Author: peterb51

28th September 2025

Kelli became a Great aunt for the third time. Matt’s daughter Mandy gave birth to a little boy.

Of course all the family are thrilled, so I expect it to be spoiled to bits.

Most of the day was spent deflating the inflatable things for the pool, and getting rid of the ones that had punctured. I cut the grass at the front and the back even though most of the grass had died, the few tuffs that are left got a good scalping.

There is so much still to do, but I need to concentrate on pruning the trees. The good news is the apple tree that I thought had died, might be saved. I gave it a brutal pruning to remove all the dead leaves, but I left a few and they stayed green, hoping next spring we shall see.

I been following the news from the UK on plans to introduce digital ID, that is a terrible idea and would move the country close to the one global government that the WEF have advocated.

I hope that the country can unite to stop this crazy plan, I added my name to the petition, everyone should do this, if nothing else to maintain our personal freedom, once that goes it won’t come back.

Over here the support for Israel is decreasing, Americans are at last waking up and discovering how evil it is. Most of the politicians, on both sides get funding from Israel, and that is why they fully support it. There is so much money involved that it controls America, and gets it to do all its dirty work. In fact if you even hinted about anything critical about Israel you would be labelled antisemitic. Its influence is so integral in American culture that censorship is prevalent in the mainstream media, education, banking, as well as social media. There is so much shady dealings going on, including the Charlie Kirk’s assassination, that now a high level of young people are no longer fooled, and call them out as vicious killers, that would have been unheard off just a couple of months ago.

I continue to believe that distraction happen every day, the day of the assassination the government voted not to allow the release of all the names that was on the Epstein list.

Of course that is because most of them are on it. American politicians bathe in a cesspool of corruption, and perversion much of it includes child prostitution, its dirty, and they know that we know, and they rub it in the faces of the American people, they need to get their comeuppance.

27th September 2025 

I decided to take an outdoor shower today, yes, it was house washing day. 

I pulled out the power washer, connected all the pipes and blasted to green shit off the siding.

It’s the north facing walls that gets the build up, but I cleaned around the front as well.

It was also draining the pool time, there were hoses everywhere, the pump was in full flight moving the water out, and draining down the street.

We even had time to go to a garage sale where Kelli found two sets of skis and a number of gardening tools. Later she went back for some outdoor chairs that she hopes to sell on.

I hope she is also successful with the skis, it is not my intention to use those on the white stuff.

I managed to find a WorkMate, much more substantial than the farty one I have.

It was a pleasant change from furniture, but sad that we are preparing for autumn.

26th September 2025

After waking early, Kelli was not in the best of moods, whether she was troubled by the issue of her supplements being discontinued, or not, it was not a good start.

It was down to me to get the dresser ready for collection, a quick bit of polish on the top and it was ready. 

However the arranged time came and went, a possible no-show was looming, but she had paid for it, so it didn’t matter much.

I had plenty to do on the second dresser, trying to get the drawers to run smoothly.

I had arranged to meet Henry, the college professor for a coffee at 3.00pm at a cafe in Holland. But he cancelled, because he is having some serious remodelling to his house, and was having a dumpster delivered.

I rode my bike down south shore to a house the Lloyd and Nancy were helping to clear, interestingly, the house is opposite belongs to Brian Walker, the ex CEO of Herman Miller.

I alway wondered who owned that hideous carbuncle, now I know.

I came to view a desk that was being sold at a garage sale on Saturday. These are the kind that we convert into matching side tables, but I wasn’t keen at this time, I really want to clear what is in the garage first.

I rode back as Kelli was trying to fit the handles to the drawers, but found the screws too long.

As I wasn’t meeting Henry I took a trip to Menards instead. 

I took the opportunity to buy the metal spikes that get hammered into the ground to fit the fence posts into. I felt this was actually easier than digging a three foot deep hole, buying a ten foot post to fit in it, and then filling it in with concrete. Also there are lots of tree roots in that area, so being able to dig a hole in the first place might have been a challenge.

25th September 2025

I met up with Lloyd for our first breakfast together, and it was fun. 

We went to the Southside Inn, a place stuck in a time warp, but unlike all the big chains, typically American. It is a popular place judging by the number of cars in the car park, inside, the customers were also stuck in the same time warp, so I fitted in. 

We had the same in-depth conversations, in between forks fulls of hash browns and sausage.

After numerous cups of coffee, we went our separate ways, the whole thing lasted just over an hour, and it was enjoyable because, A) I didn’t have to make it, and B) I didn’t have to wash up afterwards.

Once I got back, Kelli wanted to go to Nature’s Market to look for a supplement to replace one of hers that has been discontinued. I urged her to hurry as I had my appointment at the “Geek” centre at Best Buy at 1.00.

I got there a little early, but was met by a chap that looked twelve with round glasses.

I explained the problems, and he flicked around the screen before announcing that the problems are because of the age of the laptop. Gave me some bollocks about hard drives slowing down if they hadn’t been used much, and really I should upgrade to a new MacBook. I had expected someone who could integrate the programs, with fancy shortcuts and magical key strokes, but no, what he was doing I had done many times myself. It was a complete waste of time, but fortunately I wasn’t charged for it. So I still have a computer that won’t shut down properly and a mail that crashes. It’s not the end of the world, but I would have liked to have sorted the issues out.

24th September 2025

I wanted to get back to normal, no trips to Goodwill, no visits to Menards, I just wanted to do something, and achieve a positive result.

So with that in mind, I wheeled out a piece that we picked up at a house clearance many months ago. It was in a state, but we believed it could look nice again. This was going to be a concentrated effort to remove the old finish and see it differently.

Kelli wanted to do something different as well.

She is into dying clothes, and today, armed with a bottle of green dye she was taking a brave step and change the colour of one of her newest purchases. She wanted me there for moral support, after all what do I know about that?

Setting out the components she found she didn’t have any salt, apparently an essential ingredient needed. I rushed down to the corner shop to buy some plain salt. On the way back I stopped at a stand by the side of the road that sold sourdough bread, I love sourdough, and as it was a local person making it, I shoved the money in the box and chose a cheddar and herb loaf, jum jum.

Now Kelli had all the things needed for the big event.

The dye was in, the salt was in, and the hot water was going in. A good stir to mix everything together, and then the moment came when the garment was submerged into the green liquid.

My job was to set the timer for thirty minutes, it was a tense time, but as it ticked away things were looking positive.

As the alarm erupted, out came the newly green garment ready to be rinsed.

I was very impressed, all the original colours were now more earthy and really nice. Kelli was relieved, and she was keen to do it again. Luckily one had arrived in the post an hour or so earlier, that was number two. That turned out good as well, now with all the excitement done, I could go back outside to continue working on the dresser.

It is an interesting piece, with a wavy front and drawers to match. I scraped off all the old finish, and repaired all the damaged edge banding, to a point when it started to look better all ready.

The drawers are the next big challenge.

When we collected it, it had been stored in a garage and the veneer had started to peel away, there was not much hope of salvaging those. 

With a heat gun I removed the damaged veneer, the raw timber will be sanded and painted, but there’s a lot of filling and sanding ahead.

23rd September 2025

It was a quiet day compared with yesterday, we decided to do other stuff, but of course Goodwill came into the picture, as always.

Another popular venue is Plato’s where Kelli had more things to sell. 

I decided to go to Best Buy, a store that dealt with white goods. I had read that they had a Geek Squad section there, so I thought I might go and ask them questions about my MacBook.

The moment I got there I realised that it was not that easy. There were two “kids” dealing with two old people, who obviously had tech questions. I noticed there was a monitor with names and times listed. With the next available spot one hour away, it was obvious that an appointment is necessary. So I left and headed back to Plato’s, but going to a cafe for a coffee and a cake, that happens to be near.

After emerging from the cafe, Kelli wanted to drive to her doctor’s surgery to buy a supplement she was low on. This proved fruitless as it was not in stock, and would take a week to get it. That was not good news as it was one she takes for sleep.

Whilst we were in the area we went into the Zeeland Goodwill and found a dresser that we hope to flip with the minimum of effort, in strict contrast to the kitchen island we delivered yesterday.

22nd September 2025

It was our seventh wedding anniversary, that has gone faster than I could imagine. We exchanged cards and read each other’s sappy words, and Kelli handed me a gift that she had made that was so amazing.

What she had done was searched through the collection of pennies that I have been saving, for coins that have significant date and mounted them in a frame. There was one from 1990 the year we first met, 2005 when we got together, 2018 when we got married, 2019 when we bought the house, and 2025 when we celebrated our seventh anniversary, it was such a great idea. She had used pieces of thin walnut to mount the coins, and I did wonder where those strips went, I was joking of course.

The next significant event was the delivery of the kitchen island. That was a task, we had to borrow the strength from the guy across the road who almost picked it up on his own.

Once we arrived there were two things that worried me, one, was stairs that we had to climb on to a deck, and two, the width of the stairs, luckily, after a lot of effort, and bursts of adrenaline we got it up the stairs. It was a lot simpler to actually get it into the kitchen.

We then had to go back to get the top and drawers. Thankfully I had pre-drilled the holes, so fitting the top was a lot easier than I thought.

That didn’t stop me sweating like a pig.

The lady was really happy with it, the colour was exactly what she wanted and it looked good in her kitchen, in some way it was sad leaving it, but I was glad that it’s done, now I can concentrate on something new.

21st September 2025

Final assembly day, doors and drawer fronts, these take a bit of time to get right. With shims and spacers, everything was aligned and attached. I drilled the fixing holes on the underside of the top and applied the final coat of wax oil, now we need to get it out of the garage.

Kelli messaged the lady to find the best time for collection, what came back was a rather vague answer, meaning she couldn’t get a truck until the end of the week. That went down like a lead balloon, we have other pieces to work on and it takes up a lot of space.

I will measure to see if it will fit in our truck, maybe part of it will if we have the strength to lift it. The top will have to be a separate trip.

It was back up to Kelli’s mums for ice cream after a trip to Goodwill.

I was startled to see a trans person, not the most attractive man trying to be a woman, which is a whole debate I don’t want to get into.

People can be who they want to be, and if that’s the life they choose, good luck to them.

20th September 2025

I am another step closer to finishing the kitchen island, and quite frankly, I’ll be glad when the bloody thing is delivered.

Everything has been painted, and we pulled the top out of our store room, and applied the first coat of a food safe wax oil. When the thing gets delivered, I will have to fit the top on site, it will be just too heavy to handle.

Of course we had rain this afternoon which put paid to doing anything outside, so I spent time on my laptop trying to get an install disc to work.

To most people it’s probably a simple task, but to me it will always end in failure and frustration.

In the end I decided to install the back up, just to prove that I can do that, which was successful, but I still can’t access my emails on it. I re authorised the laptop which I thought would solve the problem, but it didn’t.

I farted around with it for a couple of hours before closing it down, I’ll pick it up maybe tomorrow.

19th September 2025

It’s a very small world, and it freaks me out.

Kelli was invited by an old school friend to a launch of her first book.  It’s called Breaking Free , and her name was Ronda Busscher.

It’s a true story of her difficult life, Kelli knew a lot about it during their friendship, so now that it was in print, she wanted to attend the event.

I was happy to go along, as I’ve never been to a book launch before, I thought I might learn something.

Well the first thing I learned was to hold an event that is easy to get to. In fact I suggested that it would be a good second book to write.

It was way out in the sticks, the route was arduous, and without GPS we would still be looking for it.

Eventually we arrived at a place called Sandy Pines, primarily a golf course, but also an area of weekend cottages.

The launch took place in the club house, and as we entered, Ronda spotted Kelli, what followed was a selection of squeals and laughter, as I stood by, the silent observer.

There was a very nice cake on offer, and many people sat around cheerfully munching, holding their copy of the book. 

Kelli had a copy presented to her, which was a nice gesture. I did feel a little strange, but I had a second piece of cake by way of an excuse to do something.

Then it happened, Kelli was aware of this guy hovering in the background, thinking it was someone who wanted to talk to Ronda she thought nothing of it. 

Suddenly this guy came into my view, “are you Peter?” He said.

I took one good look and recognised him immediately, “Don Thomson!” I exclaimed, then we squealed and shouted, I couldn’t believe it. 

Out in the wilds, at an obscure event, and there was someone I knew, it was amazing.

It was even stranger, because we were due to meet up for a beer with Jim Vandragt a couple of weeks ago, but that didn’t happen because Don couldn’t make it. 

For those who don’t know who Don and Jim are, well they were both IT support for engineering at Herman Miller, Don was the manager and Jim did most of the work. I have known them since the 90’s and once we got into CAD they helped install and supported us.

So was it fate? Are we all connected by six degrees of separation? It’s a weird thought, but I seem to agree with it after it happens.