Author: peterb51

15th April 2024

Oh what a sunny day it is, Kelli has a list of places to go, so let’s get started.

Of course we were running late, the clock in the house is running slow, possibly caused by her cramming cotton wool in the back to quiet it down when she had trouble sleeping.

That is still weird to me, electric clocks hardly makes any noise, but she could hear it.

So we were already late. She wanted to go to Plato’s to sell some more of her unworn clothes, but we discovered that Chicago Drive was being dug up, so we had to detour. The trouble with that is everybody has to do the same thing.

A side note, earlier as we drove through town, I noticed this young kid, he looked about twelve, driving a flashy Lexus. I remarked that he must have stolen it, or was a trainee pimp or drug dealer. At that point, Kelli accused me of being a horrible person for making those accusations.

I replied that I’m British, and that’s what we do.

Normally young kids drive cars that look they’ve been in a war zone, and if they don’t have any dents or scratches they will hit a tree so they don’t stand out.

Anyway, because we had to join a long queue on the detour, I noticed this kid in the car in front of us again, I started up the tirade again, which killed a bit of the time we’re were stuck in the queue. Kelli was not impressed because it was now too late to get to Plato’s. She decided to drive straight to her doctors appointment which was the next thing on her list.

We arrived five minutes late, but it didn’t stop him giving her the rough treatment. I find it quite relaxing to watch someone else getting manipulated.

Once that was over we drove, yet again to Hudsonville to collect, from the same house, another piece of free furniture, at this rate we’ll have everything in their house.

It was a heavy bugger, but Kelli had a plan. She had been asked by a customer if we had, or could find a tall dresser, well this was that, hopefully it will be acceptable.

We then drove back to Plato’s for Kelli to deposit her clothes whilst I went for a coffee.

With little of her stuff selected we then drove to HR Block to sort out her tax return.

What a dull place full of dull people doing a dull job, I was glad to get out of there. They used Action office in the most unimaginable way, but that was par for the course.

14th April 2024

Kelli had an awful night, she suspected it was an allergy attack brought on by dust from a dresser she was painting. She spent most of the night sneezing and blowing her nose. It made it difficult to function properly during the day.

But one good news was we sold the long dresser. We have a total of two more being worked on, and then she found a third that we had to collect.

The commissioned piece is coming along, I drilled the holes for the shelves with just the top to stain and finish.

It was a glorious day, the sun was shining and I had to abandon my coat.

There was bad news from Matt, Kelli’s brother, they had to have their small yorkie/ schnauzer put down. He used to be the entertainment at the family get togethers, all it wanted to do was chase after a tennis ball and bring it back, dropping it at your feet wanting to do it all over again. At times it was bloody annoying, so I tried to throw it to places where the little bugger would have difficulty finding, but I failed every time.

So future get togethers will be quieter, but the tennis ball will remain as a testament to Mr Mick.

13th April 2024

It was the time of year to give the front lawn its first treatment of organic growth solution.

I have followed the same course for a few years, and I’m not really sure it makes a vast difference.

Why would I continue? I hear you say, I guess I alway wanted a good lawn, and at the start of the season it looks its best, as the seasons progress it gets to look a bit tired, and that is where it needs a boost.

Most of the other properties around have regular treatment from the many landscape businesses that are around, but they use toxic chemicals that are not safe for anyone, in fact they have to post signs warning people to keep off.

Our place is a haven for all creatures large and small, the autumn leaves are heaped on the beds as a place for bugs to live through the winter. The downside is the place looks untidy, but I am assured that as soon as the temperature stays in the fifties for a week or so the big clean up can begin.

12th April 2024

The saga of the tape continues. We picked up the tape player, but we were warned that it didn’t work.

They were right, it didn’t. I suspected it was the belt, they usually stretch and not elastic any more, so we are no closer to finding out what is on it.

We drove back up to Hudsonville this time to collect some outdoor furniture for our deck. There was a table and three chairs, we don’t have many people coming over, so three is just fine for us.

Once back we did more work to the mid century dresser, trying hard to salvage something.

We had a near miss road rage incident when an old guy ignored a stop sign, luckily Kelli slammed on the brakes, but there was a lot of hand gestures and heated language. I was more concerned that he might have a 357 magnum in his glove box, you can’t be sure in this country.

11th April 2024

What’s on the tape? This has been nagging away at us since we found it. Kelli had the brainwave to go on the local buy nothing web page asking if anyone has a micro cassette player that we could borrow, and someone replied. So tomorrow our curiosity will be satisfied, stay tuned.

The other feature of the day was going to the Chick-Owa Sportsman club meeting to collect my membership card. It started at 8.00pm so too late for Kelli to come along, so I had to go alone. The weather was pretty foul, making the journey a bit challenging, but the GPS got me there on time.

The main meeting was just ending, so once that finished, the new recruits took their seats. Looking around, they all looked like a bunch of bearded psychopathic killers, I felt a little uncomfortable as I was clean shaven virgin.

I positioned my chair close to the door in case the bullets started flying.

We had to sit through a long video presentation of the club rules and safety regulations, with a short test afterwards, of course I passed with flying colours as I was one of the few that had a pen, most of the others only had knives or pointed sticks. Once that was over, I collected my membership card and I was out of there swiftly.

We had to take Dharma back to the vets to get fitted for a cone of shame. The wound that she had on her jaw had opened up because she must had scratched it. It is entertaining to watch her stumble around trying to navigate her way through gaps in furniture or doorways. At dinner times she pushed her bowl around the room with out being able to get any food, by the end of the day she managed to work that out.

10th April 2024

Sometime we find a piece of furniture that surprises us and leaves us intrigued.

We had a lot to do today, we delivered the refinished table, which I forgot to take pictures of, then drove to Byron Center to collect a free mid century style dresser. This had seen better days and judging by the paint job had wished for death.

But that’s what we do, we are professional turd polishers. We loaded it into the truck and drove back to Holland to do our shopping.

Eventually we got back home, and once all the things were put away we dragged out the dresser we finished yesterday and took pictures.

Whilst we had lunch Kelli posted it.

We dragged the turquoise coloured ruin out of the truck, we had taken out the drawers when we loaded it to make it a bit more manageable. As we were manhandling it on to a trolley Kelli noticed something stuck on the underside of the top. She picked away some sticky putty and found a mini tape cassette, the type used on a dictaphone. That set our imagination a light, who would hide a tape in a dresser? Was there a secret recording that could shake the world? We didn’t know because we don’t have anything to play it on. So now we have a new mission to find a player.

9th April 2024

It’s Kelli’s birthday, so decisions had to be made where we were going to celebrating it.

She decided on The Butler in Saugatuck, home of the Butler burger. The same place when I celebrated my birthday.

We had good news the we had sold the bakers table. There had been a number of interested parties so the first with the money in their hand won the day.

Close to midday an older lady turned up, and a few minutes later her husband arrived in a van.

He didn’t look too thrilled to be here, he thrust the money in my hand without saying a word.

They had bought from us before, but it was the first time for lady to meet us.

Whereas her husband who didn’t say a thing, she made up for it.

She told us all of her medical history including her stomach cancer, and the operation that removed most of her intestines, I was beginning to to feel quite woozy after a while. By the time she got on to her breast cancer, I was nearly gone. By the end there can’t have been much of the person left, but she was jolly about it.

Kelli managed to finish painting the long dresser and with the new handles fitted it looked quite good, I have to oil the top tomorrow.

We stopped off at the vets to collect some antibiotic tablets for Dharma who suffered a bite to the jaw from Phoebe on Sunday( they have a go at each other occasionally) but it became a absyss and needed treatment. It was a treat that the cost for the pills was quite modest compared to a surgery visit.

Then it was on to The Butler for dinner. There is always a disadvantage to eating early in the evening, loads of old people and kids.

We were seated at a good table next to a window looking out over the water, but next to us was a crying child who didn’t want to be there. It was tired and grisly all the time. We asked the waitress if there was a quieter place. We were seated in an alcove where the noise was less. However not long afterwards the grisly child and its mother paid the bill and left, much to the relief of the establishment.

We both enjoyed our meal, and were back home by six thirty, it felt like “ did we go out?”

8th April 2024

It is the start of another week, more scraping and sanding to come.

I made a start on stripping the top of the buffet we collected on Saturday. That was hard, it was the kind I hated the most, the finish was bulletproof. It took ages to strip, but underneath was a solid cherry top. That was the motivation to keep going, gradually exposing more of this beautiful timber.

Kelli was keen to get the other long dresser primed by the end of the day.

It was a wonderful day, the eclipse was supposed to happen in the early part of the afternoon. We didn’t have anything suitable to view it, but the light became strange, inside the house it was dark, and the bird began flying around quite erratically. I have to admit I’m not as fanatic as some people, it happens, as it should do at different times in a lifetimes, but it can happen without me getting excited about it.

As it happens Michigan was not in its totality path which explained why things didn’t go really dark, oh well back to the scraping.

We also found time to take pictures of the latest long dresser.

7th April 2024

The only things we were planning to do was prepare for Kelli’s birthday cake party.

Although her birthday was not until Tuesday, it seemed a good day to do it.

We took pictures of the bakers table and the old cabinet that we used to house the Audio Units.

Then it was cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning.

Kelli was making her own cake that had fruit on the top. It was a restful day, up until the family arrived. I was on server duty, making the coffee and cutting the cake. With mathematical precision I decided the cake making sure that my piece was larger than the others, I think I got away with that one.

Throughout the afternoon my cough was getting worse, it had gone on to my chest, I was sounding like an old smoker.

We managed to get some medicine from Deb our friend who lives nearby, so I’m hoping it will work. Kelli also hopes it works otherwise I’ll be spending the night on the sofa again.

6th April 2024

A customer arrived to collect the long dresser that we finished a couple of days ago, as we were making breakfast. Talk about unprepared, I hastily watered my hair to prevent scarring them off, and throwing on any shoes I could find.

I got out just in time to help load it into their truck, all the time I was thinking how hungry I was.

As they disappeared down the street we rushed in to finish the cooking.

Then we had to return to Hudsonville to collect another free piece from the person we just collected the long oak dresser from.

This time it was the bottom part of a display unit.

We didn’t want the top part, and there was no way it would fit in the truck.

As we were driving back I heard the words that I dread from my wife “ I have an idea”.

This could be the best thing or the worst for the day, so gripping the seat firmly, I waited for the words to spill out.

In essence it wasn’t a bad idea, she wanted to keep the piece we finished yesterday and reconfigure the living space, getting rid of two pieces we have currently and replace it with the new one. That meant that whatever we were planning to do in the afternoon was dropped, replaced with moving stuff around.

All the stereo units had to be unplugged, cleaned and reinstalled in the new piece, not a simple task, as there are a few different devices attached converting digital to analog. With some careful labelling it all went together and worked. No one was more surprised than I.

We then had an enquiry about the piece we had just placed in our living space, it was just what they wanted.

Kelli had to tell them it was no longer available, but added that we had a piece that we could repurpose for them.

The casting of that line hooked them, so they came round to check it out.

We explained what we could do, and they were happy with the idea. It happened that they had bought a dresser a few weeks ago, so they wanted it to match the colour of that one.

It all worked out perfectly, and with a deposit in our hands our work schedule for next week was all planned out.