Author: peterb51

20th June 2022

The day started with a ring on the doorbell, we had just finished breakfast, and Kelli went to answer it. I was still in my bed ware, so I rushed off to get dressed.

When I went outside Kelli was talking to a man who introduced himself as from the city.

Apparently he was investigating a complaint about us spraying dangerous chemicals.

The complaint was registered a couple of weeks ago by someone unknown.

I started to seethe inside, some nosey waste of space had snitched on us.

Kelli explained what we did and the equipment we used were no different than a DIYer would use. The investigator understood that, but stressed that it was his job to check out the complaint.

That left us wondering who might have done that, we thought we knew everyone in the Avenue, but obviously there is a low life here and we don’t know who it is, but we will find out somehow.

After he left, Larry walked over, I thought he wanted to know why the city were talking to us, but no it was far more dramatic.

“I’ve been in hospital “ he said, “I had a heart attack”. Apparently a couple of Sundays ago an ambulance had turned up and rushed him to Zeeland hospital. We were both shocked, we had no idea, we hadn’t seen or heard an ambulance arrive, which was so unusual, because we work directly across the road.

Fortunately he recovered, lived to tell the tail, but he will have to be careful from now on.

After all this we had to take a bike ride to get it all out of our system, my vindictive mind still focused on the complainer. By the time our ride was over, I had calmed down, I had things to get on with.

We managed to get a dip in the pool even though it was not as hot as passed days. We joked that the sad person was probably jealous of us for having a pool and new bikes.

“Bollocks to them” I said as we mixed some paint up to spray another dresser.

19th June 2022

It was Father’s day over here, so we took a bike ride to the cemetery to honour Dave.

It’s great to see Kelli so excited about using her bicycle. We stopped off to say hi to some friends, something unheard of just a few months ago.

The other main event was the handing over of the finished bed frame. I would say it was a Labour of love, but in reality it was a pain in the arse. However the customers were ecstatic over it. I had it built on the drive as they pulled up with their massive trailer on the back of their truck. I was relieved, at the response and helped them load it.

I waved it goodbye, next time I will have to revise my prices.

18th June 2022

It was time for Kelli’s’ first real bike ride in two years. I wasn’t sure how far she wanted to go, so I suggested going around the block. She looked at me in horror. Did I think that was sufficient? Oh no she wanted to do a much longer run. I could feel the soreness in my buttocks from yesterday’s ride twitch, but I wanted to encourage her.

The machines were wheeled out of the garage, still sparkling new, into the morning sun.

We climbed aboard and set off heading for the big lake.

The air was a bit cool in the shade, but that didn’t deter our adventure. The ECO setting was just right, and we arrived at Point West in good time. Kelli blagged her way past the security gate as she always does, and soon we were heading for the beach, it was fabulous down there.

We parked our bikes, making sure we locked them, it was really to see how they worked.

We sat on the sand and looked out over the Great Lake. There was a lot of activity out there with the jet skis angrily racing about like wasps among the boats.

Kelli had done well, she had wanted to do this for a year, and I was proud of her for taking this giant step.

Now it was time for the return journey. I hadn’t experienced the soreness as much on the way down as I had lowered my seat a couple of inches, but on the way back it resumed, only now it was hurting on the other side. By the time we got back I was suffering from synchronised aching buttocks, not something I would recommend.

I had a lot of work to do to the headboard because we had committed to have it finished tomorrow

17th June 2022

We went hunting for E-bikes today. We have two well used and old ones, but we felt it might be fun to join the twenty-first century.

Not really knowing much about the different types other than some are eye wateringly expensive, we settled on the power assisted models. Of course we had to try them out, so we wheeled them outside, and after a quick run through of the controls, we set off. Apart from four modes of assistance there were nine gears most of which are like a conventional bicycle, the mayor difference was the weight.

The machine itself weighed in at fifty pounds, mainly due to the motor and battery pack, although I didn’t really notice it, I guess if it fell on me I would notice. We got back to the shop, and the sales assistant asked us how we got on, she looked shocked when I said that I would have them. You could see the commission light up in her eyes. “A new boat or car?” She was thinking, well not quite, but it was a good sale for her.

The mechanics took them off to check everything was correctly set up as I settled the payment.

Then there was the question of getting them back home. I decided that I would ride my bike back to the house, and load Kelli’s into the back of the truck as she had another errand to run.

Off I went, starting in the ECO mode, the most common, if I felt cocky I would go to SPORT, TOUR and even TURBO if I was really daring. Halfway back I encountered a bit of rough pavement, the chunky tyres handled if fine, but I did notice the display was not showing anything.

It had been a couple of years since I last rode a bike, and the new saddle was playing havoc with my arse. I thought the saddle was set a bit high, more for someone with normal length legs, mine being one up from a dwarf, but with no apparent power assist and relying on the manual mode things were getting a bit sore down there.

Finally I made the last turn and arrived home. Kelli had beaten me, but with my bottom stinging I wasn’t in the mood to complain about the result.

We lifted Kelli’s bike out of the truck and I checked the on/off functions, hers worked perfectly, mine did not.

I opened up the user manual looking for any clue for why there was no power.

Kelli phoned the shop, and the suggestion from them was to try charging the battery pack, which I did, they also said that a mechanic was going to stop by to check it over.

A little time went by, then a little van pulled up and the technician climbed out, he was quite tall and it was a wonder that he managed to fit into the small Japanese vehicle.

He fiddled about then announced that the battery pack was not connected properly, and with a ‘click’ he engaged it in its housing.

Once correctly fitted the display worked perfectly.

We thanked the chap as he folded himself back into the Japanese micro machine and off he went.

16th June 2022

There were tremendous thunderstorms last night keeping me awake instead of Kelli. The room lit up like a crazy disco, all I could think of was whether the trees around us would survive.

The thought of a large bough crashing through the roof was frightening.

The morning brought calm back to the neighbourhood, the sun was shining, and as it was rubbish collection day, the bins were gleaming in the morning light.

We sold the dressing table whilst I stripped the finish on yet another dresser top.

Two young girls had driven from Grand Rapids to collect it, and it just fitted in their vehicle.

I continued working on the headboard, I will be really glad when that is done, I’m really bored with it now.

15th June 2022

Another pool day, we have to take advantage whilst we can, there could be snow tomorrow.

The psycho killer appeared again at Larry’s.

We thought he had left, but I heard the weird sounds that is either very aggressive rap music or him singing along, which I think sounds like someone is swinging a cat in a restricted space.

We had two ladies come to collect the two matching side tables, and we finished a small dressing table.

These are pieces that we don’t bother with because there is not always a big demand, but because it was free we thought it was worth a go.

14th June 2022

It was too hot to breath, the humidity was seventy five percent which made working outside hard. I had some staining to do so I started as early as I could, but had little appetite to do much more. I did fit the tops to the side tables, but my mind was in the pool.

The water was warming nicely, but we topped it up with hot water from the tank to lessen the sound of Kelli climbing into a slightly cool pool, which can be a bit dramatic.

We searched for the other floatation devices we had stored in the shed, unfortunately some had holes eaten into them by some little blighter, bastard!

It was just as well we had some inflatables that survived so we were able to float in the water easing some of the heat away.

We enjoyed watching a female cardinal taking her first bath in our pond. Kelli had created a platform so they could stand and get splashed by the fountain. We had noticed how the sparrows had gathered under the sprinkler to enjoy the water. I had never seen that happen before, so cute.

13th June 2022

First off it was a drive to see Angel, a mechanic that Kelli has used in the past to fix her car. He had a quick look, saw the problem and said he will fix it within an hour or so.

I went for a walk, had a coffee and a mooch around Lowes.

I arrived back at Angel’s workshop and saw our truck was waiting outside. I paid the man and started her up, what a difference, it no longer sounded like a London taxi.

There was still no black mulch at Menards, although Monday was not the best day to go, but I loaded up with compost and headed home.

It was very humid and storms were predicted, but with hot day ahead expected we dragged the pool out and started to fill. It takes a lot of water and a lot of time to fill, but we have to start somewhere.

We saw a young male deer strut down the road, he stopped opposite the house, I was worried that he might get to south shore drive, which is often busy and get hit. The only times I see them is dead on the side of the road, so sad as they are beautiful animals.

I have been watching some of the January 6th committee meetings and with all the evidence that has been gathered I doubt that anything will happen to Trump and his enablers, it makes me think, what example this set the rest of the world that someone can lie, cheat, and betray the constitution and apparently get away with it.

12th June 2022

There were a number of stops on route to collect two pieces of furniture the were purchased last night.

Kelli also found two watering cans for sale on Marketplace and of course everyone needs two watering cans on top of the one we already have. But I was assured that one was going to stay in the car and the other was a gift for Greer.

Having been put in my place we continued on to collect the furniture.

One was a small but heavy desk that will become two matching side tables, the other was a tall dresser, old but badly painted and a missing rail. Having loaded those into the truck, we headed off to Plato’s to return some jeans that she wasn’t happy with. Then we stopped off at the garden centre to get some aquatic plants for the pond. We were fascinated by two frogs entering into, a) playfulness, b) fighting, c) hanky panky we couldn’t really tell which, but it was great entertainment.

We returned home and took pictures of the pair of matching side tables.

I started staining the headboard, it was hot so it was drying really quickly.

I cut the lawns front and back, so the place looked decent again.

10th June 2022

I had to drive to Gloria’s, the lady I made the jewellery drawer for, she wanted me to line the top section of the cabinet with pine panels so she can attach other jewellery stuff.

I had prepared the panels in the garage but wanted to cut them to fit in the unit.

I arrived just before the agreed time of 10.00am. She open the door in her dressing gown, which was a strange place to have a door (very old joke known by very old people)

She had forgotten that I was coming over, but let me in anyway.

She lives in a small community of duplicate houses, I have got confused a couple of times because the streets look exactly the same.

I had all my tools in the back of the truck, so I set up my workmate and cut everything to size.

We had to deliver a large dresser that we struggled to load into the truck. The customer had given us precise times to arrive. On the way Kelli dropped some of her old clothes off at Plato’s closet to get a few bucks.

Then we set off for our delivery. This is where things went a bit crazy. The address was punched into the GPS but it was directing us to go a different way. Kelli was convinced that the customer, who was a repeat buyer, lived in a different part of Holland. The GPS was insistent on taking us in a completely different direction. This is when we checked the address again. It was leading us back to our side of Holland, all the time Kelli was texting with the person trying to clarify who she was.

Eventually all that got sorted out and we agreed to deliver it tomorrow instead.

That led us to return to Plato’s to collect the meagre amount of money for the items they wanted, and returned those they didn’t.

We returned home tired, ready to feed the hungry dogs who were an hour late being fed, although they alway act like that.