Author: peterb51

24th April 2026

There was drama across the road. The wife of David the guy who helped fix our brakes was having a shouting match. They have a strange relationship, most of the time she lives with another man, but returns to the marital home now and then. Well the shouting match eventually turned into a full blown attack on their daughter who had just turned eighteen.

I saw some of the confrontation, but Kelli was outside talking to the new neighbour when this took off.

“Welcome to central bay” they both laughed as the mayhem continued.

She then took up position in the front bedroom with the window slightly ajar, listening to the activity. When the mother laid the first blow on the daughter that was when she called the police. It took a while for the law to arrive, they knew the address, having visited it several times in the past.

What followed next was the separation and the “talk” by the officers, but the mother continued her verbal abuse, this led to her being handcuffed and placed in the police vehicle.

Finally peace came to the avenue and we could focus on the real issue of the day, Kelli’s eye.

It was still red and swollen, but something had washed out that probably was the culprit, the eye drops had done their job. 

It was colder than yesterday, still tee shirt weather. We cleaned the secretary, took pictures and posted it on Marketplace hoping for a quick sale on that.

23rd April 2026

No day is the same, that can be a blessing or a curse, this one started off the latter.

Kelli awoke at around 4.00am wanting to use the bathroom, somehow she got something in her eye. She tried everything to get whatever it was out, but to no avail. She was getting more and more agitated, and panicky.

We didn’t have any eyewash in the bathroom, this meant I would get up and drive to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy.

This was way over on the north side,  it is a strange place at 5.30am, completely deserted apart from a young lad. I asked where the eye medication was, he took me to this shelving with a mass of different packet all of which I’d never heard of. I was looking for the US version of Obtrex, but of course there was nothing even similar. It was typical, like the blind leading the blind. I eventually chose some eye drops and something for sore eyes.

Kelli was still in a lot of discomfort, she applied the drops which dilated her pupil which she didn’t like, however the other was a little more soothing. There wasn’t much point in trying to get anymore sleep, so I let Winnie out of her cage to do her business.

Kelli tried to, and failed to go back to sleep, her eye by now was red and angry looking, like a vampire. 

She made a call to the eye doctor and got the name of another item that would aid the dryness.

I set off again, this time with Winnie running shotgun, to another pharmacy.

I had a list of the products recommended, but of course there were many variants. I made my choice and returned home.

This dry eye solution helped a lot, just as well because we had to drive to the upholstery person with a cheque for the fabric for our furniture. She had to go into the bank with dark glasses on, not to avoid being recognised, more about frightening the staff.

At the end of the day, her eye was still sore, although the feeling of having something in it had gone, that was a bit of light relief.

22nd April 2026

We were delivering the large dresser to a lady in Zeeland. The first task is alway getting it into the truck. I remembered that I was helped with the loading when we picked it up, was a big strapping bloke. By removing a few drawers that certainly helped, but when we got there we had to get it up her path, up a step, up another,  through the doorway, a sharp left, left again, and into a bedroom.

However she did give us a long bench that she didn’t have room for.

It was a beautiful day, so warm I didn’t wear my flannel shirt, could this weather be here to stay?.

There was a visit to the UPS store for more Amazon returns, that continues to be a regular stop. A couple more stops to collect free stuff then back home.

The secretary was waiting to be inspected, it was solid maple, finished in a yucky stain that they always seen to use that hides the grain and natural colour. It was generally in good condition, a drawer guide was damaged so that was the only part that needed re making.

It would be good if we can sell it on with very little work needed.

The blue desk pedestals lurked in the background, the repairs I had to make needed sanding, but I didn’t feel like it today.

Chris came round for a chat, he brought round a six pack, so we sat out on the deck chewing the fat.

21st April 2026

It was supposed to be maple. We agreed that the next project should be maple. We went downstairs to John’s wood store, it the rack where he stored the maple lumber. We picked out four lengths of the width we needed and carried them upstairs. Laid them out on the bench where I marked out the various lengths with a piece of chalk. I did think at the time it looked a bit dark for maple, but John knew where his lumber was stacked, so I just carried on.

I cut the pieces to the various lengths and passed them to John who flattened each piece on the jointer.

We did a final thickness and then cut them to width.

Once I laid them out on the bench, and the sunlight lit them up it was evident that it wasn’t maple, it was bloody cherry.

Not that cherry isn’t a beautiful wood, but I thought for this project maple would have been perfect.

So we started to glue up four sections of two planks, trying to do it all in one lay up would have been a bit ambitious. I was rushing about getting clamps and John was struggling to remember how to use them. 

Finally we got everything clamped up and had another cup of coffee and a biscuit.

On the was down to pick up John, there was an example of an empty headed American. I was on the highway, I was overtaking a row of Lorries, there were other vehicles in front of me, when a black truck came up behind flashing his lights as if to say “get outta the way”. He was gesticulating wildly, I smiled when I looked in my mirror, “Where can I go dumb ass?” I mouthed.

He was obviously late for his lunch, so I pulled over as soon as I could, and stared at him as he passed. These big truck drivers think they own the road.

Kelli had me pick up a couple of things, a secretary, from Byron Centre and a quilt from Zeeland, my day was now complete.

20th April 2026

A difficult night again, Kelli had an irregular heart beat that stopped her sleeping. There are certain exercises she does to correct it, but it didn’t seem to be working. 

We ended up sitting in the living area, me on the couch trying not to fall asleep, whilst she was thumping her chest trying to knock it back into rhythm.

It doesn’t happen that often, but with some foods that is the side effect.

We still had the shopping to do, what has become the norm is taking Winnie along. She sits on my lap watching everything, as she gets heavier, my legs fall asleep quicker, so getting out each time is a bit of a performance.

Once that was done, I worked outside raking the leaves and pulling the weeds at the top end of the garden. It was the first attempt at making the place looked lived in. The yard waste bin filled in no time. I see several weeks where those will be used extensively.

I also glued up my prototype curved leg, eight lamination of one eighth oak. It was a bit of a struggle, glue and wood strips everywhere, but it worked in the end.

19th April 2016

Kelli had a difficult night, not getting to sleep for a couple of hours always makes her anxious, hence hindering falling asleep. So she wasn’t in the best of moods in the morning. 

We had been invited to celebrate her distant cousin’s birthday, so she wasn’t looking forward to that.

So despite feeling like crap she managed to finish the painting of the long dresser leaving me to seal the top, which looked like cherry.

I found my tin of poly which was in the back or the truck, but it must have got hot on the warm day we had, because when I opened it there was a thick skin on the top. I pulled most of that out,  but the rest was a bit thick and sticky. I had no alternative but to use it. Brushing it on and then rubbing it with a cloth, the benefit was that it dried very quickly.

By the time I had done that it was party time at Scott and Karen’s.

Kelli only found out recently that her and Karen were related, their Great, Great Grandfathers were brothers, and as they only lived just up the road from us, it was a weird coincidence.

The party was fun, Kelli worked at it, Scott had made all the food, and I was able to entertain the guests, as I alway seem to do, mainly by insulting the Americans, but in a nice way.

18th April 2026

It was cold, stark contrast from yesterday. I took a walk to the corner store to buy some coconut milk. Kelli was planning to make a coconut cake, a new adventure in her healthy cooking plan.

It had been raining overnight, there were the usual large puddles at most of the road junction, I guess the city hasn’t solved that problem yet.

I had to almost adopt a power walk to avoid freezing, of course the return journey meant I had to walk even faster, at that rate even the electric bikes had trouble keeping up.

I was expecting Chris to come round for a recording session, but according to his schedule I couldn’t see he had the time, and I was proved right.

We finished painting the dresser, I painted the handles.

I was working on a separate project to laminate ten layers of thinly cut oak into a curved leg prototype. I stick the strips down the toilet to get them soaking wet. I wasn’t sure oak was the best timber for this, but it was all I had.

My plan was to clamp them to the former and leave to dry for a couple of days before doing the glue up.

The first one was the tightest bend, luckily that went well, no sudden crack. I proceeded to do all the other pieces with no damage to any of them, that did surprise me. 

17th April 2026

A new family has moved into a house on our road. The familiar U-haul truck arrived, stuff was then unloaded, and disappeared inside the house. It’s strange because a year ago Wayne lived there, a quiet man who used to wave at us driving past in his white truck. He went in to hospital one day and never came out.

The place was bought by people who just wanted to do it up and sell it on. It isn’t a big place, in fact it’s smaller than ours, but it was priced at over three hundred thousand dollars, extortionate in my book.

It will be interesting to get to know them, where they’ll from, and how they can afford it. Kelli will want to know what time they will leave for work.

It was a glorious day, I moved everything outside, I cut up some timber I have been wanting to do all winter. We painted the long dresser, hopefully it won’t take long to finish it.

16th April 2026

Stop the presses! Kelli had a lunchtime meeting with a new friend she met on facebook.

Well actually she was a customer who had purchased a lot of clothes that Kelli was selling.

They found they had a lot of things in common, and meeting up was a good way of exploring them in more detail.

I was then in charge of keeping Winnie under control, and preparing the large dresser ready for painting.

Luckily there was a break in the rain, after two nights of storms most flat land was waterlogged.

We kept ourselves occupied by playing ball. Time after time I would kick them and she would dive left or right often catching them in her mouth. There is one soft spiky ball that she likes to play tug of war, a great exercise to loosen those baby teeth, but a misplaced hand gets to feel the sharpness of her real fangs.

15th April 2026

I started sanding the drawer fronts on the long dark dresser, ten in total.

The lady who had bought the two side tables turned up to collect them. Like always there is slight trepidation because they were paid for without seeing them in person, but she love them , so breathing a sigh of relief( silently) I helped her load them into her van.

Kelli had found a small desk in Zeeland, it was blue and the pedestals had legs which make them ideal for bedroom side tables. 

Off we went to collect, and, on the way back we were picking up three rolls of wire fencing.

The desk was outside waiting for us, there was an angry German shepherd attacking the front door, I was certainly glad that was between us.

With the desk safety in the back of the truck we headed off to West Olive to collect the fencing.

The road to the address we needed was blocked by a train. Well there were a row of gravel or coal trucks as far as the eye could see in both directions.

Kelli messaged the seller who explained that it had been there since yesterday. However we were given an alternative route.

Pulling into the drive, we could see the train from the other side. With a bit of effort I managed to squeeze the rolls of fencing into the truck. This type of stuff is not easy to slide together, all those sticking out bits interfere, so progress was slow. Anyone looking would have seen me move from back door to one side door then the other trying to grab every precious inch. I was messing about for fifteen minutes until I was confident that the back door could close. 

Unloading it was a lot easier as the whole three rolls came out as one, now this will be another project on the list, building a cage around the vegetables to stop unwanted pests and Winnie destroying them.