Another Lifetime to go

31st January 2023

We delivered the five drawer dresser to the lady who lived close by. I ran over the driveway with the snow blower to clear the inch of snow that fell overnight. I feel that the expense was worthwhile, what other appliances give you a snow shower?

We had to remove the round dining table from the truck, there’s a lot of scraping ahead on this piece.

I finished painting the prototype door and drawer front and was looking forward to starting the assembly process.

I started on the drawer front. I had stamped a character on each piece of the six pieces, from a to f.

As I loaded each one in the assembly jig placing a spacer in between each part.

When I got to piece ‘e’ there was none left.

Where was piece ‘f’?

I’ll tell you where it was, on the bloody bench unpainted.

For some reason it was mixed with some off-cuts of the same timber.

Now I have to prime it, then fill the spray gun with paint just to paint a six inch piece of wood.

What a dickhead!

Kelli managed to sell the rug today, at a vastly reduced price, someone got a real barging on that one.

30th January 2023

Another two inches of snow fell overnight, a chance for me to use the snow blower again.

“ You don’t need to do it, but wait, it’s your new toy, so go ahead” Kelli smiled.

I didn’t need any excuse, I was out there getting covered again but we did have a cleaned driveway.

We finished the dresser that was already sold, the last thing was to fit the top. I had to remove the top drawer, and noticed the handle was loose. Grabbing a screwdriver, I attempted to tighten the screws, suddenly one went loose, I knew immediately what had happened, the screw had sheared.

Now I had to somehow remove the bit of screw buried in the front. Kelli was pissed that I had fiddled with it in the first place, but you can’t have a loose handle.

I spent a bit of time digging around using any kind of tool I could find to extract the offending article.

Eventually I managed to remove it, I then had to plug the enlarged hole and refit the handle.

We managed to paint the back sides of the prototype door and drawer front, the first time that we’ve seen the colour in a large area.

29th January 2023

I plugged in the two batteries into the snow blower and started to clear the driveway.

About ten inches had fallen overnight, so I wasn’t sure how it would cope. The last time I used it on thick snow it would stop if I was trying to push too much stuff through the blades.

This time, as it was fresh it coped well, and I didn’t get covered in spray, well not much.

In a relatively short time I had cleared everything up to the road, including the drift that the snow plough had piled up at the entrance. It took three sets of batteries to complete the task, and as I have several appliances of same brand with the same battery packs I wasn’t left in the lurch.

We then went for a family lunch with Georgia. It was a full house the usual banter that I don’t often understand.

We took the dogs for a walk, gosh, the temperature had dropped, we got halfway round our route, then regretted it all the way back.

It was so cold our eyes froze, not a pleasant experience.

28th January 2023

Not much furniture work today apart from taking pictures of the pair of matching side tables.

We were due to drive to Allendale to do some work at Greer and Dylan’s place. They had doors that wouldn’t stay closed and a towel rail that needed fitting.

The door problem was solved by lowering the strike plate half a hole, and the towel holder was a couple of screws and the job was done.

Whilst this was happening Kelli and Greer went to the local Goodwill to do even more scavenging.

We then had a late lunch/ early dinner at local pub restaurant, I made the mistake of having Mac and cheese with added peppers, damn they were hot.

The drive back was a bit precarious because it had been snowing most of the day and the gritters hadn’t been out, so the roads were white.

As soon as we got back I retrieved the snow blower from the shed, yippee! Another chance to get doused in snow tomorrow.

27th January 2023

I had some time to myself this afternoon as Kelli met up with Greer for some time together.

I was able to blast out my old gits music without any complaints.

I had some drawers to repair, and was able to work on the prototype kitchen doors that I have been desperate to get on with.

The girls went to the Goodwill in Zeeland, and Kelli came back with a large rug. When we unwrapped it, it was 100% wool and in excellent condition.

After going on Google we found that it retailed at over five hundred dollars, not bad for a ten dollar investment.

Needless to say we took pictures and Kelli posted it straight away to catch the Friday night shoppers.

26th January 2023

The city man took the lid from our wheely bin that was detached last week, with the rubbish this morning, Kelli will have to call the office and order a new bin soon, or it will fill up with snow.

Talking of which, it snowed most of the day, very picturesque, but cold.

We finally sold the dresser that we altered to a couple who traveled over an hour to collect, that’s dedication for you.

We started work on the five drawer dresser, repairing drawers, stripping tops and priming the carcass, that needs to be out next week.

We went out to dinner with Scott and Karen, neighbours from up the road. This was the first time, although Scott often stopped in for a chat and sometimes to give me some veneer or old stuff he had in his garage.

We went to a place I’d never heard of called Salt and Pepper, a sort of pub and restaurant.

The only table we could get was at 4.45pm often reserved for old Dutch people who like to be home in bed by 6.00pm.

When you walked into the place, the lighting was so dim, you forgot what time it was.

On our new eating regime , we shared the main course, which was salmon on a Parmesan Reggiano risotto. When it arrived I thought “ do we have to share this?”it looked so small, fortunately the server handed me another identical serving, thank god, otherwise I would have eaten the tablecloth.

25th January 2023

Bugger! It’s snowing again. The forecast is for the stuff to fall all day, and pretty much all next week, snow blower weather I expect.

We drove to Hudsonville to collect a five drawer dresser that Kelli had already sold and got a deposit on, which is just the motivation we need.

On the way back we stopped off at Goodwill on the north side. Kelli, of course was drawn towards the clothing whilst I walked around the furniture part. There was not a lot of stuff, anything good would have been snapped up by the early birds who hang around at opening time and who rush in like their arses are on fire.

Needless to say there was nothing worth buying.

I walked up and down the isles killing time, there is only so much excitement one can endure looking at glasses and cookware.

I could see her arms were full of items, so I found a trolly and it was soon full.

I looked through the CDs doing what I usually do, that is seeing anyone I have heard of, but this time I moved the few I recognised to the end of the shelf.

As Kelli decided that she wanted to try on the five pairs of jeans she had in the cart. I moved my attention to moving all the discs by the same artist and group them all together, I didn’t realise Kenny G had so many albums. I could have stayed there all day maybe putting them in alphabetical order, but Kelli was at the checkout, time for me to leave.

She had whittled down the jeans that fitted, so once they were paid for we drove back, because we had a dresser to start.

At the end of our day we took the dogs up the road to look at the house that is being built.

Often we see the wild turkeys strutting their stuff between the houses, but this time there was no sign of them. The reason was they were all sitting in the trees. I have never seen these birds flying, they don’t look very aerodynamic, but there they were like black vampires gripping the branches getting ready for the night.

24th January 2023

Another sleepless night and a miserable day, I’m getting concerned because there is one every week now.

As I have written, there is no pattern to this every woman is different, its like a creaky boat in the stormy sea, I hope it holds together.

I’m not sure Kelli’s condition can be cured with supplements alone, she is on so many that are supposed to help the hormonal balance as well as the ongoing adrenal treatment.

The mood continued on all day, I was not in a good position myself, I know it will resolve itself, but it’s hard to accept, and deal with sometimes.

I took refuge in the garage, I wanted to make plenty of noise.

I did all the machining on the table leg then set in a new piece of oak, that will be a strong repair.

I then prepared two tops for a pair of side tables that we modified from an old desk, the old favourite conversion. I managed to get a dark stain on it to dry overnight.

23rd January 2023

The day started with a visit to the vet so that Dhama could give a blood sample. Because she had been on anti inflammatory tablets so long they wanted to check that it hadn’t damaged her liver, so a quick hundred bucks and we were out.

Next stop was an address on the north side to pick up a tall and thin bookcase.

We arrived at an apartment complex, we had the block number but not the door number.

After waiting a few moments, Kelli sent her a message, a few more minutes, then a call, no answer, a few more minutes then we turned round and left.

It was another cold day, there was overnight snow on the ground, and the thought of going into the garage was not very appealing.

The person who wanted the dresser messaged this morning with a lame excuse for not being able to arrange transport. Kelli responded to say that we could deliver, then there was silence.

That was the signal for me to modify the bottom part, removing some of the detail.

That took a little while to do, then making good ready for painting.

I had a project to do that required getting out the big router.

I had repaired part of a leg section from a large round dining table that we picked up for free at the end of last year.

The plan was to machine out a pocket from the damaged area and set in a new piece of oak to strengthen the repair.

What I wanted to do was put guide blocks at each edge of the leg so I could guide the router and produce the pocket.

With the aid of some wood scraps and clamps I managed to made a decent job of it ready for the machine operation tomorrow.

Kelli drove off to collect a side table being offered for free, when she got there no one came to the door, a familiar situation.

She then drove back empty handed.

After some texting, the person agreed to deliver it to us, which she did.

The piece was a Stickley, quite a good name in these parts, this should be easy to sell on.

We lady who bought the small table turned up, both her and Kelli recognised each other from a long time back, funny how that happens.

22nd January 2023

It wasn’t the best of nights, but Kelli held it together and finally slept till nine o clock.

We saw the snow outside and groaned, it wasn’t thick, just a sprinkle, so not so bad.

We had our modest breakfast, watched some network news excerpts on YouTube, and planned what we were going to tackle today.

Kelli was concerned that the latest dresser wasn’t getting much attention. “ It’s too thirties looking” she announced, “ could you cut the bottom section off and make it a bit more squarish?”

It had been a couple of days since it was posted, a bit short in my opinion, but she has been proved right on many occasions.

I dressed for warmth and went out into the garage. I had to attach the top to the dresser, and viewed the potential modification.

I noted that one of the drawer runners was a bit worn, so I needed to repair or replace that one.

We had finished the small side table that a neighbour had found on the side of the road, it looks a lot different now.

I fixed the top to the leg frame and attached the shelf, then polished the drawer handle till the brass plate shone.

We weren’t going to get much for it, but it would be off our stock list, and someone would like it.

Sure enough before the digital ink was dry on the post, it was sold, maybe we should have asked more.

Just as I was going to modify the dresser, we had an inquiry, was it legitimate? She wanted to collect on Thursday, that would work, and save me a job.