Author: peterb51

1st February 2019

It was a little warmer today, this meant that it would take twenty minutes to freeze to death.

I had no intention to do that, so I agreed to go shopping with Kelli, but that was after we delivered the double drawer blanket box. The meeting place was a car park in Port Sheldon.

Which in itself was strange because it is not a port, and is not near the water.

This was the first sale for February, a good start because Michigan is still under a lot of snow, and sales are alway slow this time of the year.

We stopped off at Habitat for Humanity, a store that sells off surplus building materials and furniture. I was looking for plywood off-cuts to use as drawer bottoms for old Shaky.

No luck there so it looks like I will have buy new.

Next stop was Aldi.

We had to do shopping for the in-laws so I was in control of their trolley. Kelli had the lists which meant I had to catch the items threw at me. The store had suffered from delayed deliveries so the place resembled a Russian supermarket on a normal day.

Once we got home, Kelli started dinner. “ Did you get a cabbage?” I looked blank, “ Ah no” I feebly replied. It was like I swore at the Pope. “That was what I wanted to make for dinner”

“What cabbage, what kind of a meal would that be?”

There followed an exchange that went into great detail of what the meal would be and how I had ruined it.

I decided the best course of action was to offer to go to the corner shop to get some, I tried to look pathetic (some say I had a head start) but no, Kelli quickly re-planned and came up with an amazing alternative. I did say cheekily, that it would have been better with some cabbage. The response I got I could not repeat even in print, so I will just have to listen more next time.

31st January 2019

Kelli left early to go to the hospital to take some of her mum’s personal things.

It was still too cold to work in the garage, so I dragged a dresser carcass into the living room to prime coat.

I was kept up to date on progress at the hospital which was slow, but positive.

My only connection with the outside was letting the dogs out, and this was enough. Digging for the tethers in the snow was a task, and thankfully they are always near the door, it is never fun if they are buried and at the bottom of the steps.

Just after six, Kelli burst through the door, her errand of mercy completed.

Now we have to endure the next phone call, or the next, or the next. This is the role children have to take on, being the guardian. Georgia is a tough old bird, she has her faith, and sheer bloody-mindedness, so the world had better look out.

30th January 2019

It’s a little cold today, correction, it is unbelievably cold. It was so bad that I daren’t go out and clear the snow that had fallen. I didn’t even venture into the garage, I just worked on things in the house.

Kelli’s mother had to be taken back to the hospital because of some odd side effects from some medication she was given. Kelli had to follow the ambulance and was away a large part of the day. I finished sanding the chair seats and a couple of other small jobs.

Outside everything was white, there was a wind blowing the snow about, as well as new snow falling.

When Kelli returned she was not in a mood for cooking, so I chose the easy option, eat out. However there were not many places open downtown except for an Irish pub, so that’s where we landed. Later we both went to the hospital to see how Georgia was.

The place seemed strangely quiet, a few orderlies drifting about, and the occasional nurse coming into the room to check, and no doubt adding to the growing invoice.

29th January 2019

Well I wanted a bit of snow, and boy did we get some last night. All the hard work I put in yesterday was wasted, as I had to do it all again. On top of that there was wind, so with each scoop I scooped, I got half of it back.

I worked in the house as much as I could sanding and staining trying to keep ahead. Kelli had to take her mother to the doctors, not the best day to do that, but she drove slow and careful.

“Put these gloves on they’ll keep your fingers warm as toast” Kelli said. All I can say is they didn’t. After half an hour each finger was like a stick of ice. A large dew drop hung from my nose I wasn’t sure what to do with it, should I wipe it on my sleeve, or my gloves? I decided to see if it froze on my face, but it didn’t, so that theory went straight out the window. I also wanted to find out when the dogs went for a piss, would that freeze, and stick them to the ground? I tried that, and nope! No luck there.

We were expecting people to come and collect items that Kelli had listed on Marketplace, and that was the main reason why I was up early clearing the snow. I asked Kelli to cook me an amazing breakfast to make the sacrifice of working in the Artic conditions bearable. I was shovelling away for about an hour with the thought of hot food driving me on.

I had expecting a call from within to summon me to the table, where a plate of hash browns would take me to breakfast heaven, but no, I had to wait till I was exhausted, and barely able to stand, with the remains of my dew drop still on my cheek, before this treat was available to me.

Oh, and all the people failed to turn up.

28th January 2019

Today was my first opportunity to clear the snow from the driveway. There had been a severe weather warning for West Michigan, meaning a shed load of the white stuff was due to fall. This has been blamed on Canada, the only thing the poor Canadians can be blamed for. So we went off to sleep thinking that everywhere would be buried completely by morning. As it was only six inches that fell, this was my opportunity to show my snow clearing skills.

First I had to dress appropriately with big boots, big coat, woolly hat and gloves so thick I couldn’t bend my fingers. All this attire meant I had to walk sideways out of the doors

Armed with a snow scoop I ventured into the bleak mid-winter, ready to attack the drifts.

It was not the freshly fallen snow that was the problem, it was the rock hard ice that had been compacted from the last storm. This compounded by the bloody ploughs who build a wall of snow at the end of the drive. I started on my task whistling a merry tune, but that soon stopped as my strength was sapped, not from the scooping, but from the weight of the clothing. The ice was no match for the scoop, I had to bring in the big guns, the shovel.

The perspiration was running down my forehead, I was getting hotter as I was chipping chunks from the iceberg. I looked over to the other houses close by who had snow blowers. These are the people who wait for the first flake to fall and then break out the machine. They don’t have the manly pleasure of working until it feels like your heart is about to explode inside your padded coat.

I had expected to stay in the warm and get on with some woodwork, but no, Kelli had scanned Facebook Marketplace and found a piece that was not far away. Off we drove into the unknown. The piece was down in a basement, so we had to carry it up the stairs. I gallantly took the heavy end, and we progressed up step by step. It felt like I was balancing the whole thing, and it was only the thought of falling back and squashing the person’s cat, that was following me, that kept me going.

Once loaded on the truck we head back to the warmth of home.

It looked like the plastic film we stretched over the windows was having an effect on the room temperature, so yippee to that.

The bad news was that Painted Farmgirl was closed due to the anticipated weather, so no sales today.

I managed to clear half the driveway before my strength gave out, (not really, but I needed an excuse to stop) and I came inside for a well earned cup of coffee.

Kelli pulled off another triumph by putting on Marketplace some drawer knobs with a chicken image on them. This is recycling at it’s best. We took them off a dresser we are renovating, and straight away had two people wanting them. This is why my wife is my hero, now the challenge is to sell a pile of wood shavings, if she can do that she will be god!

We also finished the low dresser, or blanket drawer, as we later found out.

27th January 2019

Today I had to make two wood frames to fit into the front windows of our home. The place suffers from being a bit draughty, so we decided to do something about it. The easiest option was to try thin plastic film stretched over the windows. Our first attempt was shambolic, there was plastic film and double sided tape everywhere, it stressed us both out, it would have been easier to fit a condom on a pineapple.

That was when I decided to make wooden frames.

We looked on YouTube for the best ways to attach the stuff, and felt confident we could do it.

Everything was ready, the frames were fitted in the window recess, the double sided tape was attached,and the pieces of film were cut to size.

I was standing on a stool ready to start the fitting. Kelli had the job of holding the film away from the tape, and mine was to remove the backing off the tape and fixing the film. As I was working my way down, Kelli got distracted by a bird outside. I had to reminded her of the complexity of the operation. We completed the first one, and armed with the hairdryer, an appliance she is an expert with, She heated the plastic until it was as tight as a drum.

For the second frame we took everything we had learnt from the first, or rather Kelli suggested we do it a different way. When I say a different way, I mean Kelli’s way.

There were some advantages, although there was the same level of panic, but we did it in the end.

26th January 2019

We slept in later than we wanted. Kelli had two people interested in a couple of pieces of furniture at Hudsonville. I had my list of jobs that I wanted to progress. Kelli agreed to collect her mothers prescription, and I had some timber to buy. We had petrol fumes in the truck so the first port of call was the petrol station. I went into the shop to pay and had to join a queue. In front of me were Mr and Mrs Large, their hands, and arms holding their hot dogs with extra onions, and a large coke. There was some hold up at the register so I suggested they start eating while the food was still hot, they looked at me and smiled, I’m not sure they got the concept of eating standing up.

Kelli dropped me at Menards and drove off to Meijers to pick up the medicine.

I managed to find the timber easily, but I had to wait over half an hour for Kelli to collect me. It did give me an opportunity to observe people.

Firstly, some men bought an amazing amount of timber, sheets of plywood and stud timber, it made me feel totally inadequate with my weedy strips of softwood.

There is something manly about buying sheets of good ply, not the cheap OSB this is the real stuff. The other manly attributes to have are, bushy beards, lumberjack shirts and a backward facing baseball cap. I am lucky to have the lumberjack shirt (I have several) but even that did not help with the cold as I waited for Kelli’s return.

The weather did eventually drive me back into the store to wait in the warm, but that was provided I didn’t activate the electric sliding door. I learned to take small breaths, because the action of a full breath allowed my stomach to break the activation beam, causing the door to open and exposing everyone inside to a rush of cold air.

Eventually the truck turned up and I threw my bits of wood in the back, and we set off to deliver the medicine to the in-laws.

Kelli told me that each pill cost $14, that is why they have to store them in a safe.

25th January 2019

We had lunch at Grandville with the couple that conducted our marriage ceremony, Stephen and Cathy.

Our time is always fun and the conversation deep and meaningful, I always come away refreshed, a kind of mental yoga.

It is the start of a cold week with lots of snow forecast, a good opportunity for Kelli to wear her winter clothes, or should I say all her winter clothes. She does feel the cold a lot which is odd for a person who should be used to harsh winters. I still enjoy seeing the snow, but seeing it last longer than a few hours is unusual.

Kelli had to do a bit of “ladies” shopping (clothes) I went to Starbucks for a coffee, and joy! The wooden sticks were back, so I grabbed a handful of those.

We had stopped at Painted Farmgirl on the way through to add a few things, nothing much had sold, but that is to be expected with the weather.

A couple of days ago Kelli had read a story on Facebook about a local family made homeless by high medical bills. They were living in a van at a truck stop. She immediately searched around for old clothes that she could donate, because that is the person she is.

This is a common story, and medical bills are the main reason for people losing their homes.

I still can’t understand why there is no safety net for working people. There is the same risk for the government workers that don’t get their pay cheques.

I have not meet these people yet, and I’m sure their story would be tearful, but where do they go from here? Donating clothing and food is one thing, but once they have fallen so far, what is the future?

We spent the evening watching the film Footloose, talk about going back in time, all that music and dancing left me breathless, and most of my joints aching.

1.45pm found us at Holland Hospital emergence room, where Kelli’s mother was being treated for an irregular heartbeat. There was drama when her heart rate dropped to 35 bpm, but it quickly stabilised, and by 2.30am she was discharged, and we were driving her home in the driving snow.

24th January 2019

Snow was forecast so I had no intention of going out. I had plenty to work on, and rather than laying awake worrying about it I decided to get on with it.

I lifted Old Shaky into the kitchen because the first job was to make it less shaky. I had taken all the back panel sections out to give them a good clean. I remembered to number them so that they would go back in the correct order.

With the aid of a mallet and a block of wood I slid them back into place. Using a couple of sash clamps the carcass was all squared up and rigid. Next I Looked at the drawers. They hadn’t fitted very well when we brought it home, and this was the first chance I had to look at them. It seemed like they had been in a bar fight, all the side pieces had the bottom panel grooves parts broken off.

The bottom panels were random pieces of wall panelling held together with Duck tape and nailed to the drawer frame. This was why they hadn’t fitted properly. So ahead of me will be making new drawer side pieces.

Kelli risked the weather and went out for supplies, of course this also meant a visit to Goodwill, and a collection of more stuff.

I continued sanding some chairs in the basement. We have plans to turn these fairly basic pieces into some cool seating. However these are bastards to sand, even though I just have to strip the seat section, it takes for ever, so I do it when I haven’t anything better to do.

When she returned, Kelli made the most wonderful potato and leek soup, I would have happily ran out into the snow naked, but that would have turned a few heads, and also many stomachs.

23rd January 2019

Had a brunch with Dave, and went to the International house of pancakes (IHOP) I think this is the first time I have been to one of these places ever. I resisted the “ All the pancakes you can eat for $4.99” as I didn’t wish to be found dead in the place. There were quite a few “ large” people who live there because they are, A) Jammed in the seat, or B) Not able to squeeze through the door to leave.

Whilst we were out I had the pleasure of walking round Meijers as Dave had to buy some supplies. As I waited, I noticed just how many plastic carrier bags were used. The carousels spun dispensing hundreds of them while I was watching, but worst of all there is no charge for using them. This is contrary to other items that are collected or recycling.

I attempted to stain the top of the low dresser with a walnut stain the I got from Meijers.

This was not my regular brand, and as soon as i applied it I knew it was a mistake. The top ended up much too red, and not like any walnut I’ve seen. So I mixed in some black stain and redid it.