Author: peterb51

31st August 2025

After the debacle from yesterday, there was calm, and the eager wait for the spare part to arrive.

I had an hour long video call with my friend Martin, he told me he has lost nearly two stone in five weeks, he looked painfully thin.

He cannot eat solid food now and has to rely on soup and yogurt.

All this is happening to the poor chap yet his blood tests have come back normal. His doctor has reduced his pain medication trying instead to get him on a type of fentanyl. He has lost the use of his right arm, and his hand is beginning to close.

Is this the state of the NHS? Doctors swear an oath “to do no harm” but instead “ Do no good”.

His story starts when he was part of a program of 12 children suffering from Tourette’s during the late sixties, at the National Hospital where they were given experimental drugs in an attempt to treat the condition. He believes he was given psychotic medication, which is why he continues to have violent outbursts to this day.

To his knowledge, he is the only survivor of these tests with many committing suicide. 

I have known him for thirty years, I have seen his decline, and his battle with the establishment.

He believes his medical history has something that needs to be covered up, of course this is his story, but I believe him. 

Ever since Covid, where doctors did not inform the patients of the possible side effects, I have lost my trust in their abilities to tell the truth.

In fact I do not believe anyone in authority anymore, if they can lie about that they can lie about everything.

Now I have to watch my friend twitch in pain, who cannot sleep, and is getting no help, how would you feel?

30th August 2025

There was a shout of panic from inside the house as I was trying to do something outside.

Often a shout has been about a spider, or something crawling about, but this time it was a whole lot worse. Kelli had put some washing on and luckily she came back in the house to see water spilling out from the laundry room.

I rushed in to see the lake of water forming in the living room. Kelli turned the machine off whilst I ran back into the garage to grab some sheets and dust clothes to mop up as much water as I could before it ruined the wood floors.

I dragged in the shop vac to start sucking up the water. I used about five sheets in the mopping process then taking them outside to dry. I finished with shop towels which are pretty absorbent. The laundry room took a bit longer to clear, first moving everything that was in there out, and moving the actual machine out that revealed a lot of crap that had accumulated over the years. Finally we got everything under control, both of us were exhausted, and fortunately the wood floor was undamaged.

Now both problem was the washing machine itself. I looked up on line the make and model and found a troubleshooting section that suggested that the problem was in water inlet valve. The repair procedure was well documented, so I ordered the part on Amazon which should be delivered tomorrow. 

I’m sure the simple process shown will end up as a disaster, but I’m willing to have a go.

As I went back outside to finish the job I had started, I looked around the front yard at all the sheets hanging out to dry and it looked like washing day at the Ku Klux Klan.

29th August Friday

It certainly felt a bit fresh around the kneecaps this morning, a sign that summer is slipping away. Kelli was planning to go on a Goodwill binge with Elaine, not so much for herself but for Elaine who has been suffering with anxiety and depression. This gave me a chance to crank up my playlist of old gits music and do a bit of serious machining.

I had to square up the old door, which went better than expected, the rule of measure a hundred times and cut once worked well.

We had the dresser collected this afternoon, a good end of the month result. 

Kelli returned with a bag full of stuff that I will have to try on at some time.

She was excited to try a colour remover that had been delivered today. She had an article of clothing that she felt was too bright, and wanted it toned down a little. I volunteered to give moral support, although I’m not an expert at colour removal, I’m just good at adding bits of colour to my clothes. 

She had watched a few YouTube videos and was eager to try it.

There was a large pot of boiling water on the hob, two packets of this stuff was added, and then the article of clothing was submerged.

Amazingly the colour started to seep out, after about ten minutes, she lifted the sodden item out of the pot, and into the sink to rinse it thoroughly.

I was expecting a huge disappointment, but it turned out pretty good, Kelli was pleased, and I was relieved.

28th August 2025

There was a moment this morning that reminded me of a scene from The Truman Show. It is where American suburbia is so perfect, and everyone does the same exact thing, in a coronagraph way.

It was rubbish collection day, and I knew that ours had been emptied, so I walked up to the end of the driveway to retrieve it. 

At the very same time, my neighbour was doing the same thing, almost step for step, as he turned around to walk back he saw me, and we both waved at each other, and continued to walk back, it made me laugh to myself. If you haven’t seen the film, I advise you to, it’s very thought provoking.

We were due for a thunderstorm mid morning that never happened, typical, all the technology in the world and they can’t even get that right.

Kelli wanted to finish the dresser we picked up hoping for a quick flip, that didn’t quite go to plan. We ended up stripping the top, which was cherry, and painting the rest. Waiting for the sun to set, I took some pictures, and lo and behold it sold within a few hours.

I also did a bit more work on the kitchen island, it’s gradually coming together, but I will need a couple more trolleys to be able to move it around.

We have been watching a twelve hour documentary about the history of Europe, well the real history of Europe. It is called Europa, the last battle. 

Having a German mother she alway talked about how good life was when she was a young girl, that conflicted greatly with the history I read in textbooks.

We are halfway through it, and it blows my mind every day. Needless to say it did portray Germany building itself back up after the destruction of the First World War, and the life that my mother experienced.

This continued my journey through the lies and deception we have all been subjected to. 

It was refreshing to see a different account of history, but also how the heroes and villains were actually reversed.

27th August 2025

I could finally get on with the kitchen island. With the top safety in the storage room, I dragged out the main part of the door to work on.

I needed quarter rounds to trim the visible side of the door, so that went on the list. Next was checking for square, I had to reference the part that will rest on the floor. Unfortunately everything was out, not a lot but enough to kick out the side panels, so these were marked ready to cut. 

Kelli had a dresser to paint, that was a great opportunity to go and get supplies, which I did.

While I was there I decided to buy the plywood for the floor, I love buying timber, and I was excited to get going.

The drive to Menards has become automatic, a dangerous effect, but so far I have not had any problems. There is alway so much house construction going on, land is becoming precious, anyone with a large garden is selling off part of it, but having to live with people so close, would get annoying. That is why the sellers move out, and by a property with more space. We both fear that when Larry finally pops his clogs they will be able to fit four houses on his land. Talking of Larry, he is still in hospital suffering from pneumonia, not a good condition to have with everything else he has going.

The temperature is finally cooling a bit, still shorts and t shirt for me, without the high humidity.

Kelli says that I have been a bit distant recently, I get like that when I have things on my mind, which I have at the moment. There’s the kitchen island where I’m thinking about how it will be fixed together, I’m also working though design ideas for the lounge furniture project, and I also must get round to cutting the grass at the front of the house, and get rid of the dead leaves that have dropped early. I’m sure as progress continues, my distraction will reduce, until the next set appears.

26th August 2025

My last trip to John the wood’s barn for a while.

He helped me load the beech worktop into the back of the truck, then I did a bit of cleaning up. 

Later his local pastor turned up with one of his sons to get some lumber for a project, I helped load that into their vehicle.

The next project I will be working on will be some lounge furniture, I’m still in the process of finalising the design, but maybe in a month I will go down again, if he remembers who I am of course.

Before I left he showed me another store of timber that he had upstairs, wow! I thought the basement was impressive, but this was another level. He had timbers from Asia and many rare species from the USA.

He still keeps going, his kiln is going continuously, he has logs in his yard that he hasn’t milled yet, he is obsessed with timber.

He excitedly told me about a thirty foot walnut tree that is coming his way, his eyes were wide open as he described it.

As I left he gave me a number of pieces of scrap, which I had asked for, some cherry, walnut and beech, he is such a good man, I can’t wait to go back again.

We finally finished the commission job of stripping and refinishing of the bed frame, mirror and dresser, that was hard, but now it’s done.

25th August 2025

Drama, Drama, Drama everywhere, what is happening?.

Well first the emergency services turned up at Larry’s place again. His care worker who visits him everyday must have called them out. Red lights and sirens all around, the paramedics carried the poor chap out, and off to the hospital, he must have a room named after him by now, normally an ambulance visit is about a grand, so he must have racked up the price of a small car by now.

The next drama happened at Aldi, over the week end the store had a revamp, everything was moved. Kelli was in a panic, we were used to consistency, not chaos. Finding our usual things took longer, items didn’t seem in any logical place, it seemed to be change for change sake.

This is a common practice, “ A change is as good as a rest” they say, but it’s crap. It’s an experiment, like rats in a maze, I guess we are being viewed in a kind of psychological test. They should know better than to try Kelli’s patience. But we survived, she let it be known that she wasn’t happy, and the staff that she asked didn’t know the reason why themselves, maybe they were being tested as well.

I have started reading a book by Jordan Maxwell called  Matrix of power, this is going to add fuel to my small grey sponge. I’m already beginning to understand that everything that I thought was true though out my life is not true, I’m not going to go into details, you must do your own research, but don’t use Google or Wikipedia that perpetuates all the untruths, it’s scary journey, because everything is connected.

24th August 2025

It was almost a repeat of yesterday, yesterday we picked up another dresser, this time from Zeeland, yet again we are decked out with products. Hopefully this one can be flipped, but I’ve run out of trolleys, so everyday they have to be manhandled outside.

I managed to finish the repair of the last drawer on the refinish project, now we want to get rid of it all, the same goes for the blue unit that needs to be collected.

I desperately need to get on with the kitchen island, the top will be done and waiting for the structure to be built. Making it from an old door was not such a good idea, from my point of view.

It would have been a lot easier to build it from scratch. All the paint removal took over three weeks, and bored me to death at times. Before I can prime I have to remove all traces of the stripper, I bloody hate the prospect of doing that.

A major change from our Sunday routine was that we went for dinner. Matt prepared a chicken in sun dried tomatoes and a garlic sauce, served with rice, delicious. I took a bottle of wine, a long time since I had a glass, which helped the meal go down.

Earlier I had a nearly two hour conversation with Martin, my friend from Whitney on Wye. He had a few issues with the “ Teams” app, the one the replaced Skype, there was no sound and no pictures. I sent him some settings that he needed for his iMac, then everything went okay. He is going down hill, losing a lot of weight, and in pain most of the time. His doctor has stopped him taking the massive quantities of painkillers, and wants him to change to a fentanyl type drug, which he refused, she then told him that she didn’t want to treat him and asked him to leave. Now that doesn’t seem to be the action of someone who follows the Do no Harm policy. We got quite emotional, I’m so far away, and frustrated that I cannot help him, he wants to go now, he’s lived with pain and suffered all the time I’ve known him, and no, it’s not because of me, he is ready to leave.

He continues to send me his favourite music that I add to a playlist, I play it all the time, I feel close to him listening to that.

He is not frightened, his faith in the spirit world is strong, and he will become a non physical being, free from suffering, and imprinted in our memories.

23rd August Saturday 

We were on the road again hunting down a dresser on the side of the road. Never knowing what it’s likely to be is alway a risk, but this time it looked okay. It was an established brand, so a quality piece, it just needed a good clean. It had a laminated top that had been added, so this was quickly removed revealing a coated oak veneer that was in good condition, a fifteen minute scrap removed all that.

All this distracted me from working on the refinish commission. I had work to do on all the drawers where the bottom panel was short from the front, leaving a half inch gap. There were nails driven into the back panel of the drawer box, some sticking out the back, a real class job.

I thickness’d strips of wood and bonded them to the back, once the adhesive had dried, reassembled it back into the drawer box, making sure the front of the floor panel engaged into the groove of the drawer front. New nails held the panel securely.

It was the perfect temperature for working outside, the humidity was good for drying the finish on the headboard.

We took the dogs for a walk this evening, Dharma is certainly acting her age, trailing behind, panting and with an expression of “ I’m not long for this world” on her face, I sometimes feel the same.

22nd August 2025

I was feeling very enthusiastic today, I had a trip to Menards to get some materials. I found some cheap paint, I alway look on the shelf where the returns are placed. I had to get bird food, a special kind that the squirrels don’t like, I think it has paprika in it, and it works.

When I returned, I wanted to finish the refinish commission project, I just had to complete the large headboard. That was a monster job, a lot of area, scraping and sanding. I even managed to sand down a finger nail that hurts a lot.

We did take a bike ride to the post office to take packages containing Kelli’s old clothes that she has sold. She found a new site that he has been doing really well, packages have been leaving our mail box in vast numbers, keeping the post man on his toes. 

Demand has been so high that she received messages as to when the next selections will be posted. If only that could continue, it could take some of the strain off the furniture.