Autumn is definitely in the air, one of our trees is losing its leaves early, normally there is another month before the great sweep.
Kelli started to clear the wild patch at the front. It had been looking really bad with grass that had taken over strangling any flowers that tried to grow.
I managed to stain two dresser tops, then I had to go to Elaine’s to fix the decorative piece above her porch. Now it had been painted, once it was up there it looked pretty good.
When I arrived back I joined Kelli pulling out the grass and the mass of roots under the soil.
I had to be careful as to not pull out the wild flowers that remained, on pain of death it turned out.
I also repaired the drawer I collected yesterday, that should be ready to return the next time we go out.
Well my bangers and mash was a bit of a disaster, the rain was a bit of a downer, but more importantly so were my bangers.
The grill was going well, coals were up to temperature when I put the sausages on. I felt I started early enough, maybe a little too early.
I may have bought the wrong type, as these were pre cooked. By the time we were ready to eat, they had been on the grill longer than they should.
As I was placing them on a plate I picked one up, I didn’t know whether to crack it open or smoke it like a cigar. The only saving grace was that it didn’t turn to dust when I cut it, but the skin was over a quarter of an inch thick.
Thankfully the mash and sauerkraut was fantastic, but my wife was in charge of that.
Next time she better take charge of everything.
So that was our anniversary party, there was sparkling wine and ice cream, and good conversation, I think that took peoples minds away from the sausages.
Earlier I drove back to an address that I dropped a dresser off on Thursday. We had a message that one of the drawers got dropped by their son and damaged asking if we could repair it.
As I arrived, the lady was just leaving, and had no idea what I came for. She then messaged someone in the house to bring out the broken drawer.
The door opened and this tall black guy, looking like he just got out of bed, stood with the damaged item. I explained what I was going to do, quite a simple repair.
He asked if there would be a charge, hi said no, he seemed happy and gave me a fist bump, of course I did not know what that meant, I’m not from the ghetto you know, bro.
It is the eve of our anniversary, so we planned to do no work, instead I went off to buy stuff for tomorrow’s bangers and mash party.
Well not so much as a party, more a gathering of the family.
We decided not to hold a proper do, because we were let down by so many people last year. It would have been appreciated if we were told ahead that they couldn’t make it, that way we could have adjusted our catering.
Although it was a “bring a bottle” invitation, some even took the bottles back that they brought. And I never did find my cool bottle opener.
So we decided to keep it small, however Cameron and Greer couldn’t make it so it’s even smaller.
This afternoon we did took a trip to Saugatuck to walk around the shops, visit the bookshop Kelli used to work at, and then on to the Saugatuck Brewery for an early dinner.
It has been a while since we last eat there, and I noticed quite a change. I chose the fish and chips, although the menu said fish, and I had to order the chips as a side dish, not a good start.
My memory was the plate was huge, the chips were thick and fat, not the skinny ones that accompanied my serving. The burger that Kelli had also seemed thin, unlike the thick and generous ones of old.
I have to get used to being disappointed, and change is expected, but it should also enrich not let down, I will leave a comment on their website.
I must admit I came away hungry, which is not really the point.
It was back to the range, this time very quiet compared to last week.
We chose a shorter range to save our legs, the 100 yard one can be quite tedious.
I pinned four targets for each of us, I wanted to be a bit more scientific with our shooting accuracy.
Kelli had talked to the guy who gave us training at the beginning who advised that the trigger finger arm should be more relaxed than the support arm, which is easier said than done, but that was the purpose of our session.
Kelli was first up, aiming at the first target, the shot was wide of the target. She was disappointed, it’s easy at this stage to loose interest, which she could easily have done, but she persevered. The remaining shots were more central and grouped well, she smiled, was this the breakthrough?
I was up next, mr know it all himself. Off I went, the first few shots were on the target but not where I wanted them to be. I remembered the the advice, and relaxed the trigger arm. My next shots were clustered around the centre of the target, that was an improvement.
And that’s how the session went, ending with a positive result and a hundred and fifty empty shell casings.
We headed home, Kelli had some things to pick up on the way, not furniture thank goodness.
By the time we had lunch it was mid afternoon, not the best time to start anything, but I forced myself to start work on a dresser that needs a lot of work to get the drawers working properly.
Kelli finished the piece we had collected from GR a couple of days ago, not a masterpiece, but hopefully someone will like it.
The heavy bugger was collected today, a young girl and her mother drove up in a truck ready to receive the beast.
She intends to use it in her living room, and to use it as it was. It took all four of us to lift it into the bed of the truck. We didn’t get a lot for it, but we have a lot more space to handle smaller items, and hopefully not get something so large and heavy in the future.
We also sold the tall dresser only after a couple of days. I was to deliver it on my way to beer tasting with Lloyd.
The GPS took me to a community of duplexes, and I pulled up outside of number 260.
A black lady came out to greet me, and asked if I still needed help to unload. Not wanting to strain my greens I nodded. She then shouted to her son who was inside the house, no one appeared.
I managed to carefully remove the dresser from the back of the truck, and started to remove the drawers. I then handed them to the lady, still no lad appeared. I then managed to carry the carcass close to the door, the lady continued to shout for her son.
Finally he appeared, dazed and generally disinterested to what was expected. I explained the best way to carry then we proceeded to get it through the front door. At first I thought the place had been ransacked, there was stuff all over the place, it was one of those times when I wanted to get away as quickly as I could, no offence to the lady, but it made me feel like I should help clean the place, but Lloyd was waiting.
He was there before me this time, standing at the bar getting the orders in. I asked him how he was knowing that he had recovered from Covid last week. I reminded him about our conversation last time when he was looking forward to his next Covid shot, I stopped short of saying, “well how did that vaccine work for you” I didn’t want to gloat.
The big heavy bugger was sold, thank goodness. Not long after Kelli posted it there were two interested parties. We were asking a modest amount as we didn’t do anything to it except giving it a clean. This will be picked up on Thursday, I can’t wait.
There was a trip to Grand Rapids on the cards for today, stopping off at a house in Holland to pick up a free coffee table.
The drive to GR was pleasant, especially on the main 44th street.
The place to were directed to was a leafy suburb, quite pleasant, not the usual craziness of the downtown. The piece was outside on the porch, as we approached, the garage door opened, an old guy dressed in his pyjamas greeted us. He apologised for not being able to help carry it blaming a shoulder surgery.
We said that we were used to carrying things about, and set about loafing it into the truck.
It was not a brilliant piece, the typical KD furniture, but with a bit of cleaning and a fresh coat of paint on the top, we could post it quickly.
We then rushed back to do our usual grocery shopping.
I only managed to do a bit of work, it had been a busy day, and I looked forward to my dinner.
Not the best start to the day, Kelli woke at 5.30am and couldn’t go back to sleep.
That is always a downer, and it was difficult to snap her out of it.
We took an early bike ride down to the beach at Point West. The sand was hot and the water was calm and quite warm. The place was deserted, the snow barriers hadn’t yet been installed, the setting was ideal, with blue sky kissing the water on the horizon.
On the way back Kelli complimented a chap on his Trump sign, why? I have no idea, they all look the same. This gave her an opening to talk to him and his friend. We cycled up his driveway past a collection of Porsches, yes they must have a bit of money. After she told them of her recent conversion there were several minutes of exchanged thoughts, and a promise that he will deliver a sign for the front garden.
And yes it magically appeared a few hours later, after we had got out of the pool. Oh dear, I don’t like politics to be openly displayed like that.
I plenty of things to do including repairing a drawer. The dovetails were broken, and it was difficult to recut, I got so angry with it I smashed the whole thing apart, I was quicker to make a completely new drawer from scratch saving only the drawer front. That is what I did, for me it was not so productive as I wanted, there are many pieces I need to repair so Kelli has things to work on whilst I’m away.
The big heavy bugger that we got free a week ago was taking up valuable space, so we decided to try to sell it as it was, many as a project for someone. We took pictures of it and Kelli posted it on Marketplace.
What a busy day ahead, first it was back to Zeeland for Kelli’s doctors appointment.
This went well, her strength has improved and he did a bit of realignment to help the muscles in her legs improve. There was shouts of pain, as he hit certain places, but then her threshold for pain is low, so I expect it.
Once that was done, the next thing on our list was to meet up with a buyer of the three chairs we had listed.
This was to take place at the Family Fare car park in Jenison.
On the way Kelli spotted a pair of headboards by the roadside with a free sign on it. We hurtled past for several miles before I agreed for us to turn around and pick them up. I wasn’t not going to be the person who said “ let’s pick them up on the way back” this time.
We drove back, stopped in the driveway and hoisted them on to the roof lashing them down with a few bungees, then we continued on to the meeting point.
That went well, the lady, who traveled from Grand Rapids was pleased with what she saw, so I loaded them into the back of her SUV.
Then it was off down the road to collect another dresser.
The sight that greeted us was one of “ What the heck”. The carcass was reasonably structural, but the drawers had been badly fitted. Someone had used roller slides held to the sides with wooden spacer blocks and shimmed using a bit of a plastic ruler. It was a complete mess, and will need a lot of work and new timber to make it run properly.
Reluctantly we loaded it into the truck and headed for home.
Most of the day had now been used up, but I had one last task to do, and that was to deliver the bow fronted dresser.
The address was across the road from a place we had delivered before. This guy was appreciative that I was able to deliver it, which was a nice boost to the day.
Earlier Cameron had dropped off a dresser and side table that he found at a garage sale. He frequents these often, mainly looking for classic style clothing, but this was the first time he found something for us; not the best quality but I’m sure we can make it pretty.
We finished off another dresser which was quick and dirty, considering what it was before we started, it didn’t turn out that bad.
Dave, the big guy over the road, the one who had a go at us for allegedly complaining about his lodger, wanted to talk with Kelli.
Apparently it’s was not his mate, rather his wife’s. There was some kind of threesome happening and he was sick of it.
He came to warn us that something might happen as he plans to serve papers to evict this chap.
This was all quite intriguing, and later in the afternoon a police car turned up.
Kelli was straight at the window trying to listen to what was being said. She gave me a running commentary as things were happening, but it fizzled out to nothing.
It all happens at Central Bay.
Earlier, we managed to sell the two side tables, in the nick of time, because the change off colour was in the planning stage.
We also picked up a free dresser, so as soon as we get a bit of space in the garage, it gets filled up again.
It was Matt’s wife Brenda’s birthday so we went up to their home for cake and ice cream.
The cake was too sweet, now I like a bit of cake, but this was too much for me, I struggled to eat my slice, not even having a second helping? Not on your nelly.
I delivered the porch decorations to Elaine. She got quite emotional seeing it in place, I was pleased that it had that effect.
Sometimes you have to follow your hunch when there isn’t a specific brief from the client.
She said she wanted something, but didn’t know what it was. As she stood there looking at it she said it was exactly what she imagined.
That was a good start to the day, it was warm and sunny, and I wasn’t planning to do anything strenuous, so I sat on my stool and chipped paint off yet another dresser.
For a few weeks now I haven’t been using my machines at the weekends to save the neighbours wrath and maintain a quiet couple of days.
We splashed around in the pool for a while, well until my float finally deflated, then we went for a bike ride.
It was a bit longer than usual, we visited Dave’s grave at the cemetery, the plants in the urn were still alive, Kelli gave them a good watering.
Another Lifetime to go 