Author: peterb51

19th November 2024

I drove over to Lloyd and Nancy’s to work on their kitchen cabinets. I had all my materials and brushes at the ready.

To avoid my accidental paint spillage episode I kept the paint tin in a bucket, there was no way that would be kicked over.

I carefully masked up all the areas that had to be paint free, then started on the task.

My mind was wandering, because my hands knew what they had to do. I was earwiging on what they were discussing. They wanted the flooring replaced with laminate strips, and had a quote in excess of ten thousand dollars. They asked me what I thought, and I told them.

The home interior business is in recession at the moment, mainly because people use their income to buy petrol and food. So these businesses are chasing what ever inquiries they get, and when they visit older people, those with a higher disposable income, they inflate the prices disproportionately. The material costs about four thousand dollars, and they said it would be done in a day and a half, I would certainly like to be earning the remaining six for doing it.

The salesperson was desperate to get the order, she sat with them for over an hour trying to get them to sign a contract, that’s how it works over here.

I advised them to look for a self employed flooring contractor who could do the job much cheaper.

The only reason I didn’t offer my services was because I don’t like laminate flooring, but also it would take me longer to do. Doing the floor at home played havoc with my knees, but I might price the job up anyway, out of interest.

18th November 2024

Oh there was a lot to do, first I wanted to paint the front face of the kitchen doors and Kelli wanted to finish painting the dresser she had been working on. I checked the weather and the was a forecast of some rain, but then I forgot about it. 

Sixteen doors later, with them laying on every conceivable place outside to dry, I stopped to have some lunch.

I took off my work jacket and checked my weather app on my phone. It informed me that rain was due to start in ten minutes.

That would give me time to move the doors inside, but as I went outside it had started already, not hard, but drops were falling, and landed on my newly painted items.

I shook my fist at the sky in anger as I rushed to rescue the pieces. Some were nearly dry, but some were still wet and had rain marks on them, so tomorrow I will have to sand them back.

The rain had now set in for the day, although Kelli finished her project. By the end of the day I had deposited all the doors in different parts of the house, ready for inspection tomorrow.

17th November 2024

I was laying in bed listening to Kelli chuckling at some of the posts on her social media, and I was thinking “ How bad has this world got?”.

Now I know my thoughts might not resonate with everyone, but they are mine, and I alway stand to be corrected.

Since the presidential election I have been outside looking in, alway open to things that make sense. I have watched the country unite behind a man that has pledged, like he did on his previous presidency, to build America and to support the American people.

I have watched him build a team that will be the cornerstone of this ambition.

I alway ask the same question to myself, “does this make sense?”

On the government efficiency front, absolutely.

There are over four hundred departments in Washington that add no value. They are there regardless of what administration is in power, the civil servants. The American people want those reduced or gone, they want accountability for the tax money that gets spent, today nobody actually knows.

On food and health, those two are connected, because the food makes people sick, then they need the drugs to make them well. American foods contain more poisons than any other country on earth, so it makes sense to deal with that.

What is happening in the UK with the inheritance tax on farmers is already happening here. Acres of agricultural land is being bought up by people like Bill Gates who are pursuing a globalist agenda, where land would be owned by the rich, and then leased back to farmers

There could be a real opportunity for the corruption and censorship that is rife in the government and mainstream media.

I have a hope that the same could happen in Great Britain, but I can’t see how any politician could form a rebellion and get the truth out to the people.

 You will never see a newspaper headline that reads “ They lied about everything “ because it should read “We lied about everything as well”, because the media are also involved.

What the UK needs is an outsider, like Trump.

My nomination is Jeremy Clarkson, he has no problem telling people to eff off.

16th November 2024

I can’t believe it’s Saturday, the weeks are just melting away, a few weeks ago we were basking in the sun, floating in our pool. 

The sky is grey, it is dank, and going outside is not so fun.

For breakfast I made waffles with almond flour. I have done this many times, but something was not right with these examples.

Of course Kelli noticed it right away, I had said that they didn’t seem as firm as they usually are.

We went through the recipe line by line, and the only thing I could have done wrong was add too much baking soda. 

All I had to do was halve the quantities, but maybe I got the baking soda wrong. Ha ho, no one died, I would eat anything anyway, and that exactly what I did.

Then I went into the garage to work on the bureau. This is turning out to be a monumental job, removing all the badly applied black paint is taking longer than I thought.

We also manage to paint the back surface of the kitchen doors, and Kelli had painted a dresser, all before dark.

Then it was out for a walk with the dogs. We needed to go to the corner shop for a pot of molasses. Kelli wanted this for a cake she plans to make. It took a long time to find the shelf with the stuff on, but with the help of the staff I did locate it. 

Then it was down to the cash register to pay. One was taken up by a cashier who was on the phone to someone, so I took position on the register next to hers. The guy in front was having problems with his card. The cashier with the phone then asked me I’d the local newspaper, the sentinel had a Sunday edition? Of course I didn’t know, so in response I said “ tell them if there is a Sunday edition it’s not worth reading”  that brought a smile to a few faces. 

Then the cashier explained that the person on the other end of the phone wanted to check the obituaries for a relative who had recently died.

“ Oh,” I said, “ better not mention what I said then”.

I paid for the molasses and left quickly.

15th November 2024

Kelli dropped me at Lloyd and Nancy’s condominium so that I could complete the priming of the wall cabinets. As I walked in, Lloyd announced that one of his friends had a stroke, not what I expected, or wanted to hear.

I’m not surprised, as many of Lloyd’s friends are either waiting, or have passed through those pearly gates. I did not want any details, I just wanted to get the painting done and get out of there.

And that is what I did. I was there for several hours and every fifteen minutes the clock that was hanging on the wall chimed. Not a normal chime, it was out of tune! I cleaned out my ears and listed again, it was definitely not ringing the correct note. As the time went on, I began to dread the sound.

It is a window into how other people live, what they tolerate. Lloyd didn’t do much the whole time I was there. He shifted from one chair to another watching me work.

I would look up and he would be sitting on the couch, the next time I would look up and the couch was empty. He would have moved to a chair, which was a little unsettling, a sort of now you see me, now you don’t feeling. 

So with him appearing and disappearing from one chair to another, and an out of tune clock chiming away, I couldn’t wait for Kelli to come and pick me up.

14th November 2024

Well the good sleep didn’t materialise, both of us struggled, and it wasn’t until 3.00am that we both dropped off.

Although I heard the loud jeep start up and leave, but thankfully Kelli didn’t, so it was a kind of win I guess.

After a breakfast of two pieces of miniature pieces of bacon and egg I was ready to start the day. It was rubbish collection day and our recycling bin was bursting, and the yard waste weighed a ton. The city vehicle made easy work of both of them, shedding them onto the driveway. There is no precision, the device is brutal, the gripper squeezes the life out of the poor bin, then casts it aside, then moves on.

It was a damp day, paint took a while to dry limiting how much time we could spray.

The piles of leaves had been collected yesterday so the lawn was covered with those that had escaped. At Kelli’s insistence I had piled leaves on to the beds as a habitat for bugs to live out the winter.

I had finished stripping the two doors for the bookcase we delivered earlier in the week.

13th November 2024

A shitty night was had by all. The tenet who lives across the road who owns a large Jeep woke Kelli up at 5.30am. This vehicle is so loud when it starts up that even the dead complain.

Of course she couldn’t get back to sleep instead asked me what I was going to do about it. Not being my best at that time of the morning my answers were not quite coherent. What could I do? Tell him to buy an effin Tesla? My responses did not add to the pleasant atmosphere that was developing. Needless to say the day went downhill from there.

I was racking my brains to think of a solution, but without reporting him to the police, I had nothing.

We did our shopping with an air of misery, I was not a happy person, I don’t feel comfortable in situations where I’m not in control, and being coerced into confronting someone I do not know, in that situation I’m sure I would make things worse.

My only idea was to speak to Dave who owns the house across the road. I would not say we are the best of buddies, although he waves when he passes.

Kelli arranged for him to walk over to have a “chat” and so he did.

He could not really make any suggestions that would help ease the situation, which was a bit disappointing.

He said that he would pass a message on to come and talk to me, but only if he was sober. I guess he has a bit of a drinking problem.

That’s all I need, trying to talk sensibly to a bloody drunk.

Needless to say he didn’t come over tonight, so I’m now looking forward to another great early awakening, that would spur on a formal escalation.

12th November 2024

I got to Lloyd and Nancy’s home just after 1.00pm, I wanted to degrease, sand and prime all the front frames of the base and wall hanging units. I brought all the necessary materials to do the job, including enthusiasm to get the task completed.

I removed all the drawers and started on the cleaning. Once that was done, I started on the sanding, now there isn’t anything that I don’t know about sanding.

All that took an hour, so I was looking forward to starting the priming.

I was well into the first unit, my hand was steady, and my line was straight.

I then noticed a tuff of something on the bottom rail, I grabbed it, and gave it a tug. Off it came, but my hand continued and hit the pot of paint that was resting on the floor. Plop! It went as it spilt the contents in a pool over the floor.

“Damn and blast!” I uttered as I calmly viewed the scene.

Are you kidding? I panicked, “Bollocks!” I shouted, knowing that Nancy had gone out, and Lloyd was in the basement.

“Shit!” I shouted, my poor brain was trying to process what to do, as this primer does dry quickly.

I desperately mopped it up using the brush to pour back into the pot. At this stage my hands were covered, but I didn’t care, with what seemed like hours I managed to clear up the pool, but I was left with the stain on the vinyl floor. Luckily I had brought a tin of denatured alcohol which cleans this kind of paint.

I was relieved when all trace of the paint had gone and the floor was perfectly clean.

I did have the thought what if the alcohol took off the pattern of the flooring?

The alcohol took off the pattern from the flooring!………no it didn’t, just joking, I would have had to kill myself if that had happened.

Now I was supper vigilant with the paint and made sure my hands were a safe distance from the pot.

I managed to prime all the base units, leaving the wall ones till later in the week.

I just wanted to get back home and crash out for the rest of the evening, exhausted by the mental trauma I had brought upon myself.

11th November 2024

With all the leaves I swept up yesterday blowing on to Larry’s front lawn, I thought it might be a good idea to have a bit of a tidy up around the house.

I decided to tackle the side, next to the garage that has become a bit of a collection point for crap. There are old fence posts and old wood that I should burn,  but not got round to it yet.

I had bags of soil that I didn’t use that I am keeping till the spring, that I needed to store somewhere.

So it was a good opportunity to clear that space, and get rid of the leaves that have settled.

I cut up some old branches that had fallen from our trees that I was hope that they would cut themselves. Gradually order was restored, and I moved on to giving the back lawn a final cut for the year. This was needed because it also sucked up the leaves so now I can see the dog crap when I go round to scoop it up.

Finally I was able to store the bikes and any patio furniture in the shed, making sure that any snow clearing equipment was close to the door.

The bookcase that I was lovingly stripping was due to be delivered to Lloyd and Nancy, it was good to get that out of the way, I used a scalpel to dig out the paint in the crevices and tight corners, I still have both the doors to do, whoopee!

I did manage to sand all the backside surfaces of the kitchen doors ready for priming tomorrow. 

10th November 2024

I managed to finish scraping the paint off the bookcase, thank god. That was so much work, I should have priced it double, but it’s ready to deliver tomorrow.

Trump has been releasing videos of things he intends to do during his first day in office. 

There is so much to unpack, if he can do a tenth of what he says it will change things.

I may be sound like a Trumper, but I’m not, I am trying to rationalise everything, and see it through my eyes. I’m even reading articles written by the anti Trump brigade, which I’m adding into the pool trying to understand if those points are valid. 

Most of these points revolve around reductions in social security, Medicare and Medicade.

Social Security is the equivalent of the state pension over here, I have not heard him make reference to all those specifically, but I can’t believe he would go after those and hurt the most vulnerable, that’s only what the UK government would do.

We went up to Kelli’s mums for ice cream and more political debate, as that is a hot bed of republican ideals.

I am the lone one in the middle trying to make sense of everything for my own mental health.