Author: peterb51

12th August 2026

The small red dresser finally got collected this morning. I’m fascinated by people’s responses, some are so over the top, gushing praise on us for doing a fantastic job, others will tell us where they plan to use it. However, this young lady was so chilled, the response almost brought its own frost. But she did tell me that it was for her son, so it will soon be covered with stickers no doubt.

I took another step to integrating into American life, I took my driving test, and passed, proving that fifty years of driving wasn’t wasted.

I didn’t know what to expect, the tester was a couple of years younger than me, but an extremely pleasant chap. He made me feel comfortable, explained everything clearly, even I could understand him. He had a good sense of humour, and the whole experience was fun, I’m surprised that I did so well with all the joking that went on. All the lights were green, the traffic was light which was unlike my driving test in England.

That had everything I didn’t want, rain, rush hour traffic, and a tester who was so serious that I was convinced I had failed within the first ten minutes, but I thought “what the heck” and just got on with it.

Anyway, Kelli was busy shopping in a thrift store close by, so I did my usual, kept a straight face and said that it was useful experience for the next one, but I could keep a straight face long enough. 

Now I wanted my license, so I walked to the Secretary of State office located in the same area, hoping to get a temporary license allowing me to drive, but it wasn’t that simple.

I had to make an appointment, which turned out to be next Monday, drat!

I think the information doesn’t get updated for twenty four hours, so hence the wait.

But the difficult stuff has been done, I can wait a little longer.

11th August 2026

It was strange not going to see John today, there were other things going on that needed my attention. We had to deliver the large dresser around lunchtime, and I was dreading it. 

It is one of the heaviest pieces we have had for a long time. 

The loading and the delivery went exceptionally well, the lady was delighted with it, and even gave us a tip, that was a rare experience.

The red dresser was due to be collected this morning, and I got breakfast going especially early, but it was a no-show with a weak excuse, but it’s a cute piece, I’m sure it will go soon.

Kelli had to take her mother to a doctor’s appointment, but I had a fire to light. I had tubs of offcuts to get rid of, so this was an ideal opportunity to get the fire pit working.

There was plenty of smoke to start with, if any one complained I would blame Canada.

Then I had to finish cutting the plywood for the big green island’s back panel. 

Winnie was being a pain, although each day she seems to be in a different mood, but today she was a terror.

I did get angry with her, and banished her to the cage. I needed to get work done, and I kept getting interrupted by both dogs barking at each other.

But, I did what I set out to do, the fire was smouldering well into the evening, and I managed to prime all the panels for the island.

10th August 2026

Both Kelli and I had a doctors appointment. Mine is once or twice a year, focusing on my right wrist and neck. I haven’t had any problems with my neck, but my wrist gives me occasional twinges.

Kelli’s session was fairly routine, a few checks, a bit of tuning and that was it, then came my time.

The doctor did a few checks on my right hand and showed me that I had lost strength in my fingers, that I hadn’t noticed. He then traced the muscle up to my elbow and started to manipulate it. Gosh that hurt, there were several places where the pain was excruciating.

After several minutes of intense unpleasantness it eased, he then checked the fingers and the strength was back, it is amazing how it all works.

He then checked my neck, noting that it was slightly out of alignment. I laid face down on the bench, CRACK! Something moved in my neck.

“Got it” the doctor exclaimed excitedly.

So ended a session of pain, I have to put my trust in him, I could never do that myself.

We then drove back as we had a lot of work to do. Kelli wanted to get the large dresser ready to post. I was cutting up timber to make the back panel for the Long Island.

I gave John the wood’s wife a call because I would be unlikely to make Tuesday, but possibly Friday.

“ Did you hear the big news?” These were the first words she spoke. Not knowing what to expect, I waited for her announcement.

“ Our church burnt down last night.”

Apparently it was struck by lightning during a very heavy thunderstorm that lasted most of the night.

“Oh, I would have thought a church would be the last place to get struck by lightning.” I replied.

Now that is the place where the elevator that John did a lot of work on was located, I’m not sure if that part of the building got badly damaged, but from the pictures that I saw on line it looked pretty bad.

I would think it all would need to be demolished, but I wondered if the insurance will pay out if it was an act of God?

Kelli worked hard to clean up that large dresser we picked up yesterday, we got pictures and posted it.

Later, that got snapped up, to be delivered tomorrow.

9th August 2026

I alway knew how athletic Kelli’s family were, ah, that’s not true, in fact the only time Dave, Kelli’s dad was ever known to run, was when he was chased by a swarm of hornets.

So I didn’t expect Kelli to do anything different.

Well, we had to collect a free dresser from north side of Holland, and we took Winnie along for the ride.

As I opened the back door, she took off, ignoring our calls to return. So Kelli took off like an Olympic sprinter, of course she didn’t, but she did move a lot faster than I have seen her before. Fortunately she caught the dog, and no trouble occurred.

Now we got on with moving the dresser. It was larger than I thought, there was a bit of damage to the carcass but the drawers were really good, so with a little love and attention it should be a quick seller. 

Once we got it back, I realised we still had the one we picked up yesterday still in the back of our truck( we took Kelli’s mums van to collect this dresser) 

We had to do a lot of reshuffling of furniture to get it all in to the garage, and with a thunder storm approaching we had to work fast.

That included taking pictures of the small red dresser that I had stripped the top.

That was posted, and attracted a number of followers, hopefully one of them will turn into a buyer.

8th August 2026

You know when you wake up on a Saturday with a list of things you want to do, and end up doing none of them? Well today was one of them.

I had planned to work on the garden, but Kelli had other plans. 

The lure of a free dresser in Hamilton was too much. After breakfast we set off, it was good to be in our old truck again. 

I didn’t realise that Hamilton spread out over a large area, the GPS took us to an address right out in the sticks. The dresser in question was still in the bedroom, and pretty damn heavy.

It turned out that the weight was in the drawers, very solid. The chap helped me carry it out, although he had damaged his shoulder the previous day. Edging it out of the door and down the steps was a bit demanding, but with extra effort we loaded it into the truck with little space to spare. 

Now the poor chap could nurse his other shoulder.

I needed to go to Menards for some plywood, Kelli had a package to go UPS so that was the next stop, we finished up at the phone shop to pay my bill.

The roadworks around Holland is so disruptive, most of the direct routes are closed and the diversions take you all around the houses.

We finally got back home about three in the afternoon just in time to feed the dogs, then Kelli wanted to float in the pool.

After that it was walkie time, then dinner, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

7th August 2026

There was a smell lingering over the driveway, Kelli could smell it, even I could, slightly. My first thoughts were the rubbish bin, I had forgotten to put it at the roadside to be emptied this week.

Not that it was full, but with the heat anything in it would honk a bit.

Kelli was concerned because we had a customer coming round to collect the carpet that we found by the side of the road.

My first job was to empty the contents of the bin into a large black bag and tie it tightly. I then washed out the bin with bleach. I thought that was an end to it, but no. Kelli’s sensitive nostrils could still smell something bad, and as I moved around the bamboos I could smell it too.

It seemed to be coming from a clump of bushes next door next to a shed. I ventured closer, and then I saw it. Lying around the base of the bush was the decomposing body of a possum.

I had to remove it, but that meant cutting through the bush stalks.

Once I had clipped those I was able to rake the remains out into the open. I chose to wear a mask for this operation, but it made no difference, the stench still reached my nose, almost making me puke. Kelli held the bag open as I lifted it in using a shovel. For a moment I apologised to the poor creature for being so rough. I must have got hit by a car and found its way under the bush to die, scared and alone. It made me sad, its death so undignified.

Once the body was sealed in the black bag, I had to cleanse the area. I used up all the remaining bleach and soaked the area with water, hopefully putting an end to the smell.

Earlier in the day we did our Saturday shopping a day earlier because we had run out of things.

Then we drove to Jenison to collect a large dresser. That. Had been badly hand painted, but all the drawers were good, and there was  nothing for me to do to them.

Then it was back to Holland to collect our truck.

Now, I didn’t want to spend a fortune on it, so the body shop did a good job of fitting the replacement doors and front wing. There were a few dents on the sill, but the doors work and they even repaired the rear door window. 

When they refitted the door panel on to the replacement door they found there was no motor in the old one. That is why that window never worked. As the replacement came with all its bits   It could be connected up and now it works, a bonus. Now we have it back I can do a bit of cosmetic work, and try to get the glove box door to latch. A busy day was had by all, including Winnie who destroyed a box of tissues earning her a spell in the cage. 

6th August 2026

I looked around the garage seeing the furniture that we have to work on. It is a bit thin at the moment. The small red dresser needed the top stripping, and the large green piece needs a back panel. Buried under sheets are the two matching side tables that need side panels. 

There is all the maple flooring that I will have to put in the sunroom, I need to do that before the autumn because all the plants that live in there will have to be moved, I know that is going to be a big job. 

Kelli posted all the thing we scrounged from the bins, and she sold the carpet within minutes of it going live.

I have moments of panic when the number of things I have to work on exceed the time I have available. Its like I’m spinning around the inside of a barrel where there is no entry or exit.

5th August 2026

Our latest dresser got picked up, it was great to see that leave on the back of the truck.

Kelli had agreed to pick Greer up from Grand Rapids airport. She have visited a friend in Seattle for the last four days. I also had a meet up arranged with Jim Vandrack who was in IT supporting engineering at Herman Miller, it had taken nearly two years to finally meet up.

The problem we had was Kelli had to leave at 2.00pm and I was meeting Jim at 4.15, and only one vehicle. It was also raining, so we agreed that I would be dropped off at New Holland early, I would have lunch and try to drag it out until Jim arrived. That meant making a burger last one hour forty five minutes, now nothing stays on my plate that long unless I forgot it.

I did what I could, I even drank my ice water, something I rarely do, and I think I managed an hour. Not being able to delay the inevitable waitress with the bill, I decided to cross the street to a coffee shop and eke out more time.

A latte and a blueberry muffin gave me just the amount of time I needed.

I got back to New Holland smack on time to meet Jim. At first I didn’t recognise him with out his  moustache. He was a larger than life character, although now, even more so. For the limited time we had we had fun, and agreed to meet up again. 

Kelli picked me up on her way back from Grand Rapids, she was tired, I was tired and Winnie was tired also, that meant a simple evening of left overs, great! Not much washing up to do.

4th August 2026

Well it was back at John’s barn after a break of three weeks. It was a little different because Kelli drove me, because I didn’t want to drive myself and leave Kelli without a vehicle, I’m hoping we will get our truck back this week. It was a longer trek then usual because there is roadworks everywhere. The powers that be have decided to repair roads by laying black tarmac. So the roadways have these black blocks at various places, I’m not sure how long these will last. 

After an arduous journey we finally got to the barn. Kelli then started the drive back with Winnie riding shotgun.

The major job today was machining the timber that John’s mate wanted, he had been waiting patiently for the last two weeks, so I started on that. It was a lot of walnut and cherry. This took an hour or so to complete. John had the job of running the planks through the jointer, that kept him busy. Once that was all done, and loaded into the truck we had our lunch and planned out what project we were going to tackle next. I had some sketches of a lounger with an adjustable back, ideal for decks and surrounding swimming pools.

We went into the basement to search out some beech.

My first choice would have been red oak, but John had forgotten where that was stored, this is unfortunately what I find a lot, but he has ample stock of beech, so that was easy to find.

I had arranged for his wife to pick him up, mainly because of the disruption on the roads, that would add quite a bit of extra time for Kelli.

As it was there were roadwork on even the scenic route, it seemed like the drive back took ages, but once I was in familiar territory I was happy. It had been a tiring day, all I wanted to do was put my feet up and rest for the evening.

But before that I had to take pictures of our latest dresser.

3rd August 2026

We took a bike ride down to the beach to dip our feet into the big lake. Considering that we live so close, we only mange to go there two or three times in the summer, that’s a real shame.

On the way back Kelli spotted a carpet rolled up and on top of the waste bin. A bit further along there was another bin with items stuffed into it. The lure was too much, we had to rush back to get the van. Now this might be an acceptable practice here in the USA but it is alien to an English person, although I had participated in an earlier mission a few years ago.

Now I was the one selected to transfer the rolled up carpet from the rubbish bin to the inside of the van ready for a swift getaway.

A bit further up the road the second bin loomed into view. Kelli pulled alongside, from my perspective there was just junk sticking out of the top, but to my wife it was a treasure chest.

A bit of rustling around, and with a bit of help from me (who was now an accessory) she pulled out some red lanterns,  and a couple of signs.

We took off, got about a hundred yards when she decided that there were other things that she wanted. So we drove back, opened up the bin again and out came a couple of metal birds. These went into the back to join all the other hot pieces.

Finally we were able to get back home to unload our pilfered articles.

Now if the police were involved, the kind of descriptions given would include a woman with a distinctive red rash shape on her shoulder, accompanied by a mid height older male, with an athletic physique with no ass. My guess is they would turn up at our house with little delay.

We would be charged with the removal of items, depriving the city refuse collectors of any potential money making opportunities.