Author: peterb51

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 26

9th April 2020

It is Kelli’s birthday, and to celebrate we drove to Hudsonville to collect four chairs.

“More chairs?” I exclaimed, “ We don’t need more chairs, we have six already in the garage”

“Yes” she said, “ but these are cool, and we can sell them on quickly, …….as soon as you repair them”

It was her birthday, so I couldn’t be mad at her, however, when we got to the address the chairs were sitting on the drive just behind a Dodge Ram truck with a Trump sticker in the back window.

We both felt nauseous, if she hadn’t already paid, we would have left them.

We headed to the Olive Garden to collect the meal Kelli ordered.

They were well organised with girls at the entrance to the car park checking us in. They had all the protective gear, gloves and masks, and as soon as the window was down, one of the girls looked in.

“ I love what you’re wearing” she said, looking at Kelli.

This happens all the time, they are able to make an assessment in the blink of an eye, I don’t get it.

We drove back home with the Trump chairs rattling in the back, looking forward to our food.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 25

8th April 2020

We worked furiously on the two main projects that have money on them, determined to have them completed and delivered by the weekend.

Trying to get the level of finish on the work tops is always the hard part, should it be three coats or four? each top is different.

Once these are gone I want to have a good clean up.

I have still one chair to repair out of the six, then they need a little refinish before Kelli starts on the upholstery.

We have started playing a game in the evening whilst we watch a TV show called “Fixer Upper” featuring a couple that help others find a house then renovate it.

They are quite well know for “inventing” the Farmhouse look.

There are very few rules to the game but you have have a full glass of wine.

Throughout the show they use the same words over and over again.

For example;

Farmhouse, shiplap, cute, awesome, hardwood floors, French doors and island.

Every time they mention one of the chosen words, we pick up our glass, toast each other and take a sip. As we watch several episodes every night, they get funnier as the night progresses.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 24

7th April 2020

The thermometer hit 57 today, off came the cardigan and on came the perspiration. For once the garage was warm as I picked through the work I needed to complete.

The dresser with the new drawers was the first in line.

Some vicious sanding ensued, mainly to get rid of some stripes in the in the wood.

I tried every grade of sandpaper I had trying to rub it out. I tried power, block and hand sanding, but it defied me. I felt like I had wore the front thickness by half judging by the dust I had accumulated. I added a wood stain to see if the strips were gone, and they were.

I could hear “tick tick” from outside, I was curious to find out the source of the sound.

I found Kelli sitting cross legged in a pile of dirt, picking out stones and throwing them onto the berm. As she was sifting through the soil she was uncovering more stones.

Now I was distracted, I found myself digging up the weeds, and enjoying the tedium.

Between us we managed to clear the ground of weeds and stones, now it is ready to plant stuff.

There was a thunderstorm this evening, the sheets of lightning lit the sky. The hale was the first to hit us followed by the torrential rain hopefully washing all the dirty stones we had dug up.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 23

6th April 2020

There are a lot of jobs to do around the house, and we have to take advantage of the weather when we can. April is quite variable month with the temperature changing dramatically.

I was looking for stones to build up the berms at the back of the house. The cost for a small bag was about $15, however Kelli found some on Marketplace for $4 for a 5 gallon bucket, this was an offer too good to miss. Unfortunately the address was in Grand Rapids. Between the seller and Kelli they worked out how we could collect without any contact. That all agreed, we loaded a couple of buckets and some boxes in the truck and headed off.

The area of stones was quite clear, so we started loading the buckets. These became surprisingly heavy when I came to move them.

We paid $25 and got over five buckets full which pretty much cleared the area.

The truck certainly knew it had a heavy load as we headed back.

By the time we got back to Holland Kelli was starving, so out of desperation we stopped off at Burger King for an impossible burger. This is a vegan version that had great reviews. It was okay, if that was the only thing available opposed to eating a dog, I guess it wins on that front, but on a culinary delight, it is way down.

Once we were home we off-loaded the cargo. Considering the quantity, once we finished, it made a bit of difference, but maybe not as much as we thought.

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Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 22

5th April 2020

Gardening day, or more correctly getting rid of the last of the bloody rose bushes day.

With sheer determination and protective gloves we sneaked up to them and dug deep into the roots. They fought back, lashing out with the savage thorns, but they were no match for the two of us.

There were a total of nine bushes that Kelli posted, and got someone to collect. They must have been so quick, because I didn’t hear them come and go.

We raked the stones, and put down new anti weed material, I successfully fell over with the wheelbarrow full of stones spilling them over the grass, I blamed the shifting load, but I probably fell over my big feet again.

Next job was planting some raspberry and blueberry bushes. We’re not going to be caught out with out our fruit again, if this happens again in the next three years we’ll be prepared.

The pair of us have been personally lockdown for the last twenty two days but have continued with our lives and business. We have strict rules that we follow both for collect stuff and delivery. We have used the take outs and home delivery services, and although the spontaneous nature of shopping has changed, this new way of life has become the norm.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 21

4th April 2020

It was going to be a yard day for both of us, unfortunately it was a bit wet from overnight rain, so we decided to work on other things.

I started on the new drawer fronts, my sleep had been dominated by how I was going to make them, so it would ease my sleeping to get started.

I had some timber that Kelli had acquired as part of shop fittings that were going to get thrown away. First I had to knock it apart to get the material I needed.

I was well into the machining when Kelli burst in and said she had found a free cabinet in Allendale, and she wanted to get it straight away.

I put my work coat aside and volunteered my muscles.

Just as well as the piece was a glass display cabinet, nearly seven feet tall and painted silver, it looked like a prop from Doctor Who.

We struggled to get it into the truck, pushing the seats so far forward my chin was resting on the dashboard. We also combined the trip with picking up four chairs that Kelli wanted. They were a Shaker-style, which I liked, so there was no resistance from me.

The two sellers were from two different spheres of society, one a trailer park (mobile homes) and the other a well-to-do area, we don’t care, we’ll take from anyone.

I had two orders at Lowes to collect which on the same route, I would then have materials to work on even more gardening projects.

Kelli had a spat with one of her friends on Facebook. It started off in an innocent way talking about kindness to store workers and then veered off in many directions, totally unrelated and leaving her confused and annoyed. It ended with a blocking both on Facebook and her phone.

This is my main criticism of social networks, many simple things get out of control, because there is no opportunity for mediation. I could not run my life without a face to face interaction, I would rather call someone a prat with a smile on my face than to write it, and start an argument.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 20

3rd April 2020

I can’t believe it is the end of another week, even in this parallel universe time has been speeding by.

I looked at the dresser issues that had me awake at night.

I looked at each drawer and concluded that all the fronts were twisted. The was not enough material to run them through the planer so my only option was to make new ones.

We went out to pick up some supplies from Lowes, and I noticed a number of people with masks. It seems that the advice given to people is that masks should be worn.

I’m not sure what I feel about that.

Kelli finished the Pantry and posted it on Marketplace and within twelve minutes it was sold.

We loaded it into the truck and drove it to an address close to the town centre.

We stopped off at New Holland to pick up our take-out order of pizza and beer, yummy.

I continued the staining of the three furniture pieces that have already been sold. The worse part of the job is the scraping of the woodwork, then sanding to get to a smooth surface.

The weather was wonderful, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. The birds were chirping, it was like they were welcoming the warmer weather, they are unaware of the problems facing the globe.

I bought some raspberry and blueberry plants to join the elderberry stick in our fruit area of the garden. As both of us do not know much about gardening this will be a bit challenging.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 19

2nd April 2020

I finally finished adding new drawer rails to the dresser, I wanted to try them out with the drawers.

This is when the realisation became to me that the other drawers were crap. Each one had a variable twist so did not sit correctly.

It was also a day when things I started went wrong. First I couldn’t cut straight, then something would snap, or didn’t fit right.

I had to take a step back, slow down and work on non critical items.

Kelli was working on the new the new “Pantry” piece, it was a sound, solid wood construction but cheaply made. It was planned to be a simple paint job, and straight out the door.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 18

1st April 2020

The DHL man had a bad day. He pulled up outside and off-loaded a large box outside the house.

Kelli inspected it, and saw that it was an office chair. She was sure I didn’t order it, but then noticed the address was not ours. The street was correct but the number was further up the road. Now being a good neighbour, she loaded the box into the truck and drove off to deliver it.

When she arrived she saw the lady who lived there looking at a large cardboard box in her driveway.

Kelli explained what must have happened and unloaded the office chair. The box the lady was looking at, was addressed to me.

So they had a good laugh as the exchanged boxes.

I had ordered a elderberry bush and it was finally here.

We open the box and pulled out a stick with a few dangly bits hanging off it, this was my bush.

A place was selected, and I dug a hole following the instructions. We planted the stick, and now look forward to the thing growing, our record is not good at keeping new trees alive.

We had to drive to Hudsonville to pick up a new furniture piece, it was advertised as a small larder, heaven knows what we’ll make of it.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 17

31st March 2020

I needed some stuff from the DIY store so I ordered them on line and waited for the pick-up time.

We had agreed to deliver the desk to the customer in Grand Rapids. This was a bit outside our free delivery area but we wanted to close out the month, so off we drove.

We stopped off on route to get more paint, but when we pulled up it was closed, we had missed our window of opportunity.

It was pleasant to get out from our isolation for a couple of hours, and it was noticeable quiet on the roads.

We found the customer’s house and unloaded it into her garage. She came outside to look at it, and was so happy with what we had done.

We then drove back heading straight to Lowes to pick up my supplies.

It felt quite strange going in after a couple of weeks. There were now plastic anti- sneeze screens to protect the staff, and standing zones marked on the floor.

Kelli had come in with me because we needed the paint. She had not been in a store for over three weeks, and was uneasy about it.

We spent the shortest possible time in the store rushing out breathing in the air trying to purge our lungs of the stale store atmosphere.

We had survived.

I continued working on sanding a small dresser and staining even more tops.

I prepared some timber for tomorrow’s jobs, and carefully did-assembled a drawer ready for some repair work.