Author: peterb51

4th March 2026 

This was a work on the shed day. It was a glorious day, I changed into my grot work clothes and spent fifteen minutes putting on my work boots.

The area of the shed I was tackling, was the side with the door. That had to be removed first, I also had to remove the cladding that I had already fitted on a previous trip, because I had a different idea for that.

In the distance I could hear the buzzing of the chainsaws, in fact I hear that every time I am here, maybe they do it to annoy me.

As I was busy reframing the new door frame, when Mike, the guy that lives behind me, and re-roofed my cottage, wheeled his bicycle down the path. He had a tree sticking out of his saddle bag. “Is that some kind of antenna?” I quipped.

He smiled, and told me it was an ash sapling that he had extracted from a wall, and was taking it to replant it. He explained about a disease that is effecting ash trees in the country, he was doing his bit to try preserve them, one tree at a time.

I carried on with my task, I used up what material I had, and as the sun went away, and the evening drew on, I finished for the day.

Satisfied with my effort, I celebrated with a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, thoughtfully supplied by Nicola, cheers sis.

3rd March 2026

After the hectic experience of yesterday I decided to take things easy, and build up the excitement gradually.

I had a list of things I wanted to take back, including hard drives, cables, Tapes and  microphones.

I will be restricted by weight, but with careful selection it should be okay.

I had to venture into the shed, taking my life in my hands, I lifted the large plastic boxes down and rummaging through them found just what I wanted.

There also boxes of cables, that I needed to sort out. I emptied them all out and sorted them into audio cables in one pile, power cables in another and computer cables in another.

I found the hard drives, and set up the Mac to check they were the correct ones.

However I felt there was one missing, so no doubt there will be a frantic search for that.

I did start to cut back some of the overgrown shrubs in the garden, I will need to get the incinerator going to burn them.

 I took a walk, intending to visit an old school friend who I hadn’t hear from in a while. I had emailed and left voice messages, and not got any reply.

I knew he had some health problems, so I had concerns. I didn’t receive any reply to my knocking, all the curtains were drawn, and generally the place looked a bit neglected.

I saw a lady cleaning her camper van, and I asked her if she knew his whereabouts.

Although she knew of him, she didn’t know where he was , but she took me to a neighbour who would know.

Well I did receive a very detailed account of his current location, and his state of health.

She mentioned a ruptured diaphragm or something like that, it sounded pretty serious.

That explained everything, and I passed that information on to other school friends, if there is time I might try to visit him, but sometimes hospitals restrict visitors to immediate family only, we shall see.

I was really tired, and I fell asleep on the sofa, the jet lag had caught up on me.

2nd March 2026

It was a good flight, I didn’t have to get up to use the toilet, much to my relief.

I didn’t fancy disturbing the big guy next to me, who bloody slept all the way.

Arriving at terminal 5 was different. The aircraft was parked away from the terminal so we had to get on a bus to be transported there.

I always thought the building was interesting, designed a decade before it was built, it could not be modified to meet the extra demand it now has. You entered at one level, then climb to another, then go back down to collect your luggage. Crammed into tight elevators was not my idea of passenger conveyance.

I had to wait ages for the luggage to arrive at the  conveyor number five. I watched as others collected their cases, eventually I was on my own, watching a few odd pieces taking numerous laps around.

I was getting pissed, I had to find someone who handled lost luggage. 

I walked towards a line of people waiting by a counter, obviously having the same issue as me.

When it was my turn I explained my problem.

What followed was a lot of keyboard tapping and screen staring.

Thank god for barcodes. 

The lady could see where it was loaded, transferred and offloaded.

Eventually it was discovered on a different conveyor, number eleven!

There was no explanation why, I didn’t care, I just wanted to get out of there.

My next challenge was to get to the coach station over by terminal 3. 

That part was painless, apart from having to get a ticket to travel on a free train, more control I expect.

It is always a long walk through grim corridors to get to the coach station, but I walk at a speed that I don’t really notice. There is nothing pleasant about a coach station, it’s deliberately built to complement the miserable feeling of desperation. The plastic seats are cracked, how fat and heavy must a person be to crack an effin’ seat ?

The only refreshment is an order by screen experience, another hateful experience.

My breakfast bun must have been cooked in hell, it was so bloody hot, I had to gulp my coffee to cool my mouth, but I must say, the pattern on the froth was delightful, it almost made me forgot my third degree burns.

It was almost heaven to get on the coach. As it trundled out of the station, the sun shone down on me, I had survived.

As I settled in, listening to my music I was aware how slow the coach was going, then I noticed the “variable speed limit” signs, and the gantries with the cameras, WTF is going on?

I guess that it was a way of extracting speeding finds from the daily commuters who just wanted to get home every night.

I then noticed the patterns in the sky, these are not vapour tails, this is biological engineering.

I used to watch Concorde fly over Bath on its way from New York. You could see the vapour trail stop, and quickly disperse as it slowed down. These trails hang for ages, a criss-cross of white lines, there is something going on, and people are not questioning it.

Seeing my sister Nicola and her husband Colin is the best moment of my trip, it makes all the crap of travel worth taking.

They took me back to the cottage, where the overgrowth greets me. Things that I had cut back last year had grown back, that was on my list to deal with.

I had an invite to Ryan and Louise’s for a spag-bol, my first decent meal on British soil.

That is when I learned that they had scrapped the Shogun, that was a shock, and I was a bit peeved to hear that. “The alternator had gone” Ryan explained. Now in my day you FIXED the effin thing you didn’t scrap it. That one thing had messed up some of my plans, how to get rid of the garden waste? I can’t take that on the bus.

That I will have to deal with.

1st March 2026

Well the first of the bad news has started. I hadn’t even got to the airport when I was notified of a delay on my flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago by three hours, meaning that my connection was all messed up.

I thought that everything was going well, I had a seat in premium economy, and had booked my meal. I was looking forward to a leisurely flight with a bit of space around me.

Kelli had a bit more time to get her hair right, an important part of driving me to the airport.

She had organised a collection of a dresser on the way, talk about cramming things in.

We got to the address only to find it required quite a bit of work to make it saleable.

So we left it, if it’s still available in three weeks time that’s a different story.

So we continued to the airport, where the shit continued.

Checking my bag in I was told the flight had been cancelled and my ticket had been rebooked to a different flight. 

I then discovered my London flight had also been changed to a BA aircraft, so I guess my premium economy ticket had been lost, my temperature was rising.

I then discovered that the BA flight would land at 11.30am one and a half hours after my coach leaves.

National Express are full of sympathy for travellers who miss their connection because of cancelled flights, NOT!

I had to book anther coach at additional cost, Bastards!!

Of course BA flights land at terminal 5, I would have to find a way to the coach station, it just gets better.

The flight into Chicago was okay, it wasn’t full, I had a window seat. There was a young girl on the isle wearing a mask, she was so thin, I expect she put the mask on in 2020 and didn’t have the strength to take it off.

There was the usual quick flight across the lake and then once landed, it took the same amount of time to get to the terminal.

I located the gate where the my BA flight would start from, I had plenty of time, so I thought.

I decided to find a place to get a coffee, most of the food places were closed, but I did find a Starbucks. While I was waiting, I thought I heard my name over the public address, I wasn’t sure.

Just to be sure I speed walked back to the gate, which was empty. I rushed up to the desk, and they confirmed that they were trying to locate me. I was rushed through, of course everyone had already boarded and fill all the overhead lockers. One was located in a different part of the plane, I just had to remember which one it was.

I then settled back, I didn’t get an isle seat, as I usually have, but I was seated in the BA equivalent of premium economy, so I was relieved, the seat did recline quite a bit , nice touch, I just hope I don’t want a pee during the flight. The guy next to me was quite a big fella, both he and the seat became one entity.

28th February 2026

There was a lot of running around, Kelli had found some chairs for free. Now free usually means crap, so I was not surprised. Two of the chairs were complete, one had rails missing and another had rails that had fallen out.

Normally not a difficult job to reassemble, but because I am leaving tomorrow, the pressure was on to get at least the one with all the bits back together.

We had been to both Goodwill looking for furniture that Kelli could work on that weren’t too heavy, but there was not much there.

Then we delivered the combination wardrobe/ dresser to Lloyd and Nancy. We asked them to join us for lunch, we had tried to arrange dinner several times, but there was always a reason why that never happened.

Went to Joe to go, a small breakfast/ lunch place for something modest and quick. 

We are alway aware that Winnie is locked in her cage, she doesn’t seem to mind, most of the time she sleeps, but knows instinctively when we return. We can hear her high pitched bark as soon as the truck stops, oh, and the snow is back.

We braved the driving stuff to take the dogs for a walk, they must have hated us for that.

27th February 2026

Well I failed in my attempt to make the coffee top decent. All my efforts of sanding and finishing all came to nothing, it looked crap.

If the top was solid timber you could sand all the scratches out, but with a veneer, even though it was a pine veneer, the amount of work that can be done is very limited.

So I was disappointed, in the end we will paint the whole thing.

Kelli painted the bookcase, whilst I played ball with Winnie. I pulled my case out of the storage room, the trip is rapidly approaching.

With the warmer weather the snow has nearly gone, but you can never say never in this place.

It was pleasant taking the walk, we decided to go a different route to give the dogs something new to sniff.

Kelli had a solo visit to her doctor, in an effort to help her sleeping problem. Being the sceptic as I am, I hope it was successful.

26th February 2026

Kelli awoke early, again, although the noisy jeep man is no longer living across the road, it was David, who also drive a jeep who was the culprit.

It doesn’t help that the sound is kept low to the land by the current climate conditions.

So she was not feeling great.

I had a table top to finish and the horrible black piece in the garage to continue stripping, that I wasn’t excited about, to work on. 

I also had my beer date with Lloyd in the afternoon to look forward to.

Two glasses of Old Speckled Hen numbs reality for a while, but our sessions are real verbal chess games, most of the time it ends in a draw.

We took the dogs for a walk around the block and through the park. Winnie is really strong, and pulls constantly even though the halter collar which should stop her, doesn’t.

She needs to learn that it would be less uncomfortable if she just stops pulling.

25th February 2026

After yesterday’s excitement, it was down to doing stuff.

I had to start stripping a horrible black buffet that had stickers all over it, I’m not sure why we bothered with it because it is not a quick job.

Next on the list was bonding an edgeband on to the front edge of the shelves I made for the shelf less bookshelf.

On top of that I stripped the finish off a coffee table top. This was quick, and I will refinish that tomorrow.

I recently bought more storage for my Mac Pro tower. I had to buy some small metal carriers in order to mount the hard drives. They arrived yesterday, it was relatively easy to fit, and then install the drive. There was a lot of thought that must have gone into the design of the computer making the whole thing child’s play.

Whilst I was doing that I had the idea to check if two external LaCie units that I had stripped down would work in the Mac.

I had bought them used, and they worked for a while, but then stopped. It was last ditch check, but I installed those, reformatted them, and they worked, so the fault must have been in the circuit board of the LaCie. Now I have more storage than ever.

24th February 2026

Another trip to John the wood’s barn, the last before my UK visit.

I had hoped to have finished all the parts for my sofa, but alas the only thing I managed to do was build the base frame. I realised that to do anymore was not possible, so I found a corner of the barn where I could store the parts.

I went through all the costings for his milling of lumber, writing it all down in his “ memory book”.

That seems to be working as he takes it everywhere.

With all the business finished I dropped him off at his home, and then headed back to Holland.

There was a bit of excitement in the Avenue. As Kelli was closing the blinds, she looked across at Larry’s place and saw orange flickering in the bedroom. She called me to take a look, and it definitely looked like fire light.

I ran across, and climbed up on the gas meter to look through the window. I saw what looked like a paint can with flames coming out of the top.

It was difficult to make an accurate identification, but I shouted across to Kelli to call the fire brigade.

After spending a lot of time on the phone giving every bit of information, we heard the fire truck arrive. The flashing lights were blinding, it was now difficult to see the orange glow in the house.

I explained where the “fire” was. One firefighter climbed the steps and barged the door. Of course it didn’t stand a chance, it flung open to reveal a large candle with three wicks burning away. I was a little embarrassed, my observation was way off, but it was still a hazard, and shouldn’t have been left alight.

Also it was the sort of candle that shouldn’t have been lit in the house at all.

So as the firefighters were clearing up, we joined a group of neighbours discussing the event. I by this time was freezing, at least if the house was ablaze, it would have warmed me up a bit.

23rd February 2026

The start of another week, the same agenda, Nature’s Market and Aldi, filling up the cupboard and fridge, same all, same all.

I wanted to go over to Randy the upholstery man to change out the legs and to add wooden slats.

Fortunately I had everything prepared, so the change over was quite painless. We agreed the construction of the seat which will be medium springs covered with a down blanket. Kelli doesn’t want to use foam which would have been less expensive, but we try to use natural materials where we can.

I had the run of the shop while he went off for a meeting, which was great, because I don’t like people looking over my shoulder.

We had our usual walk, it was still bitterly cold,   by the time we got back both our eyes and noses were stinging.

It these times when we wish for summer, lounging in the pool wishing it wasn’t so hot, we’re just not satisfied.