Author: peterb51

29th December 2022

It was over fifty degrees today, the snow was disappearing before my eyes.

I unloaded the table and chairs so that Kelli had something to work on whilst I got on with making the trim pieces for the kitchen island.

With the snow gone from the truck I could see just how dirty it was, I felt ashamed to be driving it. I had to go to Menards for some timber, and the truck was the dirtiest in the car park. I passed the place where the new storage units are bing built, there’s a lot of timber used, must be a whole forest, it will soon be clad in steel and full of people’s crap.

We decided to go for a meal out this evening, we invited Mike and Lesley to come along. I brought a puzzle that I had been sent from Ryan and Louis’s in our Christmas parcel. The puzzle is called “Pyramid Power Puzzle” and it contains six rows of wooden shaped balls.

The aim is to construct a three sided pyramid.

There are no instructions or at least what the answer is, so it’s left to the creative instincts of the players, mmm, not much hope then.

28th December 2022

Kelli had decided that we need more tables.

I disagreed, but she found a free oak circular table with a broken base, but it meant driving to Hudsonville to collect. On top of that she found a small dining table and two chairs. I wasn’t sure if we could get everything in the truck.

We were to meet the person giving away the table at a dental surgery. The GPS led us on a merry chase, but eventually got there. The table top was heavy, and it came with two extension leaves. The base looked sad with one of the radial legs broken along a join under the timber, the result of being mishandled during a move. This will be an interesting repair.

The second pick-up was at a mobile home park. Usually this doesn’t fill me with much hope, but the furniture was okay. The style was more contemporary with a steel tubular frame and simple table top, the matching chairs had bland seat cushions, that could be better with a more colourful fabric.

The snow had started to thaw, more ugliness get revealed as the white blanket recedes. That’s the big shame, snow levels everything, the white landscape with the tree branches against a grey sky is a world in black and white.

27th December 2022

This is the long, slow, run up to the end of the year. The morning news is just a hash up of the same old stuff. What trump is doing saying, what “experts” expect will happen, and more transcripts released of other witnesses.

The amount of paperwork is tremendous, every word spoken is written down, It would take the rest of my life to read it all, personally I have better things to do.

We finished the bureau and dragged it into the house to take pictures, it turned out good, I hope the punters out there think the same.

I also started work on the kitchen island, each carcass is held together with hot melt.

I removed the old kick panels with the minimum of damage. I did apply more coats of sealer to the back panel in an effort to get a smooth surface to paint.

The temperature is supposed to rise this week that should thaw some of the snow, but it takes much longer to totally disappear than in the UK.

It’s a drag that I only got to use my snowblower twice, but there is still January to get through.

26th December 2022

We noticed the we hadn’t seen Larry for a while, his car hadn’t moved for days. Kelli gave him a call, eventually he called back.

He explained that he had been in hospital for the week before Christmas with a lung infection. We felt bad that we hadn’t known, and concerned that he was on his own during this cold period.

As we had to go out, we agreed to buy some food for him.

We were due to collect three kitchen units from a lady on the north side, and repaint them.

She wanted them to be used to form an island, in her kitchen.

I had given her a quote, including some extra trim to make it all look more realistic.

We stopped off at Menards to buy some supplies and then to the corner shop, close to home to get things for Larry.

We ended buying him a small roast chicken and some potato salad, not much, but it will get something hot inside him.

We took it over to his house, when he opened the door, he looked ragged and thin, and was overjoyed to get the food.

Kelli had talked to his neighbour, telling them of her concerns and they said they would keep a check on him.

25th Christmas 2022

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” and one was truly here. A constant sprinkling of flakes fell all day which was very impressive to the folks from England that we had FaceTime with.

Kelli was busy making the food, a wonderful baked salmon with paprika coating, baked red skinned potatoes and a vegetable bake.

It was quite a logistical challenge to get everything into the truck for the short drive to Kelli’s mum’s house.

One by one everyone arrived, all sniffing with colds, so a bloody healthy place to be.

The meal was great, unfortunately I had to share my wine which hurt a bit, but I had the largest glass.

The grand opening of presents began.

We had done ours much earlier, I had given Kelli a teddy bear that was identical to one she had as a child, it was a great moment, although she had actually found one on eBay, I just bought it and hid it for a couple of months.

The pile of discarded wrapping paper grew as the family members opened their gifts. I don’t usually expect to get much, and I wasn’t disappointed, I did get a bottle of wine from Cameron, and as a shared present we got a water filter jug from Kelli’s mum, the third time we’ve had one from her. We feigned surprise and delight, inside we were saying “oh no not again”. Kelli was also given a cheese grater, but one on an industrial scale, large enough to shred an entire cheese.

Back home we settled in for a quiet evening, the day was over for another year.

24th December 2022

It’s Christmas Eve and all is well. It snowed all day, but we didn’t care, we weren’t going anywhere.

Work continued on the bureau. I put sealer on the newly exposed maple, and Kelli put the first coat of paint on the carcass.

I did my usual thing of wrapping presents last minute, and placed them under the tree.

Not much traffic went past, not even the postman dared to be out.

23rd December 2022

There was about ten inches of snow up against the sunroom door. The wind had whipped most of the downfall turning it into blizzard conditions.

The result was the sliding door had frozen, the poor dogs were running round desperate for a piss. I rushed out into the garage to find the heat gun. A short burst of hot air was enough to free up the door, the dogs rushed out to do their business.

They didn’t want to stay out very long, they both arrived at the door waiting to be let in. I guess if my bare arse had sat on the snow, I would have had the same reaction.

I had some sanding to do on the writing bureau.

I manage to reclaim the original maple to and drop-down writing surface, and the inside shelf before my finger started to ache.

I had gone all day without trying my snow blower, I couldn’t wait any longer.

I fitted in the batteries and opened the garage door, the machine burst into life.

I ventured out into the bleak tundra, the machine was spitting the settled snow to the left of me. I quickly learnt that the depth of snow was too deep, so I had to take it in small chunks. I also didn’t take into account the wind.

I was trundling up the driveway, but as I got near the end, the wind caught the snow spray and thrust it straight back at me, I was now a snow man. Undeterred, I kept going, making progress and continuing to get covered. It was a good job it was dark, I didn’t relish the thought of being the neighbourhood idiot, although it gave Kelli a good laugh.

22nd December 2022

My snow blower was delivered, and I hurriedly opened the box to start the assembly.

The weather was due to get bad around mid afternoon, so I kept looking out of the window.

It started with a few sprinkles, and didn’t really get that much worse, although the temperature dropped, and the wind blew up.

I charged the batteries in eager anticipation, but it looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow to see if any more snow falls.

We took a walk up the road to deliver a card for Mike and Lesley. We hitched up the dogs to give them some exercise. I didn’t put the sling on Dharma as she appears a bit stronger on her back legs, she is still taking her anti-inflammatory medication, she is probably high all the time and doesn’t give a shit.

Well the anticipated snow returned as I was turning in for the night, this time the flakes were much larger, so we may have to dig ourselves out in the morning.

21st December 2022

We finally finished the large piece of shit cabinet, and surprisingly it didn’t look bad.

Kelli changed the handles on the drawers and that made the difference.

There was also good progress on the two side tables made from the maple desk.

There was a lot of concerns for the cold weather that is due to sweep across America tomorrow. That will mean disruption to Christmas travel arrangements. A lot of people have decided to leave early, causing congestion on the roads. Another typical people response is to panic buy stuff. The supermarkets are bursting with people stocking up for a winter siege. As Christmas over here is only one day so it’s pretty pointless.

I remember days of old when I was young it was important to have plenty of bread and milk, for all those cups of tea and turkey sandwiches. In those days all the big shops closed, so you had to be fully stocked.

Now there is something open somewhere.

I’m looking forward to having two days off, yes including Boxing Day.

20th December 2022

We had cancelled the poo man, it was cold and all the dog muck would have frozen solid.

Even with a new truck he would have been able to suck up something that big without exploding.

We did drive over to the north side to visit the lady who wanted three kitchen units painted to make an island.

As we drove over I asked a pertinent question to Kelli.

“What if these units are crap, should we take it on?”

“I think they look pretty decent from the pictures” she replied.

The lady lived in a condominium, that is semi-detached in English.

She welcomed us and led us through to the kitchen to show where the island was going to be positioned.

The kitchen units were downstairs in the basement.

My fears were realised when I saw them.

These were obviously secondhand and made from the cheapest material, except for the doors which was the only real material.

Vinyl skinned furniture are the pits, difficult to paint without special primers, they fall into the “ piece of shit” category. The back panels were just chipboard and would have to be sealed well even before priming.

In other words, quite a lot of work, but we agreed to message her with a quotation by the end of the day.

On the way back we stopped off at a hardware store to buy a couple of Christmas tree ornaments, being so late there were only the dregs left, but we selected the best of the worst.

Once back at the ranch there was painting to do.

Kelli continued to add more paint to the crappy piece, fighting with stains that kept bleeding through. One day it will be finished, and I will be relieved to see it gone.