Author: peterb51

27th March 2021

I couldn’t wait to see the results of my top surface repair. With heart racing, I rushed into the garage grabbing a sanding block and some 80 grit sandpaper. I lovingly sanded the surface flat, then finished with 120 grit.

It looked good, but I had been fooled before, so I went over it with primer.

I had to get more timber to finish off the deck, so off to Menards I went.

I wandered around looking at patio furniture totally unimpressed with anything I saw. It all look so old fashion, better suited to a care home.

I collected some bags of dirt and lawn feed, I was now a gardening expert, or at least I felt like it.

I drove round to the timber yard, the truck knows the way, and I don’t need to steer at all.

I stopped at the cedar racks, and climbed the stairs to pull the pieces from the racks.

Each piece had something wrong with it, and as I had paid good money for them i wanted three perfect planks, cos that’s the king of guy I am.

I went through about fifty lengths until I found the best ones, then lashed them to the roof rack.

By the time I got home I was ready to see how the paint had dried. I was relieved to see no new blistering, so I slapped on another coat just for good measure.

I off-loaded my timber from the truck, I needed to plane it to the required thickness, meaning I could have chosen some of the more dodgy pieces back at the timber yard, but bollocks to that.

I was using the timber to build a frame around a flower bed that was part of the decking just to finish everything off. Unfortunately I ran out of stainless steel screws, so another trip to Menards is needed.

26th March 2021

The temperature goes up and down, today we’re down in the 40’s and tomorrow it’s up in the sixties, it can’t make up its mind.

I put a coat on and worked out in the garage, adding a finish to the stripped oak dresser and removing paint from an old window frame that will be used on the cold frame.

Kelli was having a bad day, and crashed out early on the sofa in the sunroom.

It is very difficult for her as she is an active person, it’s really hard for me to see her this way.

I had completed(what I thought) painting the top of a dresser. It was one that we got cheap from Goodwill. The top could not be saved as it had blisters in the veneer. I split the blisters and injected adhesive into them, and weighted them down. I was confident this would work, and when dry I sanded and primed. All looked good until I added the top coats. Suddenly there were even more blisters. I was left with two options, one to strip off all of the veneer, and lay a new one, or two, open up all the blisters until I got to a place where the blister area stopped, I chose this one.

After gouging at the top I was left with lots of divots that I then filled with “Bondo”, I then left it overnight.

25th March 2021

The day I dreaded had arrived, I had to go and have my root filling. The appointment had been cancelled once, and deep down I hoped the same would happen again.

The building was drab, opposite the main Holland hospital, and not the shiny modern building I mistakenly went in first.

All the safety protocols were in place as I entered the reception. I had to wear the mask they gave me, and shown to the lift to go down to the ground floor. There I had to fill out registration and health history, and sign that I could not hold the practice responsible for anything that went wrong.

I was collected from the reception by a nurse who led me to a small room to have my mouth scanned. I had to stand against a structure that gripped my head whilst the thing spun around my face.

Afterwards I was led to a small room with a really narrow doorway, I could only enter sideways and asked to sit on the reclining chair. The surgeon came in and studied the images, then he moved a larger screen in front of me to go though the various options.

He explained that the damaged tooth, the one I thought the appointment was for was not worth saving, there was very little tooth left to work with. He said that he could clean out the root, but warned that any crown fitted would not last more than a couple of years.

The tooth next to it had a cavity that was close to nerve, and advised that he work on that one.

Reluctantly I agreed, at between 1100 and 1200 dollars for the treatment I didn’t want to waste money on something that wouldn’t last.

So the procedure started, face numbed, a machine resembling a large microscope was moved into place that allowed the doctor to see what he was doing.

The smell of burning tooth wafted into my nostrils and then the bouquet of cloves. Within thirty minutes it was complete.

I handed a wad of notes to the receptionist who said I would get a reduction if paid in cash.

I left, and drove back home with the left side of my face frozen, and my wallet much lighter,

and a number of new decision to make about my dental health.

24th March 2021

I was determined to finish laying the decking.

It had rained during the night leaving puddles on the joists, I noticed the first time I sat down on them. Each strip took me approx fifteen minutes to fix. There was collecting it from the side of the house, not easy as they were sixteen feet long. It was like trying to carry a stiff dead python.

Lay it on the chop saw, resting one end on a cart and supporting it in the middle with a stack of wood off-cuts. Cut off a couple of feet, then carry it over to the deck, and mark it for the final length, then carry it back to the saw for the final cut, making sure not to trip on the joist. After the cut, carry it back to the decking for final fixing.

Gradually the end was in sight, I had gone through a couple of hundred bucks worth of clips, and three boxes of screws on this project.

They must make a bloody fortune on these clips, a bit of painted punched steel that must only cost less than a penny a hundred, bastards!

I also learnt that my ears were not designed to hold two pencils.

It is instinctive to stick one behind the ear, this time I had an abundance of pencils . I tried unsuccessfully to stick a second one behind the ear and wondering why it wouldn’t stay there.

As the evening drew in, I finished, just the last piece to rip down to finish it off, I have no idea what has been sealed up in the deck, and I don’t care, my body just said, “now you can crawl away and die”.

23rd March 2021

I was the proverbial juggler with drawers to the left of me and carcasses to the right, and on top of that there was the decking.

Whilst the finish coats were drying in the garage, I was outside sawing and screwing down decking planks.

There were some areas of the structure that was not at the correct level, that needed shimming. Maybe I should have noted if the joists had a bow or a droop, but anyway I had to adjust them so that the decking was level.

I had a stock of thin timber that I ran through the planer. I got very good at tapering the shim, I won’t go into the detail, needless to say, it’s all in the wrist movement.

I worked all afternoon, or until I felt like I was ready to collapse.

The last job of the day was to collect up all the wood shavings from all the shims, and there was a lot of it.

I had popped out earlier to get more joist tape using my rebate that had arrived on Monday.

Usually it takes three months for these to come through, but this was only a week, amazing.

22nd March 2021

Kelli had an appointment at the kinesiologist, so I had to experience more body bending and cracking. I still don’t fully understand what this treatment does and how it works. The reactive therapy of pushing against the doctor then putting a liquid on the tongue then going through the same routine again to see if it had any effect on the result, call me sceptismo, but it’s just witchcraft to me.

We left with a bottle of pills that deal with stress, adding to the collection that is building up on the counter top.

There was a new Plato’s Closet in Holland so it was a great opportunity for Kelli to sell a lot of clothes that are too large for her.

She came away with a couple of hundred dollars which helped fund her doctor’s visit.

I decided to check the LED lighting in the deck.

I had to fiddle the positions of them because of the length of the cable, the tricky one was difficult to get too without removing one of the planks, WHICH WAS BLOODY TYPICAL.

Anyway they worked, making me happy

21st March 2021

It was a wonderful morning, just the weather to work outside, and boy did I have plenty to do.

I wanted to make a start on the main decking. First I had to apply the tape to the joists, a tedious job but essential if I want the structure to last. Of course I ran out of the tape, but I managed to cover over half the joists, so another visit is on the cards.

I found an old electric drill that Dave had given to me along time ago that I hadn’t used because I am in the 21st century and use a battery driver. As I was swapping between drill and driver, I thought it would be an advantage to have two devices going.

The corded drill was an old Black and Decker at a time when they manufacture them out of cast alloy, a heavy beast with variable speed.

I fitted the drill bit in it and proceeded to try to drill holes. It ran so slow, I laughed out loud because that was just like Dave, I never saw him move faster than a snail. The story goes he only ever seen moving quickly was when he was chased by a swarm of hornets, I wish that had been filmed.

I fiddled around with the variable speed control that didn’t appear to do anything, but at last I managed to get it to turn at a proper speed that was able to puncture the timber rather than tickle it.

20th March 2021

I drove to Menards on my own to get some timber to finish off the decking structure. I wanted to reinforce the back corner in case we want to fit a cantilevered canopy.

I am hopeful to start laying the main decking area tomorrow.

The main job of the day was cutting the holes for the lights in the cedar trim and the frame structure.

I had worked out the spacing and drilled the holes in the longest trim piece. When I came to mark the holes in the frame, using the trim as the template, I found that two of the holes lined up with the support posts. So instead of drilling through just two inches of wood, I had four inches to bore into.

I had the brilliant idea to bring my ship vac outside to clean up the wood debris caused by my drilling. Unfortunately the bits were a little on the big size causing jamming in the pipe. It took longer to unclog than if I had used a dustpan and brush.

However the end result was good with the mitres fitting well.

19th March 2021

Finally put the finishing touches to the large entertainment unit that I’ve been working on for ever.

The two dressers are progressing slowly, my mind was pre-occupied with finishing the decking, so I tinkered around with that for a while, cutting the cedar trim to size. I had bought some LED lights to fit into the trim boards to illuminate the step, but it required a 30mm diameter hole. I checked the website for the main places that I know of, but no metric cutters. I can order one from Amazon but it wouldn’t arrive until next Wednesday, I was hoping to finish most of the decking by the weekend.

Kelli had another rotten night so she crashed out for most of the day

18th March 2021

Kelli had another sleep deprived night, I could tell, the tv in the bedroom was on most of the night. I could tell by the muted sound and the flickering on the wall, because it kept me awake most of the night myself.

This leads to another low energy day for her, which I know she hates.

I carried on working on stuff in the garage watching stuff on YouTube to break the silence.

I watched a documentary on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. What a masterpiece that was, a building that had so much detail I don’t know how he could think of them. It hurt my head just looking at all the intricate design.

What was sad was the building was demolished in 1967 to make was for a much larger, taller building and much of the furniture was thrown away.

Then I listen to the news and hear about murders in Georgia, bickering about the relevance of mask wearing (still), and something about cancel culture, whatever that is.