Another Lifetime to go

10th July 2023

There was a good bike ride this morning, a good eight miler. We went to the cemetery to water the flowers on Dave’s grave. It’s a cool place his grave is next to a row of mature maple trees, he always liked to be in the shade.

Next stop was Kelli’s mums to plant the daisy plant. A lady from the church had just dug over the patch but she just dug in the crab grass instead of pulling it out, shoddy worker.

Then it was back to finish the dresser.

The pool was calling us, we couldn’t refuse.

After that it was planting our things and a good watering all round.

The AC is working well keeping the house temperature at 67 F which to me feels so cold, but during the winter the heating is set at the same, and that is comfortable, I can’t get my head around that.

9th July 2023

A morning of shopping and a trip to Plato’s Closet for Kelli to sell more stuff.

Whilst we were waiting for the clothes to be sorted we drove to Lowes to see what plants they had to offer. We were looking for ground cover, but they had nothing. Kelli’s mum wanted us to find a daisy plant for her dust bowl. That’s what we managed find, and a couple of colourful ones for our garden.

It’s amazing how quickly time goes when you’re having fun, and although shopping is certainly not my idea of fun.

We wanted to get the dresser we started yesterday primed, and a soak in the pool was a delight.

The bummer was the cantilevered umbrella broke. The cord that runs from the winder must have snapped. I looked on YouTube and found a tutorial on replacing the cord, so a quick look on Amazon to find it, and order. Now I have to wait until Tuesday till it arrives.

8th July 2023

Hurrah! We sold the first furniture of the month. Yes, there is someone out there.

We finally finished the mid century pieces by refinishing the top and fronts in a darker stain.

We took pictures, and Kelli posted it, shortly after there was some activity.

At around seven in the evening two cars turned up, and out jumped a family. Immediately their two girls rushed over and started pulling open the drawers much to their parent’s annoyance.

I had cleaned the inside of the drawers with a beeswax polish, so it smelled good.

The guy tried all the drawers and was happy.

They handed over the money, and with a bit of car moving I helped load the heavy dresser into the back of their vehicle.

That was a huge relief, there were times when we thought the market for refinished furniture was over, and we would die hungry and impoverished, but there is some hope. We still have two pairs of side tables available, and two more dressers to work on.

We had a short bike ride dropping in to see our friends George and Kathy, he is a builder of interesting houses, and often asked me for my opinion over things he’s doing, I think he is being polite, because he has great taste.

Then it was back to the ranch to get some work done.

7th July 2023

We went on a bike ride to Castle Point another private enclave of property close to Lake Michigan. A lot of these are holiday homes or rentals and they go to great lengths to keep them exclusive. At least this doesn’t have a security gate like Point West has, but there is an air of “keeping the riff raff out” that I don’t like.

After that we had to collect two dressers from the north side, these will need a bit of work, but should look good eventually.

We had planned to take pictures of the finished mid century pieces, but Kelli wasn’t happy with the wood colour. It was a pale veneer that a bit too yellowy, so I mixed up some finish with a dark walnut stain to tone it down a bit. Now we’ll wait to see how it dried.

6th July 2023

I had a dental appointment this morning, well I had two, one to clean and the other to remove roots from a tooth that broke off five years ago. I was not looking forward to either of them. Kelli dropped me at the surgery and I made my way into the building. It’s a square box with no interesting features, spec build near a shopping mall. I entered the darkened glass door an greeted by the receptionist, an Asian girl with a nose ring and a silver stud on her cheek. She booked me in and I sat waiting my turn. On the television screen they were showing a typical home improvement program, all glitz and white teeth.

I was called through to have my teeth cleaned.

It was a toughest session I had there, I could feel the tartare being scraped off, I could feel the blood flowing, I was glad when that was over. Next I was led to another room to have the extraction done. There was concern that my blood pressure was higher than they liked, but what I had just experienced it wasn’t surprising. After a few attempts it was low enough for the to proceed, damn it!. I was hoping for a further delay.

What happened next was surreal, the dentist gave me an injection that hit immediately, not the usual fifteen minute, the whole process took less than a minute, including the injection.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“Yep, all done, have a nice day” and he was gone, and so was my tooth fragment.

I spent the rest of the day with a gauze pad in my mouth, but very little pain.

I rested a bit in the afternoon, as I was advised, but managed to cut the front lawn, I’m British, I need to get back to normal quickly.

5th July 2023

Thank goodness that’s over, after a much better night, the day was less daunting.

The sun hit you as soon as you walked through the sunroom, and breakfast on the deck was a delight. The flowers in the boarders look amazing, and if you squint in a particular way the lawn looks lush and healthy.

We took a ride out into the country and as we came back along Southshore we stopped at a pop-up roadside lemonade stall for a drink. It was run by a couple of kids, obviously trying to make a little money, at what they were selling it for would not leave them much profit margin, but I wasn’t going to tell them that now, would I?

There is still a lot of noise from the lake as the traffic is heavy. The deep throbs of the large cruisers and the high pitched scream of the jet skies seem constant, as gallons of precious fuel gets consumed for no real purpose.

Of course it was a pool day, the water was just the right temperature, so no sudden shock getting in.

I had to ride to the corner store for a couple of things including bread made from almond flour. This is supposed to be much healthier than bread made from American flour, which is supposed to be the most contaminated on the planet. I rode back home eager to have some for breakfast. When Kelli opened the packet the bread was covered in mould. This is not the first time it had happened, but we thought the store would have cleaned out the old stock and replaced it.

I quickly rode back and told an assistant of the problem. I selected another pack, but this time I checked it, and sure enough that was mouldy too.

Having alerted the manager of the situation, I was forced to pick the bread with a cinnamon flavour, not my favourite, but it contained no mould.

4th July Tuesday

Another bad night, I really don’t understand what is happening, this is the forth disturbed night in a row. Nothing seems to work, even though it was after midnight when we went to bed she couldn’t settle, and became more agitated because she couldn’t get to sleep.

This is how it went on until either I drifted off or she did, but we had a total of about four hours, certainly not enough for her. It did however set the tone for the day, but we did get a bike ride in, and we collected some strimmer spools for a house in the next road. An interesting lady with a broad Chicago accent and an interesting garden which she enjoyed showing us around.

I managed to go in the pool to cool off, but not Kelli, she was in a huff over something I said, and was making it known that she wasn’t happy. I did what I alway do in situations like this, try to stay out of her way, which infuriates her even more, so I can’t win whatever I do.

The tension eased by the evening, although there was plenty of noise around reminding us of the holiday. These went on longer than permitted ( there’s a surprise), but gradually they petered out leaving us to try to get a better nights sleep.

3rd July 2023

Well the run of bad nights continue.

The previous day resolved itself up to a point, however staying up later did not make it easier to sleep. I don’t understand.

During the day we completed another pair of side tables and Kelli repainted the other set in a safer white colour. There has not been much activity on Marketplace, usually these sell quickly.

I started finishing the mid century dresser unit drawers, hoping that this piece will get interest.

It was a warm day and we managed to get some pool time, but no bike rides.

In the evening there was plenty of fireworks going off all around us, it was like a war zone.

Apparently the day before Independence Day is firework night, as most people have to go back to work after the fourth, so all hell breaks loose.

The family across the road had a display that was quite impressive. There were the weak and feeble ones for the young children and the spectacular loud ones for the grown ups. We walked down the driveway to watch, which was a momentous effort for Kelli who usually sits on the chair all evening recovering from the hard days work.

Their display went on for ages, they had started mid afternoon, but there must have been some serious money spent.

2nd July 2023

Oh the fireworks, the fireworks on into the night. It’s not just the forth it occurs, it’s every night up to it. It was driving Kelli crazy, she couldn’t get to sleep, but then awaken and couldn’t get back to sleep, it was hell, it’s alway hell. After only five hours sleep, it was hell for the rest of the day. It doesn’t bother me that people let off fireworks, I would do it myself if I had a thousand bucks to set fire to, but for Kelli it is torture. The tension got worse through the day, and if it hadn’t been a rainy day I would have taken off on my bike for some peace and freedom, as it was she took off in the truck, wheels screeching, fuel wasting tempers flaming, then the peace was noticeable,

the dogs noticed it too.

These are difficult times, there is no pattern, other than a few down days, but better days usually follow.

1st July 2023

Phew! It was hot, not pleasant, no sun just humidity, it drains you of moisture and energy, and we had a birthday party to go to.

But first Kelli went shopping with Greer, and I spent time with Dylan.

The party had been marred by a birthday cake issue, both her mother and Cameron had refused to buy their own cake even though it had been a family tradition, after all, I bought my own bloody cake, and half the people failed to turn up and I had to eat most of it myself.

Anyway, that aside, I think Brenda, Matt’s wife made a selection of bakes, so the celebration was saved.