Author: peterb51

1st August 2025

After my rant about the moon landing, I thought I would get back to something that actually happened today.

I drove down to Wyoming to pick up John the wood with an aim to get the top glued up.

I got there earlier than planned, I even remembered to take food and water. The food was eaten after just a few miles, a failing I’ve had most of my life.

Anyway, on the way to his workshop, I asked him if he had enough dowels to do the job, he said he wasn’t sure, I then suggested that we stop off at a store to get some, and he agreed.

There was a Lowes quit close, so we parked, and went inside. Rather than wander around looking I went to the information desk and asked a guy where to find them. He gave me directions, I turned round and John was nowhere to be seen.

I remembered when my boys were young, I had to stop them running off, would I have to do it with John?.

The guy from the information desk then came and led me to the location, fortunately I found John on the way. I picked three bundles of dowels, enough to be cut up for what we needed.

Proceeding on, we got to his workshop, and proceeded to plan what we needed to do.

The strips of lumber were laid out on the bench, but the end strip did not look good, so I asked him to run it through the jointer again, which he did. When he returned, the strip still wasn’t right.

I asked him if he had an adjustable square. He looked at me blankly, I described what it looked like, he was still blank. I tried to explain what I was trying to check, but It made no impression.

He shuffled off and later returned with a small adjustable square, I grabbed it quickly in case he lost it. The square showed that the piece was twisted, and the edge and face were not at right angles. The piece was no good, but luckily I found an off-cut that could be used instead. 

Just that took a lot of effort, I was exhausted, and I’d only been there 30 minutes.

Now was the time to do the glue up.

John found the adhesive, but couldn’t remove the top of bottle. More time was spent looking for something to grip it and break the bond.

Once that was done, he went looking for a roller.

He opened a drawer, and with his elbow knocked over the bottle, the adhesive poured out and into the drawer he had just opened. I quickly found a container to catch as much of the stuff that I could whilst John disappeared.

I used a stick to direct the stream of adhesive in the container, my fingers were covered, and we hadn’t even started to glue up anything yet.

He returned with a damp cloth, and we managed to clean up the mess.

Finally we could start the glue up.

Everything was set up, all the clamps were ready, he went into his office and returned with a bag of dowels. I looked at them, and asked him why he let me buy three bags of dowels, he said that he had a hundred, and probably more.

There were a few words I would have liked to utter, but I kept my composure.

The glue up began, he was laying it on good and thick, I was trying to smear it evenly with my finger, I had enough to cover both surfaces.

Surprisingly the first pieces went together well, so we added another strip. 

It was then that I realised that we were one strip out of order. I had marked each piece with a number, but I noticed that they went one, three, two,  but it was too late to change that, I just hoped that the dowels were in the same position.

The next three went together well, thank goodness, leaving us to do the last  pieces a bit later.

Just before finishing we joined the two section together, fortunately the dowel holes were aligned, so a problem was averted.

I dropped John back to his home, then went looking for a petrol station, I was definitely down to the fumes before I found one.

Once I got back we took pictures of the latest piece, considering what we started with, it turned out good.

31st July 2025

We had two sales sneaking in on the last day of the month, giving us a good month despite all the hot weather.

Kelli is a frog mother again. She had advertised on a buy nothing page for some frogs, and lo and behold someone turned up with twelve little ones. Now our pond should be bursting with the buggers.

 There was a lot of activity trying to get the pieces ready for collection, a bit of cleaning of drawer floors and a few touch ups.

There is another dresser nearly finished that required lots of love. On the back of the drawer fronts the veneer had chipped away and looked really bad, the only solution was to patch in new veneer. Once that was done I sanded the surface and brushed on a coat of polyurethane, now I’m happy with that.

I watched something on the TV that blew my mind and has caused me to question everything that has ever happened.

That is a bold statement, and I don’t have any concerns about writing about it.

There has been a long time belief that the moon landings never happened. I remember being on holiday in Newquay when it happened and the Sunday Times supplement had TV screen shots of the event.

The program I watched showed out takes of the moon landing being filmed in the Nevada desert.

These clips were released by Wikileaks, and probably was one of the reasons why Julian Assange had been persecuted for so long.

It was filmed in a way that would make people believe it was being transmitted back to Earth.

Other scenes were filmed in a large studio, It was grainy and a bit shaky, but it showed the planting of the flag, one of the key images.

What was the most poignant part was when Neil Armstrong was practicing different versions of his “ One step” announcement.

After viewing all this I was left saddened, it was like the moment when you realised that Father Christmas was not real, or the tooth fairy didn’t exist, it shattered something that was special, and poised the question, what next?

30th July 2025

Yesterday there were tree munchers trimming another of Larry’s trees that was hanging over his barn.

We had been thinking about making a screen from tree branches for a while, and here was an ideal opportunity to get some. So I went over to ones of the men and asked if they could drag a few branches on to our garden, I would then trim them and throw away the small branches and leaves. Well that is exactly what they did, when I returned from my trip to see John the wood, it was there, a heap of branches on the front lawn.

That meant that this morning I had to set about trimming and salvaging what I could from what was there. I wanted to do it quickly because it did look a bit of a mess. That was the first job of the day.

The main task was to finish a mid century style dresser that Kelli found at the side of the road.

I had to drill new holes for new handles, plus continue stripping the parts for the kitchen island, this is taking a long time, and it’s boring.

We finally got rain, well most of the evening, the plants loved it and any grass that is still alive sighed “about bloody time”.

Kelli finished painting the bookcase for the lady up the road, so things continue to move.

29th July 2025

I had the best time today, and it didn’t start out to be.

I called John the wood, to see if he was available for me to visit and discuss the wood top I need for the kitchen island. Once he remembered who I was, he told me he was available , I arranged to meet him at his home at 1.00pm.  My timing was perfect and we drove from his home to his barn, a journey of ten miles. I showed him some drawings of what I wanted him to make.

Now the reason I went to his home was that he no longer had a vehicle, his doctor had told him he was unfit to drive and had his license taken away.

Okay, now John was alway an oddball, but once you get used to repeating yourself about ten times he will understand.

We descended the stairs into his lumber storage to seek out the beech planks I needed for this top. First of all the lights didn’t work, so we carefully walked through the dark to the other end of the basement. He was muttering all the time about the mains being turned off. I felt it was safer to stay exactly where I was.

Finally the lights came on, now we could see what we came down for.

The beech rack was full, John pulled out several lengths of wonderful material and I helped to carry them upstairs.

Then it became a bit weird, instead of him taking the lead and  cutting the planks down, he wanted me to do it. Some of these planks were ten feet long and quite heavy.

So with me feeding the wood through the saw, John was on the other end receiving the cut pieces. That is how it went, I did all the work,  getting the plank thickness to the required dimension, running them over the jointer, cutting the pieces to length, marking the pieces and drilling the dowels. I don’t think I have drilled so many dowel holes since I left school. 

However time was moving on, we didn’t have the time to glue up the top, Kelli called to check on how I was doing, and I realised I had to take John back home. 

I finally got home just after 7.00pm, my dinner was in the dog,(joke) I was exhausted, but it was a great day, I had a helper, who just did what I asked, and not like Mike Russell-Pell at HM who would look over your shoulder and say “ What the f*** are you doing shag?” Quite the opposite,

I was working with real timber again.

28th July 2025

Not much gets done on a Monday, food shopping takes priority.

We whisked around Natures Market, the best way, then on to Aldi. This place serves the zombies, the people that just stand in front of the cabinet I need. I say “excuse me” and they continue to stare, eventually regain consciousness, turn around and walk off. By then I have moved on to another part of the store, but have to return to the now vacant cabinet, only to find what I wanted is not there.

Thank goodness for AC because it stops me overheating. There is also the masked crusaders who wander about, maybe they are allergic to humans?  I do wish I could confront them, and asks them why they still wear them, but I let them get on with their lives, I guess they have their reasons.

Although Aldi sell organic products, they also have a good selection of crap, helping to keep the large people fed. 

It was difficult to breathe in the heat of the day, Kelli cut short her visit to the UPS store, she wanted to cool in the AC at home. There doesn’t seem to be an end to this weather, the forecast of rain is usually a low percentage that fails to materialise.

I was interested in the new range of furniture that Herman Miller has launched. Designed by Architect John Pawson called Drift. It is a simple soft seating range with a price range that blows my mind. A single arm chair is priced at between  $5000 & $7000 up against the classic Eames 670, I know what I would rather have. I know that the company want to sell to the ordinary customers, but there are not many who could justify spending that amount of money on that.

27th July 2025

I think I was in Kelli’s bad books, no, I was in Kelli’s bad books. All I did was pull out some “ weeds” that were growing in the path. It was as if I was committing a crime against humanity.

She summoned me to the scene of the crime, and pointed to two clear spots on the path. I felt the full force of the guilt, and to my credit, gave a good account of myself, but to no avail. There was nothing worse in Kelli’s eyes than ending the lives of two weeds. I would have less aggro if I had punched a nun.

The problem is it was not the first time I’ve been accused of pulling out a plant, and I expect it won’t be the last, in the mean time I have to grovel to the Mother Teresa of plants for an unspecified amount of time.

The humidity is still overpowering, we even floated in the pool early. The heat must have been too much for the small pump that we used to inflate various parts that seem to lose air regularly. “Why don’t you use the pump we used for the paint sprayer” Kelli chipped in with.

“Maybe the end of the small pump will fit the end of the hose”

Damn it, I never thought of that. Fitting the parts together was difficult, but it worked, and it inflated things so quickly that it was a wonder they didn’t explode.

Then it was up to Kelli’s mums for ice cream, talk about a full day.

26th July 2025

Sometimes there is an event that is unique, and special, and becomes a significant milestone in my life. Today I had my meeting with Henry, a professor at Michigan State University who taught graphic design.

Our first encounter was when we collected a very large piece of furniture from his home on the banks of Lake Michigan. I knew then he was an interesting person. The sculptures in ceramics that he formed were wild, but graceful.

I was excited that we finally were able to sit across a table and learn about each other.

The venue was a coffee shop in Grand Haven, for me it was a journey of forty minutes, and it just so happened to be the Lifeguard festival, so the place was buzzing.

Henry was fifteen minutes late, I had drunk much of my coffee by the time he arrived.

I was worried that I wouldn’t recognise him, so I sat close to the door, observing  everyone that entered the place.

I did recognise him, he stood just inside the door looking round, maybe he had forgotten what I looked like. I stood up and waited for his gaze to reach me, there was the knowing smile.

He insisted on buying his own coffee, then we sat down to talk.

Where does one start? He had just gone through a move from East Lansing, so that seemed a good place to start. We talked a while about all the crap he is now surrounded with, and how he was at odds with his wife over what to do with it all. I knew from our first encounter that he was a rebel, and that came out often in our conversations. We talked about health, he is much older, and had his fair share of health problems, he to is sceptical about doctors and the drugs they prescribe, but then we moved on to his teaching career. He deplored the system, he hated following a structured format, he wanted to learn as much from his students as they did from him. As he was talking, he would lean forward, as if whispering, make his point, and smile, then pull back.

We must have talked for a couple of hours, my coffee dregs had dried to the sides of the cup.

We concluded with open invitations to meet again, maybe at his home, he didn’t like setting an agenda, he wanted to let it be more organic.

As I was leaving, he rushed back to me thrusting his business card into my hand, it read,

Henry Brimmer, Professor of Non-Linear Thinking Strategies, a little more general than Professor of Graphic Art, don’t you think?

25th July 2025

I worked my socks off today, and soaked a couple of T-shirts as well.

First we delivered the dresser/small wardrobe unit that we repainted to the lady up the road.

And typically I didn’t take any pictures, damn it!

I stripped a bookcase that we have sold to the same lady up the road, and I did work on the kitchen island.

Kelli went off to do stuff, so I could play my old git music.

When she came back, she had this expression on her face, as if to say “I’m brilliant” she had found a dresser at the side of the road, free.

She managed to get it into the truck, on her own.

It was in good shape, nothing that a blob of Bondo wouldn’t fix, and a drawer side that was damaged, nothing that Pete couldn’t fix.

There was drama across the road, two police vehicles turned up and started talking to the loud lady from the house. It’s been a while since there has been police activity, and maybe things might be coming to a head over there.

24th July 2025

I have never been a particularly religious person. The bible for me was just a book with interesting good advice. I’ve had many conversations with deeply religious people where I’ve laid out my own beliefs, and respected theirs.

I’ve alway had a problem with Darwin’s theory of evolution, mainly if we evolved from apes, why don’t we still see any stages in between. 

I guess at this late stage of my life I’ve taken another look at the book, particularly the Old Testament, strangely this has had an effect on me, this shocked, and surprised me, and some things have started to make sense.

I won’t go into any details yet, as I’m still trying to make sense of it, and I don’t want you to think I’m going off my rocker.

It was a hot and humid day, it was difficult to breathe, and I did what I wanted to do early so that I didn’t melt.

Poor Larry had the first responders turn up again, with the ambulance arriving straight after. They carted him off to hospital again.

We checked on the bug traps, there were hundreds of them in the bag, we moved them around so that we don’t miss an area, hopefully during the next eight weeks we will have eradicated the buggers.

My meeting with John the woodman didn’t happen but I did meet up with Lloyd for a well deserved cold beer.

23rd July 2025

The sad new was that the little bird died. Matt had sent through a video of the little chap chirping and hopping around the cage. We were all hoping that it would grow and be released back into the wild, but it suddenly deteriorated through the day. Matt thought that it might have been cast out of the nest because it was weak, nature can be cruel sometimes.

We sold the tall dresser that we got from Goodwill yesterday, a couple drove from Grand Rapids to collect, that was a good result.

My traps for capturing Japanese beetles turned up today. In total there were three that we installed around the garden. Almost immediately there were beetles everywhere, it was like the ground erupted, they were drawn to the aroma that stunned them, and they then fell into a bag.

There were hundreds, I had never seen so many, I bet we were drawing them from all the houses in the neighbourhood, I don’t care, they had eaten all the leaves of most of the plants we moved into the new bed, it was disheartening.

It was very hot today, even a float in the pool did not cool us down, instead we were like two potatoes in a pan, slowly boiling.

I phoned John the wood man to talk about the top I need for the kitchen island. I arranged to meet him to discuss tomorrow, I’m sure that will be interesting, if he can remember who I am.