Author: peterb51

8th  October 2025

I finally had a reply from Avid that helped me sort out the issues I was having. A new dongle and a bit of activation, that even I could do, and Protools was working perfectly.

That was a good start of the day.

I spent a bit of time making a cutting jig for my little boxes project. The saw I had was not really designed for precision, although I did take time to set it up as best that I could, I was never sure that mitres were coming out square, so I made a fixture to ensure they would.

I had pieces ready to cut, a quick zip through the saw and they were perfect. I had it glued up with my new belt clamp, thank you China.

I had sanded the top of our latest Goodwill purchase yesterday, so today was staining day.

Now that the pool has been packed away I decided to have a burn up. I had boxes of wood scraps that were in the way, and it was great to get rid of it, by the end of the day I had cleared three large buckets with another two for tomorrow. I am looking forward to be able to walk around without things falling on the floor. One day I hope to do the same to my bench.

The couple who bought the curvy drawer dresser came to collect it, it did take four of us to lift it into their truck. It had taken a while to renovate it but I think it was worth the effort.

7th October 2025

It’s been about three months since I had my last hair cut, yes, I have decided to let it grow.

It’s not that I’m going through another crisis in my life, no, I wanted to see if it still worked.

I could have let my ear hair sprout, but that would look weird, so I thought a new style would work better.

Now it’s not the first time I’ve done it, I was always a bit shaggy after my three month Indian trips, but I’m now in uncharted grounds, not seen since I was at school.

Kelli insists that I keep it under control, so I have to use gel to stop it flopping about. I’m not that keen because it feels like my hair is solid, I’m hoping it’s just through the awkward stage, and soon it flow in the breeze.

We took a trip back to Goodwill to collect the dresser/ buffet we bought yesterday. It was a bit rough, obviously someone had started something and didn’t finish it, the reason as it was only five dollars.

I immediately stripped the top, hoping that it was decent, but it was only a pine veneer, might be able to give it a dark stain once I’ve repaired the chunk that was taken out of one corner.

The good news of the day was we sold the mid century dresser for collection tomorrow, that will get the month going well.

6th October 2025

This was a day day, our neighbour Larry lost his fight for life. He passed away around 04.00am, finally his suffering is over. It’s strange looking over at his house knowing that I won’t see him driving his ride on mower, cutting the grass or sucking up his leaves.

Kelli was upset, he was alway there to help when she had car trouble, but his health had slowly deteriorated over the past six years, and the end was inevitable.

Welcome to heaven Larry.

This put a downer for the rest of the day, we still had our usual shopping trip, and I ordered the new fencing.

We also finished the other dresser, that is a heavy one, but it turned out good.

5th October 2025

It was a day of two haves, morning and afternoon, that was as exciting as it gets.

We had to deliver the dresser that we sold last night, but before we did, I had to line the drawers.

It’s not something that we normally do, but sometimes the floors are a bit grubby, and even after cleaning and sanding they are not good.

It is my job to do this because I try to do a perfect job, that is no wrinkles.

I had six drawers to do, so armed with a cutting knife a steel ruler, I measured and cut the lining material. Of course I made the assumption that the drawers were square, but made an allowance for that. The skill in applying the liner is very much like making a pizza base, but without the spinning. Getting one edge aligned is important, that often needs several attempts, once down, it has to be smoothed out.

Six drawers later I was done, we loaded it into the truck and set off. The lady who bought it said she lived about a mile away, well I don’t know what measures she used but it was more than a bloody mile. We were on fumes by the time we arrived. Unloading was easy, no stairs, we set it down in the driveway.

The next order of the day was getting petrol, I went inside to pay, the attendant recognised my accent, so I gave him a quick geography lesson, he was none the wiser.

We then went to Kelli’s mums for our regular Sunday ice cream orgy.

Matt was telling us stories of the places he worked, most were working with timber, either saw mills or wood components. One place he loved working at burnt down during the night, he got there in the morning to be met with a pile of burning ash. Other places closed without notice, he began to feel that he had a reputation, because places closed even before he got there.

All this made us laugh, there should be a tourist trail noting all the businesses Matt had worked at, some still standing that is.

There was good news on the cat, Dylan sent pictures of what looked like a relaxed happy cat.

That’s good because the scratches he has on his arms should heal in a couple of weeks.

4th October 2025

After my rant of yesterday I did receive a reply from Avid. 

This is a mystery, an email from my iPhone gets bounced back, but forwarded to the Gmail on my American phone, to the same email address gets through, what is going on there?

I followed the advice given, and managed to upgrade my protools software, but my ilok still gave me problems, so another return message was sent out.

I was due to meet Henry Brimmer for a coffee. I had arranged and rearranged this many times, but this time I was sure that it would happen.

However Kelli had arranged with Dylan to collect Larry’s cat around the same time. Working around that, I drove to the coffee shop and ordered my latte, I then received an email from Henry informing me that we will have to rearrange yet again for next week. I don’t mind sitting down and drinking coffee,  but I don’t like looking like a saddo sitting on my own. I have to question if this will ever happen, and it reminds me that I have written before about how hard it is to meet up with people, how I am always extending myself to arrange events and others don’t. 

Still I was able to get back home and give moral support to Dylan who had the task of getting an angry cat into a carrying box. After about two hours he appeared victorious, albeit baring a few major scratches on his arms.

Animals don’t appreciate the trouble we go to trying to improve their lives, all they want to do is resist, and hurt us.

It is now safely living in Grand Rapids with someone who is around all the time, I hope things work out well for both of them.

This morning we took pictures of the latest dresser, posted it, and sold it by the evening.

3rd October Friday

I had no idea what day it was, I didn’t even know that it was the end of a week. There were two dressers to finish, and even time to start a small project, but other than that, it was an ordinary day.

I was thinking about doing a rant, something I do when nothing happens, but I thought, no, my reader doesn’t want to wade through my rants. 

So I looked around, looked up the road, and down, there was absolutely nothing going on.

Okay Kelli had to go and collect some supplements that she had run out of, so nothing of interest there.

So, Avid Technology, what a bloody shower they are. I had a problem with Protools, my recording software. My gripe goes back years with them.

When I bought my first release from them it was great, you got a disc to upload and everything worked as it should, perfect.

A few years later, some bastard in head office had the idea to changing to licenses that you renewed every year, money grabbing buggers.

So when I bought a new laptop and tried to install the software I had bought, and was in my hand, a message came up to say it was old and would not load on my new laptop, so I would have to upgrade.

Now this company are difficult to work with, I don’t think there are any human beings working there, it’s all menus.

Somehow I did manage to talk with someone then, I explained I wanted to buy a license and not renew it every year, sure I would be locked in to that release, but for how I use it, it was fine for me.

Roll forward a few years, well many years, I wanted to start using it again. 

The conditions of using the software means you have to have a dongle, called ilok, this also had to be purchased and plugged into the laptop in order for the software to run.

Well, when I started using the laptop again a warning notice popped up telling me the ilok was not compatible with the software.

What the hell! 

This started a journey that has driven me crazy, there is no number to call, just pages of frequently asked questions, none of which were anything like the problem I had. Eventually I found a page where you could open up a case, fill out the problem, and send it off hoping that there is someone, or something that will answer me.

Sure enough, after a couple of days I received a email reply, which didn’t seem to address the problem.

I wrote out my response and sent it off, only to have it bounce back with a note that the email address I sent it to wasn’t valid.

How can you run a bloody company when the customer service email doesn’t work, I tried every way possible to send the reply, but each time it’s rejected. 

So I opened up another case explaining how I couldn’t respond to the previous case because the email didn’t work.

A short time later I got another reply asking for more details of the operating system I’m using, so I sent that off, only for the email to bounce back. 

Now I’m at my wits end, I’ve been searching for a phone number, which I found, and called, only to receive an automated response that made no sense.

They even had the bloody nerve to send me a feedback form.

I filled that out, it was feedback from hell, maybe I was hoping that someone might read that, and try to contact me to grovel at my feet, I haven’t received anything yet.

Anyway, that was the rant I wasn’t going to have, but it goes on.

2nd October Thursday

The season is changing fast, our next door neighbour has already raked up the leaves in is front garden. Mind you he recently has retired, so he’s probably looking for things to do.

Also the walnut tree next to us is shedding its nuts, making a thump on the ground. There is a cracking sound when a car drives over them, and the squirrels can’t wait to carry one off to bury. All this goes on whilst I’m sanding away taking in the sounds of nature.

Another drama that is emerging is the saga of Larry’s cat.

Larry himself is on the last part of his life journey, he is now in a hospice, with no chance of him returning to his home. He has a friend thin Dave who feeds the cat and changes its dirt box. 

There is another Dave who is the husband of Larry’s sister, he come round recently, we call him middle Dave. Finally the guy who lives next door to Larry who is also called Dave, we call him big Dave.

Kelli has been concerned about who will look after the car once Larry has gone, and none of the Daves has an answer.

So Kelli has taken it on herself to find a new home for this feline.

Her first thought was Dylan, Greer’s ex husband, he has been cat less since their marriage ended.

He came down this week to check it out, but didn’t take it because there was conflicting thoughts about what should happen to this cat.

Anyway to cut a very long story short, Kelli went straight to Larry’s sister and agree that It will go to Dylan, then it was a case of telling the Daves of the decision.

It’s a sad time, because Larry was a good man, generous, and a good mechanic, I keep expecting to see him walking about, doing his stuff, but that had gone for good.

1st October 2025

Kelli was awake early, again not a popular start. The new supplements haven’t worked, but after a chat with her doctors surgery, there was another option. This meant driving to Zeeland to pick up some pills. Kelli own stash was depleted and another bottle was due tomorrow, she managed to get a few loose ones to keep her going. Whilst she was there she saw her mother what had an earlier appointment. Talk about a family reunion in the surgery. It does actually run in the family, the doctor must be rubbing his hands in glee.

Of course we had to go to Goodwill, and this time there was a dresser for sale which we quickly grabbed. There was damage on one corner of one drawer front, a blob of Bondo will repair that.

We had a buyer for the four chairs that we picked up at the garage sale at the weekend. 

This was due to happen later in the afternoon, but this was later changed to tomorrow morning.

The story of the Charlie Kirk murder continues, there are multiple theories of what happened, each one as plausible as the others. But it’s all odd, the venue for the memorial was booked back in May, it all has the trappings of a movie.

But interestingly, the mainstream media are still following the original FBI investigation.

30th September 2025

We managed to squeeze in the last sale of the month by delivering the piece to Zeeland. This was another repeat customer who we like because she gives us eggs, not only that but she included blackberry jam and salsa, all homemade. I made the journey solo as Kelli was in the kitchen preparing for dinner.

On the way back I remembered that I needed coffee and tea, so I stopped off at Meijer.

This is not my usual place, as it is vast.

It is open twenty four hours, and the only day it closes is Christmas Day. I’m sure people could live there and not get noticed. 

I managed to find the tea and coffee isle, only to be met with infinite choice for coffee. I walked up and down for several minutes trying to decide what packet to choose, beans or ground.

In the end I settled on an organic ground, I’m sure I will find out what it’s like tomorrow morning. Then it was off looking for tea. 

In the past I have found Twinings, but this time the shelf was empty, luckily there was Tetleys.

Now armed with my products I headed over to the checkout. Apart from the size, this is what I hate about these enormous stores, self serving checkout. As I have said before, technology hates me, and because I only had two items, I thought it should be easy.

Passing the items past the scanner was simple, the reassuring beep meant I passed the first hurdle. Now I had to pay for it, slipping a twenty dollar note into the slot that was flashing didn’t seem to work. I trying a few times to flatten the note, thinking that was the problem. Then a warning message came up on the screen.

No t didn’t want to terminate the transaction, all I wanted to pay for my packets. 

Eventually I managed to remove the message, how? I haven’t a clue, but it was gone. 

Desperate to solve the problem of the unwanted note, I put my glasses on, this made all the difference. 

The solution was you had to guide and push the note into the slot, which seems unnatural to do.

It’s like getting your fingers close to a saw blade, something I try to avoid, but as soon as the note was grabbed, I let go, waving my hands in the air  it was an action of triumph, my fingers were still attached.

My change was dispensed from a different slot which happened to be the same one I was trying to shove the original note into.

I guess I will remember for next time ( nope!)

Today I remember Michael Elliott who died six years ago, a deeply religious person, a talented musician and someone desperate to fit in.

It still leaves me cold to think that he died alone, but I miss him.

29th September 2025

Kelli was going horse riding with her friend Bethanne, leaving me alone, a good chance to get some old gits music going.

Unfortunately today was the day we lost the internet for a few hours, and as my playlist was on my phone I couldn’t access it.

But I had a lot of scraping to do, the sun was shining, although when I first started there were definite signs of autumn. That meant long sleeves, but it soon changed to short ones as the day progressed.

We also had two pieces that were being collected, one we had been waiting for several days, hopefully today was the one for that.

The other, the taller dresser, also was off to its new home.

I had calls from Kelli letting me know that they got lost trying to find the horse place, it turned out that they were way off, and had to grovel to get their session rescheduled.

I joked that the only ones they had available were the old cart horses, and they had saved them from the glue factory.

 She had a lot of fun, but her joints hurt for the rest of the day, I smiled secretly every time she moved.

All this fun meant that our shopping day was delayed, as we had run out of most things, we had to do that at one of the busiest times.

We did it as quickly as we could knowing that someone was coming to collect the dresser. As it happened they arrived early, whilst we were on the way back, so we will deliver it tomorrow, fortunately they live in Zeeland, so not a problem.