Author: peterb51

17th February 2025

It certainly has been a great improvement now that the Jeep man no longer leaves at 5.30am.

The low frequency throb of his motor no longer wakes Kelli up, and for the most part, her sleep pattern has improved. The fact that he isn’t working has helped us, but at some stage some poor employer will hire him, and that may change the circumstances once again, but for now we are grateful.

The temperature is back in the teens all this week, so on went my fleece lined work trousers and my Nordic socks. 

We were in a unique position of have two customers picking up dressers later this afternoon.

One dresser we had sold without posting, so I took a picture of it before it was collected.

This hasn’t happened for a while, and now we have space to bring the two pieces that we acquire from Grand Haven yesterday.

The first responders turned up at Larry’s during the evening. We were alerted by the sirens and flashing lights of the Holland fire truck, followed a little later by the ambulance. Poor chap he is suffering with his breathing, so more hospital time ahead. His medical insurance certainly isn’t making any money from him, they might be ready to push the button.

16th February 2025

My embarrassment could not sink much lower.

I’ve alway maintained a level self control and high moral standards, some say I lost those the moment I came to America, but I maintain some dignity when it comes to how low I stoop.

We had to drive to Grand Haven to collect a dresser, the owners were downsizing and getting rid of things they didn’t need.

It was a pleasant drive along the lakeshore, although you could see it for all the damn houses that line the shore line. Anyway we found the house, the dresser had been left on the porch so we could see it as we arrived. It wasn’t anything special, a style we have done many times before. Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a dumpster bag full of junk and bags of rubbish. I didn’t say anything to Kelli just in case she didn’t see it. I should have known better. We carried the dresser, and loaded it into the back of the truck. Now, in this big bag was another furniture piece that would have had three drawers, but they were missing. Kelli pounced on the dumpster bag as if her life depended upon it. First she found one of the drawers, her excitement grew, then I was roped in to help extract the drawerless carcass. I felt that the eyes of the entire neighbourhood were looking at me. I had no disguise, I was exposed, Pete was pulling something from someone’s rubbish pile.

In removing the carcass it expose another drawer, and one that was in pieces. I quickly loaded all the parts into the truck. Meanwhile Kelli continued to explore the contents  more thoroughly. I heard a lot of scraping and grunting as she found a tall black lantern with a bunch of Christmas lights inside, that found its way into the back of the truck. I was keen to get away, I’m sure if she was on her own she would have done a forensic clean of everything.

However she was pleased that she had saved a piece of furniture from certain death, and gave us another project in the meantime.

To celebrate, we stopped off at a small restaurant next to pigeon lake, a delightful little place that we might adopt as our place to go for special occasions.

When we left there was a sprinkling of snow falling, damn!, will this stuff ever stop?

15th February 2025 

There were high expectations that we would be selling the long dresser and side table today.

Everything was cleaned, the runners were waxed, all ready for the buyer to inspect.

At the agreed time this portly lady arrived, I opened the garage door to greet her. She immediately told me that she was acting for her mother, but every drawer was checked, and she was saying how nice it looked. She then said that she would phone her mother and get a final decision. By this time Kelli joined me just as the lady returned. 

“ Oh it looks grey” she replied “ I think I’ll pass, sorry to have troubled you”

“It’s definitely white” Kelli said in defence, but the decision was made. We have sold many pieces that colour with no complaint before, but we had to let it go.

Fortunately we had someone else coming to look over the green tall dresser and the wood one that I’m still working on. That went a lot better, we sold both of them.

I finally unloaded the multi coloured dresser from the truck that we bought at Goodwill, and also some planks of timber that I had stored at Kelli’s mum’s garage. I had plans to make a new top for the corner entertainment unit that has been gather dust in the corner of the garage. That entailed setting up the saw and cutting the pieces to size then running them through the jointer. I was able to glue up the top in sections before I gave up for the day.

14th February 2025

We had a completely different day. It was Valentine’s Day, so we spent our time delivering flower displays to addresses in and around Saugatuck. Kelli used to work with Jean, the owner of Back to the fuchsia flower shop, and is still good friends with her. This was the first time in four years that Kelli has felt strong enough to tackle this. I was excited, not only doing something different, but because it was another significant step in Kelli’s journey.

As we had our breakfast, Kelli had a phone call from Larry across the road asking for some help to move his rubbish bin from the side of the road  back to his house. Also to sweep the snow from his Jeep. Since being released from hospital his recovery has been slow, and the cold weather has not helped. There is nothing worse when you are sick than being cold.

I was happy to help, essentially as Kelli was still deciding what to wear.

We set off for Saugatuck, and arrived about 11.00am at the shop to find all the arrangements waiting to load up. In total we had seventeen deliveries for Zeeland to Hamilton.

Kelli was the driver and I was the navigator/ delivery person.

Thank goodness for GPS, we started strongly, the first house was massive, obviously quite well to do. I had a large flower arrangement and a box of chocolates in my hands as I walked up to the front door. The lady of the house greeted me, in turn I handed over the vase and the sweeties.

 I could see the man of the house sitting in a large arm chair with a big grin on his face, he had done his bit, and was pleased with himself.

Then it was off to the next stop.

There was one place that I wasn’t expecting, a church. Now this was not a normal church, as most over here are, they are like giant God factories.

I walked up to that front door, that looked like a high security entrance with combination finger pads and intercom, of which I pressed, but nothing happened. I pressed it several times without anyone answering. In desperation I tried the door, and to my surprise it opened. In I went, the place was deserted. I entered every room with the exception of the toilets, there was no one about. The screens in the workstation were on, it was like the occupants had been spirited away. In the end I left the arrangement on a reception desk.

I only had one mishap, where one of the arrangements fell over spilling most of the water in the boot. I had to apologise to the lady that her flowers needed some refreshment. There was also an arrangement that included a teddy bear and a box of chocolates. The leg and hand got wet, so I had to hold it against the hot air vent in the car trying to drying it out.

Kelli had brought along some food, as she always does, that we ate on the way. There was only one place where we had to return, but we had one bank, one school and a massage parlour on our list.

We finished about 5.00pm, and must have covered a lot of miles, but it was different, and it was fun, although standing outside waiting for the door to be answered was not fun.

I also believe that for all the attention I got holding and presenting the flowers, I could have been bollock naked and no one would have noticed.

13th February 2025

I had to drive to Zeeland to collect the sewing machine, there wasn’t that much wrong with it, maybe a squirt of oil and some tensioning adjustments. He only charged twenty bucks for that, which in this time is a bargain.

Then it was back to Holland to meet up with Lloyd for our biweekly beverage session. It was cold, the wind was biting, it was almost a relief to swig a cold beer.

On the television hanging above the bar was a softball game from Florida, where Lloyd had just moved from. I could tell that it was a place he would like to be right now. It hard to imagine that a place a few hours away could be so different, all those hurricanes, I guess I will stick with the cold.

We finished the long white dresser and side table, took some pictures and Kelli posted them. By the time I got home there were a couple of people interested in both the dressers we have listed plus one we are still working on, it will be good to get rid of those, then I can take the one that is still in the back of the truck.

12th February 2025

More snow was forecast today, bloody great. I checked my weather app on my phone, it was due to start around 11.00am, but my hope were high that it would miss us, but whist we were in the lawyer’s office it started from about 2.00pm and continued for the rest of the day. It’s a good job that I didn’t put the snow blower away.

We had to drive to Zeeland to drop Kelli sewing machine off to get serviced. It was as old as dirt, and probably not been serviced for at least thirty years. The guy was a retired service engineer who had forty years experience, so if he can’t get it working properly, no one can.

On the way back we stopped off at Goodwill. I found a small dresser that needed the magic touch. Kelli was busy looking through the clothes, as usual, I had to amuse myself, although I didn’t have my glasses with me. That limited my ability to look at the CDs, but I did watch the shopping habits of others. Some people load their trollers to the brim with stuff, it like they on a mission to spend, spend, spend.

I wander the isles like a great white, checking out the rest of the stock.

After checking out, we had to drive to the side of the building to pick up the dresser.

The young lad who met us was a little dim, if he wasn’t, than he did a very good impression. He scrutinised the receipt, I told him where it was located, but he wanted me to show him. In the end I helped him carry it out to the truck, where I loaded it myself. He then muttered something and headed back into the building, the seat of his jeans hanging down to his ankles, not a good look.

We did a bit of work to the long dresser, fitting the scoop handles and spraying a light coat of paint over the top, hopefully that will be posted tomorrow.

11th February 2025

Something has happened to my IPad. It was working perfectly one evening, but the next morning it was different.

While I prepare breakfast I watch certain podcasts on YouTube on my iPad, but a message came up to update or quit. Puzzled, I clicked on update, but the screen returned to the update/quit message. This time I went back to quit, now the whole format of the screen changed, I lost all of my saved YouTube data, and now it’s a bloody nightmare to find things to watch. Now I haven’t updated the iPad to the latest software version, so it must be a YouTube revision, although nothing has changed on my phone. This pisses me off, we become helpless peasants not knowing where to turn to understand the reasons. I know the unit is a few years old, and the previous updates have sucked memory, but otherwise it has been operating just fine.

Now I have to put up with the spinning circle of death frequently, and intermittent freezing, meaning soon it will find itself being thrown out into the garden, good riddance.

10th February 2025

I heard a Democratic senator make an interesting point about all the illegal immigrants being deported, they said, “ who will cut the grass and do the washing up in restaurants?”

That certainly indicates that slavery is alive and kicking in the USA.

It is sad that on the question of cutting government spending by exposing fraud and waste, it would unite the country. After all everyone complains about paying taxes, but the division is still there, led by those who don’t want their gravy train exposed.

With the US debt standing at 40 trillion dollars, and that’s a big number, you would think any savings would be welcome.

But back in Holland, with the temperature down by my ankles, work continues.

We managed to finish a tall dresser and got it posted. Kelli painted another, but it was so cold the paint started to freeze, so that put paid to that.

9th February 2025

I have decided to limit my exposure to all the news and information that I view on my phone. I have to protect my sanity. It’s not that I am critical, or suspicious of the data, it’s the shear amount of it that gets posted every day. With so many “experts” posting reports that have already been aired by other outlets, I cannot clarify which is new and what is old. The easiest solution is to bring some shutters down and not get caught up in the melee.

I therefore will put more of my valuable brain power to the work in hand.

We had to drive to Grandville to collect a dresser from an apartment block, similar to one we had experienced before. This time the dresser it was up a two flights of stairs, and was waiting for us when we got there. 

The process was the same as previous, sliding it down the stairs on its back with me acting as the brake. During this dangerous method I did establish how I double stepped the last time.

It was because the stairs and the landing had the same dark grey carpet, meaning that as I got close to the bottom of the stairs I couldn’t tell where the stairs ended and the landing began.

I had to be extra vigilant that I didn’t make the same error this time.

The top was not in a good state, but the rest seemed in quite good condition, it should be a quick job to get the top stripped and refinished.

All this cold weather really takes a toll on my waterworks, I was in need of a public convenience, but this is America, no such places exist. I wasn’t sure if I could manage getting back home, but then we saw an Aldi store, Yes, they have a restroom, thank the maker.

After zooming in there and doing the business, life was far more enjoyable.

8th February 2025

Hello and welcome to the greatest show on earth.

That’s what I feel like every morning recently, there is so much being reported on the independent media and virtually nothing on the main stream, it’s like experiencing an alternative universe.

The list of crazy spending continues, and that is getting to certain democrats, and they say those who scream and shout usually have the most to hide.

Trump continues to rile the left, issuing executive orders that make them shout out about them, then he does something else, and they rush out and complain about that, it’s a real shit show.

There is so much information flying about, it makes my head spin, I’m glad I can escape to the garage.

We went to Kelli’s mums for a birthday celebration for one of her grandchildren. It was a chance for a slice of cake, in reality it was the only reason I went. That’s not to sound mean, but that was the reason why anyone was there.

Let’s face it, little children do not understand party etiquette, in fact the piece of cake they receive they never eat, it’s left like a ruined building on the plate. Now Ella, is only five but she received a paint brush and some small pots of paint, which of course she wanted opened.

I had to sit and watch her absolutely mess up the small painting book she also received. The paint went all over the lines, my head was screaming “KEEP INSIDE THE LINES!” It was a disaster. I blame the parents, that should be the first lesson a child learns.

We left there exhausted, but we had someone coming to collect a large dresser, so there was some redemption to the day.