Author: peterb51

24th March 2019

You know when it’s the weekend, there are no large carts at Wickes. I had to scout around to find an abandoned one.

I needed timber to make the slats for the bed I am making. I bought three packs of ten pieces, and eagerly drove back to start cutting.

I opened each pack and pulled out the first piece, there was a large knot, so I set it aside. I am fed up with paying for material that wasted. I went through all the strips and out of thirty strips, I could not use sixteen of them.

I guess I should have gone through them at the store, but as always I didn’t think, anyway I’ll take them back in the morning.

23rd March 2019

Took a drive to Whitney on Wye to see Martin. He had underwent shoulder surgery and has been in a lot of pain, so I though a visit would cheer him up. Unfortunately I was not in the best mood after being greeted by his enormous Newfoundlands. They are so powerful and the youngest was lovely chewing on my hand. There was no attempt to control him, and it was bloody painful. The whole thing made me angry, and Martin was getting angry at my anger. I was ready to leave, but his wife calmed him down.

It made me think about the price of friendship, and when it ends. I have know him for twenty-five years, I have followed him through his many traumas, he has been close to death so many times I am hardened to it, I not longer feel guilt at being healthy, I am not ashamed at having a job I enjoyed, and I am not embarrassed at having a successful son. All these elements always come up in our conversation, and quite honestly I’m tired of it.

He is incredibly intelligent, but at the same time totally naive, his points of view, are often controversial, and at odds with my own.

22nd March 2019

I continued to create more holes, the postman thought I was digging even more graves, which gave me an idea. I should contact the police and claim there was a body buried in my garden and wait for the forensic team to dig my hole for me. Only the thought of going to prison put me off the crazy plan.

I fitted the legs that I had made in the US on to my bed frame. These have to be the most traveled pieces of wood ever, well not counting ships, and planes. I can’t imagine what the x-ray looked like at the airport.

21st March 2019

I collected the truck from the garage, with it’s fresh MOT, and working windscreen washers.

The hole at the bottom of the garden was getting deeper, I was having problems finding a place the pile all the earth that I dug out.

The area looked like a cemetery, various mounds resembling mass graves. It kept the local cats, who had taken to using it as a toilet, away in droves. As soon as it got dark I locked the door, and stayed inside.

20th March 2019

One of the main features for our wedding reception was a pallet wall with “Cheers” painted on it. Kelli found it on Marketplace and thought it would be a cool thing to have. I am used to handling pallets so I felt strong enough to handle them. The tricky bit was loading them into the truck. Of course once the wedding was done, we were stuck with them.

They had rested in the garage ever since. As part of our big clean up they needed to go, so this was the incentive to get rid of them.

So just as she found them, she posted them on Marketplace and soon got a buyer.

As I am in the UK at the moment, Kelli had to move them about on her own. These particular pallets were heavy duty buggers, so a bit of a struggle for her, however she did it, and the buyer picked them up in the afternoon. We didn’t make any profit on them, but at least we got our money back.

19th March 2019

Not much about work, more about family. My elder sister Evelyn was visiting from her home in Germany. This is the first time in twenty seven years that she’s been to The UK, as you can tell, we are not a close family. She has lived there since she was a child, so her first language is german. The story is complicated, but needless to say the communication was difficult as she doesn’t use email or social media.

She came over for a Paul Carrack (who, you may ask?) concert in Brighton, and wanted to meet up. Paul Carrack is a singer songwriter, who was also in Mike and the mechanics, apparently Evelyn is a big fan.

Nicola arranged a lunch at The Cosy Club in Southgate.

My car was still in the garage being fixed, so they picked me up on route.

It was wonderful seeing her again, her English was good, and I could understand what she was saying. She talked non stop all the way to Bath, about her trip, her home and he hobbies.

It was the first time I had been to the Cosy Club, it had interesting decor of a time gone by, but was let down by the raw concrete ceiling. The waiting staff were a little flamboyant and the food was okay, but as we were so busy talking I forget what the food I was eating.

Kelli on the other hand was doing what she does best, buying stuff. She was collecting a mirror or so she thought. When she got to the house, the mirror was two mirrors with attachment posts. This was too large for the truck, and the seller was not there to lend a hand. The tool box that usually lives in the truck was not there, so she had nothing to remove the posts.

Just then the postal delivery van turned up to deliver some mail, Kelli asked if the post lady if she had any tools in the van. Unfortunately not, but she seemed interested in the mirror, so Kelli gave her a card, and carried on trying to find something she could use to get the metal things off. Eventually she used brute strength and tore them off, yea! Just don’t make her angry.

Somehow she got them loaded in the van and drove home.

18th March 2019

The weather forecast for today was supposed to be dry, which meant digging the garden. I also wanted to cut wood for the new step into the bathroom. I lugged my saw up from the shed and mounted it on to the workmate. Plugged in the extension cable, and cut my first piece. Measured and cut the second when I felt a few drops of rain. Checked on my phone app only to see that rain had appeared. “Oh, okay its only until 11.00 then it’s clear again” I said to my self. The rain got heavier, this meant I needed to move the saw into the dry. As the rain was only limited I put the saw into the porch, which then meant I couldn’t get into the house without severe stretching of the legs. I decided that there were a few things I could do in the house, but I needed things from the shed. I couldn’t get out of the house because the saw was blocking the way.

Things were getting difficult, I spotted a bit of clear floor, “if I could get my foot there I could climb over” went through my mind. However, the space was just a little bit smaller than my shoe, so I had to launch myself in a ballerina pose, hoping my toes would hit the clear space. In total I did it over six times, and still the rain continued. I was running out of jobs to do.

I then remembered that I had to take the truck back to the garage for work to be done. The rain eased off for a while, lucky as I had to walk back. Just as I got to the path it started raining again. I decided to have my lunch, but that meant negotiating the saw once again.

Eventually the rain stopped, allowing me to cut all my timber.

I took the opportunity to start building my double bed frame. This had been sitting around for a couple of years awaiting this day. It was one of the last home projects I did at Herman Miller, that was lucky, because I would not have been able to do that level of machining at home on a workmate. The frame was made from oak and was rather heavy, getting the “dominoes” in position and clamped caused the sap to rise, but eventually it was left for the adhesive to cure.

A guy arrive to pick up some speakers that I had advertised on Marketplace. I am going through stuff and hopefully make some space.

He had driven down from Swindon to collect, and was the first to respond. In all I had nine people contact me for these, but no one had asked about the coffee table I had advertised last week.

Flushed with success, I went into the shed to find the next item I wanted to sell.

17th March 2019

It was the day of the Bath half Marathon. I got up especially early to drive into the city, to find a place to park. I wanted to support my daughter in law who was taking part in her first thirteen miler.

As I entered the city, all the places I usually find to park had other people’s cars in them, so I ended up having to use the paying ones.

It was a wonderful morning, the wind was bitter, but when the sun shone it was perfect.

I had a lot of time to kill, so I walked around the streets that were filling up with competitors and their supporters. Nike seemed to be the footwear for choice, the brighter, the better.

I made my way down Pultney street, and found a good place to stand. It was good because the sun was not obscured by buildings. It was right in front of the place where all the runners would assemble, therefore the best place to see Louise.

The person on the PA was obviously a professional, he spoke non stop about everything important, and a lot that was not, but it was entertaining. Gradually the crowd around me was filling up fast, normally I do not like lots of people, but today felt different.

Soon the experienced runners appeared doing their warm-ups and looking very cool in their mirrored sun glasses. I had never seen so many tattoos in one place, one guy was completely covered. It looked like he was becoming engulfed in his ink work, the plant like design slowly creeping up his face. I saw these close-up because the lady next to me was part of a group from Poole in Dorset. She did have the loudest shout, and I realised it when my ears tingled. I certainly wouldn’t want to wake up next to her when she was in a bad mood.

As the numbers of assembling runners grew, I suddenly felt quite emotional, not that I burst into tears or anything, it was the feeling that I was sharing other people’s dream. Not so much the experienced runners who run to win, but the many who wanted just to do it, like Louise.

At 11.00 the Marathon started, all the legs started to move, slow at start, as they walked, trotted, or jogged to the start. I was scanning the passing runners hoping to see my girl. There was so much eyeball movement I thought they would fall out. I think Louise saw me first, but it was such a great moment, she had worked hard for this.

She was sponsoring Bloodwise, which covered research into Leukaemia, that took her mother, and Lymphoma that nearly took my son. This was my eye moisturising moment, I was so proud of her, and I know her mother would have been too.

I waited until the last competitor had passed before I slowly headed back to the car.

I managed to lay out the new path in the garden, there is a lot of soil to move, but thankfully it is good soil, but still back braking work.

16th March 2019

Bristol Cottage was having a good day. We sold the heavy vanity unit that we got for free. This was a relief as it was taking up all the space in the garage.

Kelli was on a roll and also sold a red bench seat that she only bought yesterday.

I, on the other hand fitted new windscreen wiper blades, and polished the headlight covers. Now I have lights!

I picked up two brackets for my TV stand. Of course they weren’t correct so, I set about modifying them. I found all my metal files and set about making the brackets fit. I wired up some speakers, and fitted a bathroom shelf, even I was on a roll.

15th March 2019

Shogun MOT day, what a shitter. The truck failed on windscreen wipers, washers, dull headlight covers and a leaking exhaust. In the old days I used to take my car in to be pre- examined, any faults were identified and rectified before the MOT. This was a much better idea, and avoided paying twice for the test.