Author: peterb51

29th September 2024

It was time to drain the pool. I rigged up the pump with a long hose to start the slow process of emptying the water.

There is a moment of sadness because, for us it’s the end of our excuse to chill.

There was some activity in the garage, Kelli wanted to paint the top of the coffee table.

It was a warm day, maybe even a pool day under different circumstances.

It was a lazy day, I moved some pallets that have been stacked at the side of the garage for a year or so, I hadn’t found the time to break them up. Matt was looking for some that he could use to fence in a space for their puppies to run around now that they are moving in with Georgia.

It was a dirty job, and we only managed to fit three into the back of the truck. Maybe tomorrow we’ll move the other one.

There was drama in Holland in the early hours which included a shooting, a high speed car chase that ended with the two occupants dying.

All this happened fairly close to us, but we heard no police sirens or anything.

Like most of the roads around here they are straight, the one they were on had a tight bend at the end and obviously they didn’t realise that.

Out of a morbid curiosity, we drove along the road and saw the tree they hit, fortunately it was not badly damaged.

Brenda, Matt’s wife was on that road, at around 2.30am when this all happened, she could not sleep and decided to take a drive to the nearest petrol station for some cigarettes and a cup of cocoa, yes it was unusual, but she is from the Netherlands, so quite understandable.

28th September 2024

We had sold the small television unit that we collected from Grand Rapids last week, it was not a quality piece and it was a relief that someone wanted it.

I had a bit of work on it before it was being picked up. That involved loosening the screws that connect with the cam fittings. The top was loose when we collected it, that was due to the screws inserted so tight that the cam fractured when it was tightened. I was hoping to re use one from another joint, but as I loosened the cam it fell apart. I was lucky to find one complete, others I repaired using superglue and baking soda.

I managed to complete that job when Kelli found a free dresser, I couldn’t turn that down, so we set off for the wilds of Holland. It was quite a way out, even past the shooting range. We arrived at a mobile home park, my heart sank. Driving through the myriad of roads we found the home but no dresser, obviously snapped up by some other, but we did find a couple of side tables that we took as consolation.

The next stop was to collect a garden arch on the north side.

Honestly that was a piece of crap, but Kelli wanted it so somehow we squeezed it into the truck, then we had to rush back to meet the buyers of the tv unit.

Quite honestly it wasn’t worth the money we paid for it, although the only work we did was repaint the top. There were some scratches that Kelli matched the colour perfectly.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sanding another dresser to get it ready to be worked on and finished whilst I’m away.

27th September 2024

Another Friday at the range, we’re getting quite proficient at it now, however I still get my thumb in the wrong place and it gets hit by the sliding bit. So with blood dripping I kept going.

The range we used was a bit worse for wear, some inconsiderate person had shot through the structure that hold the panels on to which the targets are pinned. That is the main thing that is mentioned during the new members introduction meeting, these are difficult to replace especially the vertical ones that are buried in the ground.

Kelli’s shooting was a little better than mine, although we have improved our grouping.

There is talk about what disruption might happen in the coming months. It is suggested that neighbourhoods should organise amongst themselves to store and possibly share food, and even protect each other. We have started to collect extra tinned foods to store in the room off the garage. I can’t believe this kind of action is needed in the twenty first century, but this is a strange and troubled America.

A lot of the independent media are warning of criminal gangs that have been allowed through the southern borders are make their claims in certain large cities. The mainstream media say nothing of this, it’s like this is planned by the Democrats, they have allowed millions of undocumented migrants into the country, and it’s getting out of control.

On a more positive note, we did finish something.

We took pictures and posted the latest dresser to emerge from the garage.

26th September 2024

I finally took the truck back to the tyre place to get them to check two of them for pressure loss.

I had all four replaced back in June but over time the two on the driver’s side kept losing pressure.

Fortunately I have a small compressor that I keep in the truck, so I was able to top it up when necessary. I needed to get it sorted before I flew back to the UK so Kelli didn’t have to worry.

I explained the issue to a technician, he had a quick check, couldn’t find any nails, then booked it in to be looked at.

I took a walk to Lowes to get buy some materials, when I returned I was greeted with some worrying news.

Being in the US means, (to me,) that they will always find something to relive me of money, whether is be replacement windscreen wipers or a new vehicle.

When there is a slight intake of breath and a sad eye expression, I know something is up.

I was told that the seal between the tyre and the rim was where the air was escaping. This was because the rim had corroded. I had a suspicion that it could be the problem even before I drove to the place, but tried to convince myself that it had never happened to me before. Anyway, the short answer was four new rims, so with that and the tyres I’ve doubled the value of the truck.

I attempted to pay with my card, although I didn’t have the physical one, I had a picture of it allowing me to enter the details. That was fine until I came to the postal  code, or zip code.

It did not recognise the English one, so the transaction failed. The next option was to use Applepay. That went well, but was declined at the end. My last option was Mastercard on Applepay, I didn’t hold much hope on this, but to my surprise, and the tyre man’s delight, it worked. He then instructed his men to change the wheels.

Things were not over, I then received a voice mail from Barclaycard to call regarding a potential fraudulent transaction.

I then spent over half an hour sorting all that out and getting my card reinstated, talk about a traumatic day, and it was only twelve o clock.

25th September 2024

Bang!  Came from the kitchen area, I was sitting in the living space, and Kelli was in the bathroom. This time it wasn’t a power module exploding, but I didn’t know what happened. I had visions of something falling on the glass hob top, but that was intact. We both looked around looking for evidence of some catastrophic disaster.

It was Kelli that found the cause, the cork had rapidly exited a bottle of sparkling wine and hit the bottom of a wall unit. We did have a good laugh over that, and a sigh of relief.

Apart from being a shopping day we went to get a new screen for Kelli’s phone. It had a crack on it for a while, and it did affect the workings, but as she didn’t want to get a new one, this was the next best option.

It was repaired in the time we were doing our shopping, which now means there won’t be any moaning and bad language when the thing doesn’t do what it should, that, in itself will be worth the money.

24th September 2024

Not a good day, it rained all day restricting what we could do in the garage. 

The chap turned up for the drawer I repaired, that saved me a trip.

The rest of the time I spent stripping some drawers.

In the evening I discovered that my email was not sending out any messages. It must have happened when I changed my BT password.

I went into my email account and changed the password to match, but it didn’t verify. I checked the web site and followed the instructions but still it would not get past that spinning ball.

By the end of the evening I was frustrated and angry with myself, because I’ve done it before, and fixed it, but I had forgotten,that’s what made it so maddening.

I guess I will have to call someone tomorrow.

23rd September 2024

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.

22nd September 2024

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.

21st September 2024

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.

20th September 2024

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.