Author: peterb51

7th November 2020

You could hear the “Whoop!” The other side of the lake. It rattled the windows and crockery in the house. The dogs looked up from their snoozes, and it even shocked Larry, riding on his tractor scooping up the leaves in his yard for the tenth time this week.

The sound emanated from my wife at the news that Joe Biden had won the election.

It first hit my phone as a newsflash from the BBC, and I barely got the words out before Kelli’s phone alerts hit critical.

This was the best news we had for the last four years, the thought of not hearing that man’s voice filled even me with joy.

The news made the air smell cleaner and the sun that little bit brighter, I’m sure the birds in the holly bush we tweeting with joy as well.

The internet erupted with every joke and comment imaginable, it was like this black cloud had lifted giving a sense of hope and optimism.

But we had work to do, a customer was coming to collect a dresser, and we had two more to finish and post.

I had a lot of handles to fit, and some tweaks to some drawer slide, but Kelli did a great job on the paintwork.

I needed to get to Menards to get more timber for the decking. I managed to get eight, twelve foot lengths on to the roof rack, the most I have ever done. I secured them with numerous bungees, then we set off home.

With all that weight, every rut in the road made the load bounce, I was concerned that the roof rack could tear itself from the truck, but that didn’t happen, thank goodness.

Just when I was in slowdown mode, Kelli came bursting into garage with news of a dresser going free on the North side of the town, so off we went to collect. It was on the side of the road, so available for anyone to take. After numerous hold-ups and delays, we found it.

A quick look over and it was in the back of the truck heading for home

6th November 2020

Kelli had bought new dog bowls in an attempt to slow their eating down. Both rush in from outside as if their lives depend on it, and gorge all the food in seconds.

The new bowls have fan blades moulded into it, and food is then placed into the spaces in between. Watching both dogs trying to eat is amusing, in their enthusiasm to eat every morsel, the bowls are pushed around the kitchen, and we find them in different places every day, it’s like they take their food for a walk.

It was a pleasant day, the sun was shining, and the temperature was in the sixties, just right for sweeping up more leaves, there is an endless supply of them.

Most of them have been blown in from someone else garden, and mine have covered Larry’s grass. He then gets on his tractor and sucks them up and dumps them in piles at the side of the road. Tomorrow he might get them all back again.

I set the last two piles for the decking, into the ground and then, in the garage added a finish to a set of drawer fronts for the dresser the Kelli has been painting.

It’s been another day of frustration waiting for the result of the election.

Biden’s lead has been increasing in the last few states, but with the amount of mail-in ballots so high, it’s been an age counting them all.

You can tell that the majority of the media are pleased that Trump is heading for defeat, they just want to see what he does, or says next.

5th November 2020

The tension continues, there is still no result, Kelli is hopping about like she’s walking on hot coals. She messages between her friends trying to get more information, but nothing has emerged.

Trump has started on a campaign of accusing the Democrats of cheating, and trying to stop the count. This was to be expected, he knows that once he leaves the protection of the White House he will be the target for all the dirty deals and tax evasion that he had done all his life.

If there was the epitome of greed and evil it would be trump, and his enablers are shit scared of losing their cushy jobs.

To maintain some sense of sanity I mixed up three bags of concrete and fixed the remaining piles in place. Tomorrow I’ll go out and get more timber joists to complete the main deck frame. This will leave the secondary deck to work on next week.

In between all this I was also working on a couple of dressers, finishing tops and staining drawer fronts.

It was like it was just an ordinary day in an ordinary year, boy I didn’t see this coming.

4th November 2020

It’s hard to describe the atmosphere that surrounds me, Kelli has been on high alert, and openly critical of the Trump presidency for the past four long years.

Last night we switched off all news channels, because we didn’t want the anxiety created by the minute by minute reporting. There were tears of fear and frustration that had to be settled, and the underlining reality that there is nothing we could do about it.

The polls predicted almost a landslide, but as we turned on our phones in the morning, we discovered that it was not the case, just goes to show they spout bollocks as well.

I tried to prepare her for this, I’ve been around the block a few times to know that predictions are only as good as the data that gets fed in.

As the sun rose there was an optimism that grew throughout the day. There was clarity that the first votes counted were those cast on election day, mainly Republican that caused a distortion in the results. There were millions of mail in, or absentee ballots that had to be counted. It was believed that these were mainly Democratic votes cast by those who couldn’t get their ballots in quick enough, I know, Kelli was one of them.

As the day progressed some of the red states were turning blue as these votes were added into the totals. Michigan started off red and changed to blue, causing Trump to want these votes discounted.

Slowly the states declared their votes, Kelli was now getting excited, and updating me as the news came in.

I was cautious, I wanted to protect her from getting too excited, and to suddenly get disappointed if the result changed.

I carried on with my job on the decking, fixing in noggins on the joists I fitted yesterday.

By the evening the Biden news was more positive, the magic number of 270 electoral votes was just six away, with more blue states still to complete the counting.

It is more than even I can bare, I thought that the stein would be consolation for the stress I’ve been going through, it didn’t as much trickle down my throat, as evaporate as it touched my lips.

3rd November 2020

Oh god! Election Day is here, the air is electric, Kelli is on a tightrope of sanity, balancing for all she’s worth.

The turn out is predicted to be the highest ever, with everyone crawling out of the woodwork to vote, even the zombies.

I hope there will be a huge sigh of relief tomorrow, I remember listening to the 2016 results back in the UK, I had no idea how bad it was going to be, I hope at this election voters can change the administration and turn the country around.

Trying to keep things as normal as we could, we delivered the bookcase to a house on a new development north of Holland.

On the way back we stopped off at Goodwill and found a dresser, it was 50% off furniture day, and with my old git discount made it a good deal, we now have eight dressers in the garage.

The weather was sunny with temperatures in the mid fifties, just right to start fitting the joists to the decking frame.

2nd November 2020

I have been here in the US for one year, it’s the longest time I have been away from the UK.

So much has happened and changed what I was thinking about doing.

First there was Kelli’s family issues, then the pandemic and the whole quarantine experience, I feel like I have lived in some alternative universe, and now we have the election tomorrow.

To see it all unfold from this side has been an interesting experience, there is a real fear that there will be trouble in Trump loses. His band of loyal followers are real knuckle draggers but with guns.

Stores in towns and city have started to board up their windows because they anticipate unrest and civil disobedience.

I have become quite cynical about America, I used to think what a great place to live, but it is often when you start to see the cracks in their society.

I guess nowhere is perfect, but when a country can elect a complete idiot who does not even have a simple plan to deal with the virus, and his followers believe all the lies and rubbish he spouts what future is there?

Being isolated from a few months has taught both Kelli and myself that we don’t need to interact much with other people, of course we miss our friends, fortunately they too are as cautious as we are, so we have formed social bubbles were we can still enjoy get togethers in safety.

And we still have our furniture projects.

We delivered a small dresser today and we have a bookcase to take to the north side tomorrow.

1st November 2020

The clocks went back last night, meaning the nights draw in earlier, preparing us for winter.

The re-paint project was collected today as always there was a last minute panic when Kelli saw a spot that hadn’t been painted.

We woke up to the first flurry of snow, not big stuff, not enough to halt the traffic, but just a reminder that the days of floating in the pool have gone.

We finished off a dresser for delivery tomorrow, and I made good progress on another dresser that is already reserved for another regular customer.

I watched Boris’s speech on CNN over breakfast, now I’m not a big fan, but at least there is a plan, and people should get behind it, but there will always those who object. We have those over here as well, they hear something on Fox News, which is often bollocks, but believe it. Some said you can contract Legionnaires disease or Scurvy by wearing a mask.

The “Thick as shite” barometer is certainly hitting the high numbers now.

31st October 2020

So Halloween came and went, my body suffered from all the heavy lifting and concrete mixing. All 310lbs mixed and poured into the pile holes, and annoyingly it only did half the structure. I finished the other half frame, and that didn’t help my aching joints.

Kelli cleaned out the flower beds that had looked decidedly sad the last couple of weeks.

It was a sunny day, so bright the maple trees looked amazingly golden, although I noted a fresh deposit of leaves on my newly sprouted grass.

There is a buzz in the air with the presidential election just a few days away, the fear that Trump could be re-elected and that America would go down the preverbal toilet.

Since he came to power the whole immigration process has tightened up, but I’m remaining positive.

I have watched his rallies, listened to his words, and there is no plan, he talks about his achievements and his denial of Covid 19 means people will live or die, basically the strongest will survive, and people will still vote for him.

30th October 2020

There are pluses and minuses in owning a double size lot, of course there is curb appeal, the house is well positioned in the space.

I can sneer at the single plots as we drive by, but all this slides into insignificance against the minus factors.

There is more grass to cut, or there will be once the new seeds grow. But it is the amount of leaves that fall and cover the entire area.

I recently bought a rechargeable blower, which I thought would be fantastic in clearing them, I even bought two more batteries to fill the arsenal.

Fully loaded I went into the attack.

I haven’t yet learnt the technique so leaves were blowing in all directions, but I was getting better.

I noticed another old chap up the road doing the same thing, only he had a powered version, coughing out nasty fumes.

I was smug with my “Green new deal” appliance, and my fully changed batteries.

However one thing was noticeably different.

The old guy was slowly working his way around his single lot whereas I was rushing round like a madman.

To others it would have looked like I was on fast forward because I only had limited battery life.

Now it was a matter of principle, new technology verses relics of the past.

I was changing batteries like I was in a war zone, my fingers were cold, making operating the removal clip difficult. I was sweating, could I finish blowing before the last battery ran out.

The answer was no, I had also included clearing the next door neighbour’s lawn as I would have been mean to have a clean strip next to their leaf covered patch.

So the rest had to be raked up by hand, luckily the old guy had finished his garden and had gone inside, so not seeing my obvious defeat.

The next challenge was to see if I could make a bigger pile of leaves on the side of the road, this I should win easily. I think I won this by a mile.

My next decision is, should I buy another two batteries and wear them in a belt around my waist like Rambo? I need to decide soon as within the next few days I will have to do the same thing all over again.

Whilst I was busy, Kelli was getting ready to deliver a dresser to someone we are meeting in Grandville, so guess what? She has found some more clothes to sell at Plato’s Closet, what a coincidence!

That means I have to choke down a coffee and a scone at Starbucks, tough life.

29th October 2020

I purchased the timber to build the deck frame, and boy they were heavy. Twelve foot long pressure treated timber weighs a ton.

I strapped them to the roof rack and we carefully drove back home.

I was excited to get started, I set up the saw and marked out the lengths.

There was a burst of sawdust and all the cuts were made.

I pre-assembled the first frame, and lowered it into the holes I dug previously.

The second frame needed bore holes dug first.

Once that frame was lowered into the holes they were connected with side beams. I was amazed how level and square it turned out.

Normally I have to chase squareness around, but not today, and the investment I made in a six foot level was well made.

I was hoping to fill the holes with concrete, but I ran out of time, damn these dark evenings.