Author: peterb51

14th April 2026

Guess what day it is? Yes you’re correct, it’s John the wood’s barn day.

The sun was shining, it was a hot day and I was sweating in my flannel shirt. Reminder to self, store them away.

Today was assembly day. Joining all the separate parts together for the first time.

Considering the weight of the separate pieces, the final build was significant.

It was exciting, getting all the joints to fit together was rewarding. John’s job, as usual was final sanding. He really enjoys doing that, and he can’t really do any harm to himself.

There were storms forecast for the late evening, and when they hit it was impressive. Just imagine the power released, if only it can be stored, there would be enough energy to power a small town. I stood outside watching the display, a mixture of fork and sheet lightening gave a display many would pay to watch. 

There was a tornado alert, only the second since I’ve been here, the sirens are wailing and Kelli gets nervous, but it soon passes, and it seems like a big anticlimax.

13th April 2026

I had a 10.00am phone call from a technical person from Waves, the software company from which I had bought two programs many years ago. I wanted to reclaim my licenses and add them to my new computer. 

I have had dialogue with Aviv for a few months, but getting the zip files had been a problem, but once that had been sorted out I was ready to install them.

That is where I needed assistance. I had followed the instructions to the letter, but I still couldn’t install them, hence the assistance that I needed.

First we went through the instructions he had sent me, but there was a level of communication that we didn’t share, so in the end Aviv took over and finally the installation happened.

That was a relief, but I was actually so close to doing it myself, but the install button was hidden at the bottom of the page, that only became visible once it became full size, and there it was.

That made me feel a little less dense, but it’s done now.

My chesty cough is still with me, it’s been a couple of weeks, and it’s getting on my nerves.

Having a dark brown voice can have its advantages, but for now I prefer my normal one.

However it didn’t hamper the shopping expedition, Winnie came along to share the wondrous experience.

12th April 2026

Americans are obsessed with gambling, or so you would gather by the amount of advertising that is on the TV and social media. It is made so enticing with flashy commercials that make you feel you are already a winner. They even give you free money to start.

This is pure evil, draining the last crumbs from the people that have little to start with. 

It is a habit that shouldn’t be encouraged, it destroys lives all hanging on the dream of being the one who wins.

Poor old Larry, was addicted to scratch cards, having won once he spent what little he had on them, of course coming up with nothing.

He would hold garage sales several times a year, and we wondered why he would drive off after he sold something, well it turned out that he rushed out to get a scratch card from the store down the road. 

This is the typical customer who craves a win.

The biggest enticer is the lottery itself, with the promise of untold wealth, it brings misery to those fortunate enough to get the winning numbers.

In my day it was the football pools, a simple enough game where you had to predict eight wins from ten games, with people huddled around the TV on a Saturday afternoon to hear the results. Dreams were shattered by five thirty.

11th April 2026

I had a video call with Tim Wallace concerning a recording project that he wanted me to get involved with. A friend of his has a band and they made a recording that they weren’t happy with. Having spent money on the initial recording the could afford to have it remixed. They couldn’t afford to get the separate tracks back, all the had was a badly mix master.

When I was back in the UK, Tim first mentioned it, I say I would be interested in taking a listen and making any suggestions for improvement.

So during the week Tim sent me the song, and so started an interesting project.

What I heard was a guitar heavy piece that dominated the whole song, somewhere inside was a decent song fight to get out.

I was then sent an mp3 copy that I could load into my computer, but that wouldn’t help reimagine the song. What I needed was software that would separate all the different instruments allowing me to remix them. Thanks to AI I found just that.

Now with everything separated I could make a start.

Winnie was busy demolishing a stuffed rabbit. It was old, and had seen rough treatment by Kelli’s previous dogs, but now it came under more severe ravaging. I was singing “Bright eyes” as the stuffing was being torn out, making this more like a horror film, than Watership Down, it certainly would scare the children, it was scary for me.

9th April 2026

It is Kelli’s birthday, and after a restless night and an early morning awakening our plans for a dinner with Lloyd and Nancy went down the toilet. Instead we had breakfast, and after started on painting the long blue dresser we got from the side of the road. 

As it was a nice day, I took off my work coat and started pulling nails out of the maple flooring that we got for free last year. The plan is to lay it in the sunroom, hopefully in a few weeks time, but in the meantime I have a lot more nails to remove.

Kelli did a great job getting the dresser finished, we took pictures, and posted it. Later she had a response from the person that placed it at the roadside. She was very complimentary about how it turned out, this is the first time this had happened, probably as the handles are very distinctive.

8th April 2026

It was a lovely day to work in the garden. I had trees to prune, and sharp cutters to do it with.

The plum trees had got out of control and needed some savage cuts, now it probably won’t be a great harvest, but neither was last year, I’m hoping that the improved shape will allow better control in the future.

We spent time surveying the garden, it never looks good this time of year, and Kelli insists on not raking the leaves until there has been five days of warm weather. This is difficult for me to accept, having leaves everywhere adds to the look of neglect, and I don’t like it. The rakes are poised.

7th April 2026

The drive down to John the wood’s barn was wonderful, the sky was clear and blue with any trails blocking the sun. I stopped to get petrol, it’s at an all time high of $4.20 a gallon.

I had picked up some chocolate chip cookies from the corner shop, John enjoys them with the coffee.

I arrived at his home a little early, but he was ready with is water bottle in hand and medication in a carrier bag.

He hadn’t been to the barn since we were there last, so he was keen to see what state his sons may have left it in.

We always start with a coffee and a cookie, John has two cups that he had marked with coloured tape, green for me, red for him. This is when I tell him what the objectives of the day will be. Once we have finished our beverage, we are off.

My plan was to finish the base, fit the legs and drill the pocket holes. As I have said before I take my time and bring John along with me. He is like my apprentice, always ready to lead a hand.

Once the leg frame was assembled I give it to him to sand, he likes that bit.

But his eyes light up when he is talking about wood, he showed me a chunk of Brazilian rosewood, I don’t think I have seen a solid piece that big. He points to the doors and drawer fronts in his office that he made in solid elm. In his heyday he made some fine work, now he’s been reduced to helping an Englishman stumble through building a sofa.

After our second break, I talked to him about the next project, the one to bring some money into the barn, it will be made from maple and could be fun to make. That is when his eyes lit up again when he told me that he had a stack of red maple drying in the yard, now that could be a beautiful timber to use.

As we finish for the day we clean up the mess we made, it’s a ritual that I started at the beginning, sweeping the sawdust, mostly made by others.

Once we’ve done that it’s time to drive him back to his home in Wyoming, which I can now do in my sleep.

Winnie is alway pleased to see me, she greets me with a ball in her mouth hinting what she wants to play. So half an hour of that, and I’m done for the day.

6th April 2026

Why aren’t people listening anymore? We hear, but that is just a function of our ears, listening requires the brain.

What made me think about it? Well I listened to a presentation about this subject in the context of music. 

Listening to music was an event when time was spent enjoying the experience, when the silence was as important as the sound. 

Today music is like fast food, it does nothing for the body or the soul, silence is avoided, sound has to be everywhere and at all times.

I have thought about this for a long time, when was the last time I have sat and listened to an album? Streaming is all the thing, incomplete, highly processed noise in the guise as music.

Ear pods are all around us, they stick out of so many people’s ears these days, I cannot be sure they are hearing anything I say.

It turns me off dealing with those people, is there need for digital pulses all day long?

Do we all live at a pace that we don’t have time just to chill out? We talk about social media taking up everyone’s time, getting the life/work balance is not easy, I even find it difficult to make time to listen to real music, other than the recordings I do, but I will try.

On the other hand, what give Trump the right to destroy another country, who gave him the right to say who lives and who dies? Why is he being controlled by another country to do their bidding, why has he ruined his legacy?

Iran should be allowed to choose its own pathway, if the regime is bad, it’s people have to change it. America is the big bully of the world it is like Jabba the hut in Star Wars, with that little creature whispering advice in its ear.

When is enough, enough?

5th April 2026

Kelli was busy in the kitchen preparing for the family Easter Sunday dinner. Kelli’s mums house was going to be filled with people. As well as the Easter we were having a pre birthday party for Kelli whose special day is next Thursday. The smell of a chicken roasting in the oven filled my nostrils, along with herb stuffing and a mixed vegetable casserole. All this was bubbling away whilst I kept Winnie amused with chasing balls.

Phoebe is still indifferent to the exuberance of the young pup even though Winnie towers over her, I don’t think they will ever be friends. This is unfortunate, because all Winnie wants to do is play and she gets frustrated, this leads to some destruction of plants or sections of the garden which then makes us angry at her.

So the circle goes around and around.

4th April 2026

 The Artemis 2 moon shot has been a timely distraction from the Iran war. Pulling the American eyes off the disaster that is happening out there. The rate things are going the US will use up all their missiles for no real military gain.

I’m very sceptical about the moon shot, there are many things that don’t sit right with me.

For example all the pictures of earth that NASA have released have all been renders, not photos. This has led to many to believe that the original moon landings never happened. Apparently NASA get eighty million dollars a day in funding from the government, what is that for?

So the stakes are high. Many believe the international space station exists in a large pool in Florida. I have seen videos of the astronauts working on the outside of the station where there are clearly air bubbles rising. 

And there are no videos showing the construction of the structure at all, all this is strong evidence that it’s all a big con.

Now, there is an opportunity to quiet all the doubters by just showing a video of the earth from the windows in real time showing movement of clouds, and all the thousands of satellites that are supposed to orbit the earth. They have been up there for three days and they haven’t done it.

Generally the American taxpayer is expected to pay eight hundred billion dollars for a war it shouldn’t be in, and it can’t pay the people who work for the government. There is so much discontent in this country.