Author: peterb51

4th May 2026

It was a beautiful day, the blue sky covered in white crosses meaning more bio engineering activity. More particles falling on the population and farmland in evermore attempts to destroy our lives. When will the masses take the time to question it, will it take more deaths of unaware people. We know the governments can’t be trusted, but why would they do that to their own people?

It was shopping day, Kelli had her list with a mission to feed a third world county, or so it seemed.  We were forced to get our grapefruits from Nature’s Market as the Aldi season supply had ended. Now every bite has to be savoured, it’s as precious as gold.

3rd May 2026

I had work to do for my Tuesday project. I had to make a pattern which required sticking many sheets of printer paper together. I didn’t want to commit to hardboard or ply just yet, so I painstakingly drew out the shape. Now it will be interesting to do it this way, and I’m just hoping I got the rough shape laid up in timber correctly.

I had planned a recording session with Chris, but he spent time with his children instead, fortunately that suited me anyway.

I’m still working on the song that Tim had sent me. I did spend the last few days adding a kick drum to the drum tracks, and at eight minutes long, it was a trial.

We went up to Kelli’s mums for ice cream, we even took Winnie this time.

The lady who bought the secretary turned up to collect it.

2nd May 2026

A rare treat for both Kelli and myself, Greer treated us to a visit to the cinema to see “Michael “ the bio pic of Michael Jackson.

This was a wonderful surprise, as we hadn’t been to the movies since they added sound. I’m joking of course, it was colour.

I did expect the place to be heaving, but quite the contrary it was less than half full.

I was really impressed with how much room there was. The seats converted into a lounger and there was still room to walk pass.

I found the leg control, up the support came, I made myself comfortable, and readied myself for the main feature.

It was a very good film despite some unfavourable reviews, the music was great, the sound system in the theatre was tremendous.

After the first hour my left leg fell asleep, I could only imagine if it happened to both legs, the embarrassment of being carried out would be too much. Kelli was well into it, singing along and flinging her hands in the air.

The film was launched at about the right time. There is a lot of reports saying that Michael Jackson was destroyed by the very industry he funded with his record sales. He was outspoken about the corruption and evil within the industry, and was in the process of telling all and terminating his contact with Sony, shortly afterwards he died of an overdose.

Many are saying that the accusations of child molesting were starting to ruin him, and that those who spoke out against him did it on instructions from certain people in the entertainment industry. We are all too quick to judge others, the media splash storied on the screen and everyone believed it. Funny, time has shown us that they are not telling the truth they are the mouthpiece of evil people. 

The same can be said of Prince, he saw the industry as evil, and wanted to walk away from it, and guess what? He died of an overdose.

It’s all there right in front of us all the time, and we believed everything we were told, and not question anything.

1st May 2026

After many months we went back to the range to see just how bad we were.

My first challenge was unjamming the stapler that I use for attaching the targets. I fired in the first staple and it jammed on the second. Of course I didn’t think about bringing a tool kit, and had to make do with an old pair of scissors, a paint brush and a drill bit. Miraculously I managed to dislodge the offending staple, I then finished putting up the rest of the targets.

It had been so long I had forgotten the correct grip, I knew I had to avoid the sliding bit, scraped knuckles are not a pleasant experience.

My first rounds were a lot better than I expected, the cluster was around the centre, this was better than some of the sessions I’ve ever had. Kelli’s grouping was also better than she expected, so we didn’t feel like complete losers.

It was bitterly cold although the sun was out.

We only fired off a couple of hundred shots before getting back into a warm truck and went home.

Once back Kelli had another bookcase to paint and I attempted to form another laminated oak leg. The strips had been soaking in the toilet since last night, so they should be good and ready.

30th April 2026

We finished the small bookcase, a lot of effort for potentially modest return. That the way it works unfortunately. The supply of suitable furniture is a bit thin on the ground, even Goodwill has little on offer.

Being optimistic, I’m sure it will pick up as the weather improves, and the weekend cottage business takes off.

I have been watching the referb work taking place on Larry’s old place. It is intended to become a rental, but the amount of work being done is extensive. There have been decorators there for a couple of months, that must run at a grand a week, plus the city have dictated that facias and soffits be added. There was a team of four guys doing that work. I expect that to be on the market for sixteen hundred dollars a month very soon.

During all this time we get to view a new moon everyday, the main guy has problems keeping his denim up, if you get my drift.

It has been said that the housing market is slowing down, certainly there a several new builds that haven’t sold, I expect the price is far too high for locals, and the out of state buyers, getting highly paid jobs has certainly slowed due to all the high cost of materials.

It has to be difficult for all businesses, with diesel at high levels.

Once the sun had gone away we took pictures of the small bookcase.

29th April 2026

I made a visit to Randy my upholstery guy because the seat cushions had been delivered.

They had been made in North Carolina by a person that Randy hadn’t worked with before, a risky choice, but they turned out really good.

Now we wait for the fabric to arrive. There was one feature that hasn’t been decided and that was the side cushions. I always envisioned them included because it would make the chair feel more cosy. Kelli’s idea was to let the accent cushions take the place of the side cushions.

The jury is out on that one.

The weather was a bit crap, Kelli managed to paint a small bookcase, but that was about it, hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

29th April 2026

Another drive down to Byron Centre on a sunny day, the trees now have the green hue that signifies the growing time of year, I love it.

The price of petrol has hit $4 a gallon, and the smugness of the Tesla drivers is huge, it fills both lanes of the highway. You can just tell they are saying, “this trip is costing me nothing”, as they engage hyper drive to overtake everyone, who are not bothered to look as they are all watching their fuel gauges drop.

There is no national outrage, there are no demonstrations about it, every last cent is being wrenched out of their apathetic hands.

They are not like the French who rally together and dump piles of shit outside government buildings. The Americans have plenty of shit, but they elect them to serve in Washington.

I was thinking about all this as I noticed in my rear view mirror two large trucks side by side on the highway effectively block it. The speed limit for them is sixty five and neither of them was conceding, sucks to be behind them.

John was waiting for me, he had a large section of trees that had been chopped down, and cut into chunks, that he wanted transported to the barn.

I rolled it out to the truck, and with groin wrenching effort got it into the back.

He was surprisingly joyful today, but I didn’t understand most of it, but somehow I responded in all the right places.

The barn was in the same state as last week when we left it, the clamped timber sections were still standing in the same place.

I unclamped them and laid them out on the bench.

Today was the gluing up of all the sections to make the table top. I referred to my sketch to make sure I put them in the correct position, that is when I noticed I was one strip short.

How did that happen? I found the strip hidden in the offcuts. I machined it to the correct thickness then placing it in the right place.

This glue up was a bit stressful, but a lot easier than joining ten strips together although using biscuits helped with the alignment.

Halfway through John had a phone call, but couldn’t find his phone. He had left an incoherent voice message to a customer asking what sizes they wished the timber, that thy had left, should be machined to. This was a bit painful to listen to, at one point he asked me what his address was, I couldn’t remember, so I called his wife. Of course she was concerned as to who he was talking to, there I was in the middle of the now four way conversation trying to reassure his wife that John hadn’t had an accident. Once that had been sorted out I insisted that we write down the conversation in his notebook. Unfortunately the one I got him for Christmas he had lost, but he had another pad in his bag. I then got him to write down the name of the person who called, I then wrote out what the call was about, and what was happening next, if he showed that to his wife, at least she who know what was going on.

All this was exhausting, we had another cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie.

As I had completed the glue up I suggested that I help John work on some other timber that he had to machine for another customer.

These were ten foot long planks of pine, they had to be cleaned up and all thicknessed the same.

What thickness was acceptable? John gave me various numbers. “ Which thickness does he want?” In the end I managed to get all down to 0.80”. Then he brought out another two planks!

So I had to reset the planer and work my way down to match the others.

“Are there any more you have hiding John?” 

Fortunately for me there wasn’t.

After a sweep up it was time to go, I’m sure next time I see him there will be more confusion and mayhem, but with the table top ready to cut and sand there will be things for him to do.

27th April 2026

I had a dental appointment, not my favourite event of the day. It was the usual scale and polish, but they did notice a filling was starting to fail. “ That will need a crown” the dentist said.

“ Can’t you just refill it” I responded with a tone of desperation.

“No, I’m surprised that it lasted this long” he said as he scooted out of the room.

With the thought of spending another grand on my mouth, we scheduled the next appointment, we will assess when I need the crown.

We had done our shopping in the morning, nothing dramatic happened, it’s our chance to look at life, the few opportunities we have of mixing with people.

There were a few things missed off the list that I got on my way back from the dental surgery.

Kelli had found a buggy that would fit on our bikes where we could attempt to take the dogs with us, personally I think it will be doomed to fail, but as it was free we can give it a try.

Oh, and we sold the secretary, whoopee!

26th April 2026

I had the day set aside for recording, Chris was due at around noon with an expectation of having a productive time. As usual he arrived half an hour late, it’s just the way he is.

He was excited to use a new Yamaha guitar he had bought recently, and it did sound good.

I had set up a blank screen and created the recording environment, as he tinkered around with a new song he had written.

Once he set the tempo, we started to record the first guitar track.

This is usually scrapped, but it allows the musician to get into a groove.

We recorded several other guitar tracks finally getting a perfect take.

When he started putting a rough vocal down, I had to stop him. I tried to be tactful by saying that the melody line was very similar to a previous song we had recorded. He was a little stunned, he couldn’t remember what the other song was. We both sat there for a few minutes, I hummed a few notes of what song it was, and Chris suddenly realised the title. He sang through it, “Yes! That’s the one”.

How were we going to change it? It had the same tempo, and a similar structure.

More head scratching, I suggested slowing the song down, and changing the chord progression.

This was a typical example of a songwriter stuck in a rut. Although the other song was recorded eight years ago, its DNA is embedded in Chris’s mind. 

This session wasn’t going anywhere, he decided to go away and completely rewrite it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon pulling up grass and weeds from the flower beds with Winnie grabbing them and running around the garden with them in her mouth. I need to train her to only rip out the same stuff, and leave the shrubs and flowers alone.

25th April 2026 

It was a quiet day by comparison, no police vehicles, no unarmed combat or raised voices.

In fact it was peaceful, the weather was perfect, just right for gardening. It was a formidable task, all the leaves that my Kelli had insisted on leaving as winter habitat for bugs and bees.

This could only be disturbed after a week of warm temperatures. A big problem was we had missed the clearing of winter debris by the city.

Although it looks like the amount of leaves are small, but believe me, once the rake grabs the first cluster the true quality is revealed. Suddenly the pile grows, far more than the yard waste bin can hold, that was already filled with the contents on the back garden, that will have to be emptied first.

I just hope we don’t get a windy day, otherwise most of this dead stuff would be redistributed around the neighbourhood, which I’m sure would not be popular.

The other important news was that Kelli’s eye looks much better, she is now less looking like a one eyed vampire.

We now have a fully stocked cupboard of many different eye medications just waiting for the next eye casualty.

We were due to go to Kelli’s mum a day early. This was because Brenda, Matt’s wife had passed an exam to become a care worker.

Kelli had offered to make a cake to celebrate.

This was a coconut flour and pecan nut carrot cake with a white yogurt icing, this was delicious.