Author: peterb51

26th January 2023

The city man took the lid from our wheely bin that was detached last week, with the rubbish this morning, Kelli will have to call the office and order a new bin soon, or it will fill up with snow.

Talking of which, it snowed most of the day, very picturesque, but cold.

We finally sold the dresser that we altered to a couple who traveled over an hour to collect, that’s dedication for you.

We started work on the five drawer dresser, repairing drawers, stripping tops and priming the carcass, that needs to be out next week.

We went out to dinner with Scott and Karen, neighbours from up the road. This was the first time, although Scott often stopped in for a chat and sometimes to give me some veneer or old stuff he had in his garage.

We went to a place I’d never heard of called Salt and Pepper, a sort of pub and restaurant.

The only table we could get was at 4.45pm often reserved for old Dutch people who like to be home in bed by 6.00pm.

When you walked into the place, the lighting was so dim, you forgot what time it was.

On our new eating regime , we shared the main course, which was salmon on a Parmesan Reggiano risotto. When it arrived I thought “ do we have to share this?”it looked so small, fortunately the server handed me another identical serving, thank god, otherwise I would have eaten the tablecloth.

25th January 2023

Bugger! It’s snowing again. The forecast is for the stuff to fall all day, and pretty much all next week, snow blower weather I expect.

We drove to Hudsonville to collect a five drawer dresser that Kelli had already sold and got a deposit on, which is just the motivation we need.

On the way back we stopped off at Goodwill on the north side. Kelli, of course was drawn towards the clothing whilst I walked around the furniture part. There was not a lot of stuff, anything good would have been snapped up by the early birds who hang around at opening time and who rush in like their arses are on fire.

Needless to say there was nothing worth buying.

I walked up and down the isles killing time, there is only so much excitement one can endure looking at glasses and cookware.

I could see her arms were full of items, so I found a trolly and it was soon full.

I looked through the CDs doing what I usually do, that is seeing anyone I have heard of, but this time I moved the few I recognised to the end of the shelf.

As Kelli decided that she wanted to try on the five pairs of jeans she had in the cart. I moved my attention to moving all the discs by the same artist and group them all together, I didn’t realise Kenny G had so many albums. I could have stayed there all day maybe putting them in alphabetical order, but Kelli was at the checkout, time for me to leave.

She had whittled down the jeans that fitted, so once they were paid for we drove back, because we had a dresser to start.

At the end of our day we took the dogs up the road to look at the house that is being built.

Often we see the wild turkeys strutting their stuff between the houses, but this time there was no sign of them. The reason was they were all sitting in the trees. I have never seen these birds flying, they don’t look very aerodynamic, but there they were like black vampires gripping the branches getting ready for the night.

24th January 2023

Another sleepless night and a miserable day, I’m getting concerned because there is one every week now.

As I have written, there is no pattern to this every woman is different, its like a creaky boat in the stormy sea, I hope it holds together.

I’m not sure Kelli’s condition can be cured with supplements alone, she is on so many that are supposed to help the hormonal balance as well as the ongoing adrenal treatment.

The mood continued on all day, I was not in a good position myself, I know it will resolve itself, but it’s hard to accept, and deal with sometimes.

I took refuge in the garage, I wanted to make plenty of noise.

I did all the machining on the table leg then set in a new piece of oak, that will be a strong repair.

I then prepared two tops for a pair of side tables that we modified from an old desk, the old favourite conversion. I managed to get a dark stain on it to dry overnight.

23rd January 2023

The day started with a visit to the vet so that Dhama could give a blood sample. Because she had been on anti inflammatory tablets so long they wanted to check that it hadn’t damaged her liver, so a quick hundred bucks and we were out.

Next stop was an address on the north side to pick up a tall and thin bookcase.

We arrived at an apartment complex, we had the block number but not the door number.

After waiting a few moments, Kelli sent her a message, a few more minutes, then a call, no answer, a few more minutes then we turned round and left.

It was another cold day, there was overnight snow on the ground, and the thought of going into the garage was not very appealing.

The person who wanted the dresser messaged this morning with a lame excuse for not being able to arrange transport. Kelli responded to say that we could deliver, then there was silence.

That was the signal for me to modify the bottom part, removing some of the detail.

That took a little while to do, then making good ready for painting.

I had a project to do that required getting out the big router.

I had repaired part of a leg section from a large round dining table that we picked up for free at the end of last year.

The plan was to machine out a pocket from the damaged area and set in a new piece of oak to strengthen the repair.

What I wanted to do was put guide blocks at each edge of the leg so I could guide the router and produce the pocket.

With the aid of some wood scraps and clamps I managed to made a decent job of it ready for the machine operation tomorrow.

Kelli drove off to collect a side table being offered for free, when she got there no one came to the door, a familiar situation.

She then drove back empty handed.

After some texting, the person agreed to deliver it to us, which she did.

The piece was a Stickley, quite a good name in these parts, this should be easy to sell on.

We lady who bought the small table turned up, both her and Kelli recognised each other from a long time back, funny how that happens.

22nd January 2023

It wasn’t the best of nights, but Kelli held it together and finally slept till nine o clock.

We saw the snow outside and groaned, it wasn’t thick, just a sprinkle, so not so bad.

We had our modest breakfast, watched some network news excerpts on YouTube, and planned what we were going to tackle today.

Kelli was concerned that the latest dresser wasn’t getting much attention. “ It’s too thirties looking” she announced, “ could you cut the bottom section off and make it a bit more squarish?”

It had been a couple of days since it was posted, a bit short in my opinion, but she has been proved right on many occasions.

I dressed for warmth and went out into the garage. I had to attach the top to the dresser, and viewed the potential modification.

I noted that one of the drawer runners was a bit worn, so I needed to repair or replace that one.

We had finished the small side table that a neighbour had found on the side of the road, it looks a lot different now.

I fixed the top to the leg frame and attached the shelf, then polished the drawer handle till the brass plate shone.

We weren’t going to get much for it, but it would be off our stock list, and someone would like it.

Sure enough before the digital ink was dry on the post, it was sold, maybe we should have asked more.

Just as I was going to modify the dresser, we had an inquiry, was it legitimate? She wanted to collect on Thursday, that would work, and save me a job.

21st January 2023

There was police activity one street over that we discovered whilst taking the dogs for a walk. The first signs was yellow tape across the road that we were walking towards.

Left to me I would have lifted it and walked under, although it stated “Do not cross”.

Instead we walked around.

We could see several police vehicles at the top of the road, but we had no idea what was going on.

Fortunately, someone from the next road along was also curious, got into his vehicle and came to investigate. We met him down the road as he asked us if we knew what was happening.

Now there was three of us with no idea of what was going on in our neighbourhood.

We could see the a police cruiser was driving towards us, now was the opportunity to get information from the horses mouth.

He didn’t say much except that the person they were looking for was now in custody. That didn’t help much, was there a crime scene? Will it be on TV? Nope! Life will return to normal, so back to walking the dogs.

The chairs went back to their home this morning, it was good to see them go, and the owner was pleased to see them looking like new.

20th January 2023

Nothing ever happens at Starbucks on the north side, except for the occasional slurp or rustle of a paper bag being crunched up, or the frantic typing of a student catching up on the long overdue homework.

Today was different, both myself and Kelli were killing time, minding our own business when there was drama at the front door.

A large couple happened to enter the premises, the man taking the stool nearest the door, his wife, or at least I think it was, suddenly fell to the ground. She was the kind of woman that shouldn’t have been let out without a muzzle because her voice ripped though the place like a jagged piece of shrapnel. Not many people rushed to help her, no one had an engine hoist handy, but the manager rushed to see what was going on.

It was unclear what happened, did she slip, or what? These places have large mats in front of the door, so unless her shoes were slicks, I doubt that. She was describing her fall in a voice that was painful to ease drop, the tone made fingernails on a chalkboard seem tuneful.

She apparently slipped off the rung on the leg of the stool, personally I think her ankles just decided this was the time to give up.

The manager rushed back with a cup of ice, because now it was a full blown emergency. She was asking if Starbucks would pay for an X-ray, the manager, of course had to check with head office.

The lady was then on her phone telling all her friends what had happened in graphic detail, I’m sure they were all giving her the same advice. Her husband was looking embarrassed, he didn’t want to be this close to a real drama Queen, his eyes were in a different place, maybe the local zoo, where her would have to return her later that day.

There was the exchange of phone numbers, a a promise to “get back” to her as soon as head office “got back” to him. He must have been secretly wishing for his shift, or his life to end.

After that episode, we visited a place called “ Not so shabby” a consignment store specifically for repurposed furniture and old tat. There we met John and Patti who do very much the same as us, but they sell their furniture at the store. We hadn’t seen them for a while so we chatted for a while. John has a part-time job working for an undertake collecting the diseased. He asked me if I wanted a job, as the death rate had risen and they needed more staff. I declined the offer as I really don’t think I could do that sort of work.

It takes a special kind of person to do that kind of work, and I’m not one of them.

Later in the afternoon a lady came to collect the two dressers that we sold on Wednesday, a good end to an interesting day.

19th January 2023

The city rubbish collection finally destroyed the wheely bin by separating the body from the lid.

It had been limping along for several months, but just couldn’t survive the crushing action of the monster truck. Gone are the days when cheery guys took the bin and carefully placed it in the correct position, to be hoisted and emptied, then lowered back on earth to be wheeled back to the homeowners front gate.

Now they use six wheeled terminators to distort all in its path, and the best things is next Thursday, they’ll be back

We were both in a better frame of mind to continue spraying the dining chairs, we managed a couple of coats.

The weather continues to be wet and dismal, even though we still took the dogs for a walk, I don’t think they were impressed.

It stay light till way past 6.00 this time of year, and I even spotted my bluebells that I planted in the autumn starting to burst out. I hope that the squirrels didn’t eat any.

18th January 2023

Kelli had a bad night that transpired into a bad day. We had a meeting to pick out taps at a local showroom, I wanted to cancel, but Kelli didn’t. So we went, and it became one of the most embarrassing events I can remember.

First she didn’t want to get out of the truck, so I went on in and made an excuse that she was on the phone. I started to look around the display with our designer Stacy. Eventually Kelli came into the showroom looking like she didn’t want to be there. She didn’t show any interest in any of the products that were selected. The atmosphere was strained, Stacy felt it and I’m sure the sales lady did also.

What followed was slow and painful, it felt the longest hour of my life.

It was Stacy that coaxed the good Kelli out, maybe she recognised the signs and finally got her to show an interest.

However the rest of the day was doomed, although we did manage to sell the two dresser set.

As I have said before, it is hard for men to understand hormone imbalance, we are drawn into an argument that we didn’t see coming. I’m sure many are able to deal with it, but I fail at every time.

The supplements she is on is supposed to help balance her hormones, but there is no roadmap to follow, I don’t know how long it will last.

17th January 2023

The last dining chair is done! Now the finishing will begin, with the amount of sanding I’ve done there will be an extra two inches of space in their house.

I swept up all the dust and paint scrapings, filling up a couple of brush pans, I am so relieved that the dirty work is done.

Kelli had a doctors appointment, and it was good to see her get the rough treatment and as her threshold of pain is lower than mine, there is always more noise.

We stopped off at Menards to pick up some supplies using up the last of the discount vouchers for last year.

The weather is still rather grey and wet, so we carried them both inside to take pictures, the light wasn’t perfect but we did the best we could.

I managed to pick up some solder to tin the end of the wires for the sander, then reassembled and it worked, success!