-ups of stuff Kelli bought on Marketplace, it was food stuff then straight back, quite a relief.

7th September 2023

Today I did a dirty and disgusting thing that I’m ashamed to admit.

We left home to do a few errands, I had to go to Lowes to buy a sheet of plywood to make floors for a number of drawers that I have rebuilt, Kelli wanted to go to the bank finally.

As we were driving along south shore her head spun round and exclaimed “Did you see that crate in the trash?”.

Thankfully I didn’t.

“Shall I turn around and get it”

I made some unfavourable noises by which time we had traveled some distance, and I hoped she would forget about it.

“We don’t want anymore crap, we have loads already, and we need to get rid of it” I replied.

“But I could use it as a prop for our pictures”

I then made the big mistake.

“Look if it’s still there when we get back then I’ll get it for you”

“But it’s trash day it will be picked up and it will be your fault that it will go to landfill”.

We drove on to do our shopping.

I don’t go to Lowes very often, Menards is much closer, but they don’t stock the thin plywood I needed.

We needed a replacement cistern for the second toilet, this became searching for a needle in a haystack exercise. Walking up and down the isles was a thankless task, and Kelli was getting bored. Eventually I had to ask an assistant, she tapped things into her handset and said to follow her, which we did.

There it was in the toilet parts section, I expect we would have found it eventually.

It seemed we had to ask someone for everything we needed, but finally the last thing was the plywood.

I did know where that was stocked. Once we were past the checkout, there was the problem of loading it into the truck. In the past I had no problem, it was a case of getting the right angle and pushing. It would mean it would rest on my head for the journey home, but that was acceptable.

So there we were driving along south shore getting closer to the bin with the crate. I could see it in the distance, my heart sank. The trash hadn’t been collected as Monday was a holiday, so my worst nightmare was looming up ahead.

I was hoping that she would drive slowly past and I would lean out of the window and grab it , but no she had to pull into the drive and stop. I then had to open the door, get out, walk around the back of the truck, grab the bloody crate, walk back around, open the back door throw the crate inside, close the door, open my door and get in, and only then would Kelli would reverse out and leave the scene.

So I actually lifted something out of a rubbish bin in broad daylight, I felt dirty, unclean and violated, the kind that would haunt me forever, and it wasn’t even a good crate.

6th September 2023

Elaine came to collect the parts for her kitchen restoration. I had made some fitting templates so she could fix the drawer runners in the correct position, and it took a while, and several attempts for her to understand.

In my haste to educate on the assembly process I bloody forgot to take any pictures of the pieces, hopefully Elaine will take some if they ever get assembled in her kitchen.

Kelli was busy preparing a small storage box for painting, I spent the day sanding a mirror frame, I certainly know how to enjoy myself.

This is the time for harvesting the elderberries.

We have quite a few now and the branches are weighed down. I spend the evenings removing the berries with a fork. The rate the bushes are spreading we may make more money from elderberry juice than furniture.

5th September 2023

It was another stonkingly hot day, possibly the last one of the summer. Kelli had forty dollars that she got from the last sale, and she wanted to pay it into her bank.

“ Let’s take a bike ride to the ATM on thirty second”, she announced, as we have done this before, I was game.

There was one big road we had to cross, but most were side streets. The route we took led us to road construction. Throughout Holland they are laying fibre optic cables, so they decided to rip up all the roads and pavements leaving absolute carnage.

We had to push our bikes around the ruts and holes, through soft sand that would have been impossible to ride through. These bikes are not light, making the progress rather slow.

Once we cleared all the obstacles it was plain sailing to the ATM.

Well that bit was simple, when we arrived at the site there was an ominous collection of vans and cardboard boxes in the area.

As we rode round to where the machine usually is, we noticed it was now blocking our exit, and in its normal place was a brand new unit being fitted by two installers. “Can I have any cash left in the old machine” I asked jokingly “Sorry there was none left” one of them replied.

So we had cycled miles through searing heat and dug up roads with forty dollars to pay in and we couldn’t, the day couldn’t get any better.

As we were making our way back Kelli looked at me and burst out laughing. Now I expect that from strangers, but not my wife.

She pointed out that I still had my reading glasses on and not my shades, and I hadn’t noticed. I remembered that I had my sunglasses on before we left, but I had to read something, so I placed them on the countertop and put on my readers, I guess I just forgot.

I hadn’t noticed that everything was so bright, I suppose it was the excitement of the ride that made me forget to change back. That became the source for giggles for the rest of the day.

Now most drivers are very curious to bike riders, and let us cross the roads in front of them. There are others who don’t. We encountered one of those on this trip. We both had to stop in the middle of the road as this person just ignored us.

“Thank you” we both said sarcastically in unison, then continued on our journey home, thinking nothing of it.

Quite content, and back in familiar territory, a van passed us and the driver was shouting at us

“ Do you always yell at a mentally ill person, or are you just a bitch all of the time? “

This was bizarre, I didn’t know what was going on, then I recognised the van, it was the one that cut us up at the crossing. They must have backtracked and chased after us.

The van then turned around and came towards us, this time the passenger was filming us on a phone.

“Wow” I thought, “ I might be on YouTube” then it got weirder, “ Why would a mentally ill person admit they were mentally ill, if that were me driving that colour and make of vehicle, I would want to admit that?”

Once that excitement was over, we got back home, all hot and bothered we decided to jump straight into the pool. For an hour we floated around watching the birds fly between our holly bush and the fence.

We finally got energy to do a bit of work, I finished off Elaine’s project and Kelli did a bit of painting, that was it.

Another amazing event that happened was the light under the microwave oven started working, no one knows why, but after four years there is light, maybe it’s a sign?.