Author: peterb51

7th March 2021

Nobody told me the vegetarian sausages had a plastic skin on them, typical American, why can’t they be like British bangers.

I volunteered to make dinner tonight, not very imaginative, as I had been scraping paint all afternoon. I took the sausages out of the fridge and put them straight into the pan to fry.

As they were browning nicely, I had this thought that they didn’t look the same as when Kelli did them. I rushed out into the sunroom to check with her.

“Do the sausages have a skin on them and should I have taken it off?” I asked frantically.

“Yes you should” she replied.

“Oh Shit!” I explained.

I rushed back into the kitchen and took the sausages and split them down the middle. I was able to then remove the skin. Fortunately they were cooked through and didn’t smell of burnt plastic, so I served them up, hopefully we don’t die by morning.

There was another dresser collection this morning, furniture is very thin on the ground this time of year, so we are buying what we can, it may not be a masterpiece but I’m sure we will make something of it.

Kelli’s illness is continuing, she has a few hours where she has energy to do things, then it starts to drain away, and by the evening she has nothing left.

There is no telling how long it will last, there are no visible signs of healing, it’s all in her head. Will the oncoming of spring, and the warming of the land be a cure? who knows.

We are stuck in this American phenomenon of an individual mindfuck, and I don’t like it.

6th March 2021

“Did we get the full price for the dresser we’re delivering today?” I asked as I was adding to the spreadsheet.

“Well, not exactly” replied Kelli.

“I put a lot of work in on that beast” I responded with concern.

“I had bought something from the same person, so she deducted the price of that from the price of the dresser”

“So what did you buy?” I enquired.

“A bra”

“ So I broke my back to get less for the dresser, and you got a bra?” I gasped

“ It is a very pretty bra”

“ it better be, and I hope it will fit me”

We also had to pick something up from an address on the north side of Holland.

I have said before I don’t know how the postman finds some houses, there often isn’t much logic to the locations. Our GPS got a little confused and sent us on a wild goose chase, eventually we found it under a green sheet. It was a low entertainment centre in good condition, a quick paint job and out it will go, hopefully.

5th March 2021

Well Trump didn’t make it back to the White House like many of the tin foil hat brigade predicted, it was just an ordinary day.

We carried the big white dresser into the living area to take pictures. It was a completion of a labour of love, well not really, it had to be done so that we could make money on it.

Kelli posted it on Marketplace and very soon had four people interested in it. The hammer came down and we sold it, delivering it tomorrow.

The customer for the brown dresser came to collect it this afternoon

4th March 2021

It is trash day, and I remembered to put the bin out by the side of the road. It has to be oriented correctly with the handle closest to the house so that the automatic grabber can lift it up and tip it into the back of the lorry. I had forgotten to do it for a couple of weeks, so the driver had a lot of recycling bags to collect.

That means he has to leave the warmth of his cab to man handle the bags into the same place he dumps the rubbish. I’ve scratched my head on that one.

I had to take a couple of packages down to the post office, normally Kelli would do it, but I volunteered instead.

The guy who runs the office is someone you would rather handle a rabid dog, then touch your valuable packages, but he recognised me and joked that I had found a new job, I didn’t mention the rabid dog bit, I wanted to get out alive.

It was a beautiful morning, the sun shone and the sky was blue, it could have been spring, just the piles of snow by the side of the road were still evident.

With Kelli still feeling tired, I continued working in the garage. A dresser that we had in the bedroom is now on my work list. The paintwork was crusty and flaky, I wanted to see what was underneath, so I started on the top, chipping a bit at a time. It is solid oak, and there is a dodgy drawer that has to be fixed, I’m taking it easy on this one.

3rd March 2021

We had to deliver the buffet to an address in Hamilton. This was a pleasant drive past all the outlying farms that still had their Trump flags out, don’t these people read the papers?

There is some talk about the 4th March being the day that the moron will be sworn in as the legitimate President base on some obscure Miss-interpretation of the constitution, egged on by the QAnon conspiracy theorists.

The person was thrilled with the buffet, thank goodness, and even gave us an extra $10 tip.

It doesn’t seem much, and it bloody wasn’t, but it covered the fuel.

2nd March 2021

Work in the garage was slow. Kelli was resting most of the day while I worked on finishing the large dresser that I have extensively rebuilt.

The last job was to fit the drawers. Fortunately each one had been numbered, but they still had to be shimmed to fit correctly in the unit.

The snow is disappearing slowly, this is replaced by soggy ground as I discovered when I took the compost bin over to the composter. It is advisable to wear proper shoes, and not plastic gardening slip-ons.

There is always so much water about, the ground soaks it up like a sponge

In the previous place we lived water would seep into the basement and flood the place if the sump pumps failed to kick in. Thank goodness this place doesn’t have the same arrangement.

Kelli had her new pillow delivered. Trust her to find another substance to rest your head on, I still have to fight my way though the jungle of cushions in the house.

The new pillow is filled with millet, and it is supposed to support the head better leading to a much better quality sleep, we will see how that one works out.

1st March 2021

I have never understood what anxiety is, and how people are affected by it. I’ve felt dread and fear but my life has not been subject to this illness.

Kelli has been only firing on three cylinders since mid January, and did consult with a councillor who diagnosed that she had burnt herself out mentally because of all the tension caused by the presidential elections.

This really knocked the wind out of her, disrupting her sleep and leaving her without any energy. I have never seen her like this even when she was struggling to bring up her two children on her own. She survived the economic depression, when she lost her home and business, but through all that she kept her head above water using her talent for making money out of nothing.

She had made an appointment today to see a kinesiologist. She didn’t want to see a regular doctor mainly because she didn’t want to be treated with drugs.

Kinesiology addresses physiological, biomechanical, and psychological disciplines, and follows her principles of allowing the body to heal itself.

She was convinced that her anxiety had been caused by all the intensity of all the social media activity that was being pumped out.

She was heavy into Facebook and TicTok, spending many hours constantly updating herself of the latest news.

Then suddenly, she realised the futility of it all, and stopped. Even though the election went the way she wanted, and Biden was inaugurated as the new President, there was nothing else to fill the void, and gradually she faded into a grey space, not feeling energised to do anything at all.

Going to the Kinesiologist was a way of breaking out of the dark mist she was in.

I was interested in seeing how the treatment worked , and satisfied my scepticism.

I was allowed to be a spectator, and sat in the corner watching what unfolded.

In the middle of the room was a bench resembling an instrument of torture. There were levers, and padded sections that the doctor adjusted to suit Kelli.

Poor girl, she was subjected to brutal manipulation for over an hour, as the doctor focused on her adrenal system.

The bench creaked and groaned nearly as much as Kelli did, but the re-alignment of the intestines was the worst. I never thought in my wildest dreams would I witness such a operation, I was too shocked even to faint.

The rest of the treatment was tame compared to the gut turning episode, and consisted on the doctor touching various parts of the body with a tuning fork, apparently it’s all to do with good vibrations.

The next area of interest was re-aligning the hips, legs and arms went in all directions, some were Kelli’s.

Every different activity had a cost, so the doctor kept writing done each operation, to be totalled up at the end if you were able to limp out and pay.

I am still sceptical, but I accept that if is helping her to get back to her old self, I will support her decision, and keep my mouth shut.

28th February 2021

Well we still came third in our trans Atlantic quiz, but with a more respectable score this time due to some pre-quiz preparation. I had based the questions on music and films from the year each of us had left school. That is what I was prepared for, but of course the boys didn’t listen and chose more general knowledge subjects.

That is typical, but we soldiered on, and Kelli was the star in my team, although a couple of wild guesses helped.

I was pissed that all the work I had done was redundant, although some of the film research was used.

We were able to photograph and post a buffet that we had just finished, which was our last ditch effort to sell something before we closed February’s sales. Although that failed, Kelli had some small items to post, so not all was lost.

27th February 2021

I collected my antibiotics from the pharmacy and immediately started on the course, three times a day for a week, yippee.

The snow is going, but very slowly, I can’t wait to start the raised beds.

Kelli put the finishing touches to the buffet ready for me to fit the top and back.

My friend Rob had video called me whilst I was still in bed, so I wasn’t looking my best, but it was Saturday. He was at my cottage checking how the garden had survived the winter. I was saddened to hear that one of the Acer trees had died, they weren’t cheap. The Apple trees were still alive, so not all was bad news

There needs to be a lot of weeding done to tidy it up.

I am frustrated that I cannot get back to re-clad the shed, that was the last part of the refurbishment to the property, that will have to wait.

Kelli still hasn’t received her second stimulus cheque, this is such a badly handled process.

Some people have had payment directly into their bank account, others had cheques in the post. Her only option left is to claim on her taxes, hoping that will work.

I don’t know what criteria the government uses to identify people that are eligible. Is it their tax returns, or the social security number. We don’t think it’s the tax return as we know those who haven’t filed returns getting a payment.

I can see all the cracks in America now.

26th February 2021

I have a return of the gum infection that I had back in January. I am awaiting my appointment for a root filling that was moved from the 19th February to the 25th March. Then I am able to have a crown on a damaged tooth. This is all a big drag, because the filling is with one specialist and the crown is another, I have been tempted just to have the tooth removed, but i don’t want to have to suck my food through a straw. It has been uncomfortable all day, but by the time I mentioned it to Kelli the dental place had closed, so we will try tomorrow to get more antibiotics.

Coincidentally I had to change the dental appointment that I have running in the UK, which I would have preferred to attend.

Covid has a lot to answer for.