Another Lifetime to go

1st January 2023

The new year has begun, what are my expectations? It is usual for me to reflect on my past, but my perspective is now on my future.

I am constantly aware of celebrities that I have grown up with who are no longer with us, but that does not drive me into despair.

I am optimistic about my life, I have made changes in my mental state as well as my diet.

Every night, before we go to sleep Kelli lists out her positives for the day. It has been good for her repair, and it’s good for me also because we share the same journey.

It is alway important to have purpose, I can never exist without something to do. I have an ever growing list of jobs I want to do, and I’ll be reluctant to fail at everyone.

I am looking forward to travelling back to the UK to finish jobs on the cottage that have been suspended since I was there last.

There is also continuing work on the garden here as well as the furniture, so my life is full and I love every bit of it.

This is also the year that Kelli finally shakes off the shadow that has been cast over her for the past two years. She has acquired so many new tools to help with this.

Good health starts with the belief that our bodies can heal themselves, and that medication only masks the problem. Understanding this will ultimately lead to her full recovery, I will keep you posted.

So the year starts with the collection of a small cabinet. We had two attempts to get the thing. The first time the guy was in the bathroom, and he messaged as we were driving home. A quick about-turn and we were back.

The piece was solid and painted red with a walnut stained top. Kelli already has ideas for what it will become.

31st December 2022

There was a lot of activity in the garage today.

Two pieces of furniture were collected. They had already been paid for, but with all the disruption due to the weather and Christmas, we had to store them. There is always the fear of damaging or getting paint splashed on them.

We are always pleasantly surprised by our customers, and how friendly and nice they are. It’s amazing how much you can find out about people in such a short time.

Suddenly they have gone, and we have space.

We are making good progress on the island, one coat of black paint has been applied, and it is looking good.

Kelli has been working on the small dining table, stripping the top to bare wood and applying sealer.

It was barely dry when we carried it outside to take pictures.

I packed the snowblower into the shed, I expect that we will get more snow during January so the batteries will be fully charged.

We finished a hectic day by taking the hounds around the lagoon.

30th December 2022

A customer for the bureau came to collect it.

It had been on for a couple of days, just long enough for Kelli to have doubts about the colour. I alway tried to reassure her to wait a little while longer, someone out there will want it. However anytime the same situation arises, and she repaint the piece, it always sells the next day.

So it was fortunate that the buyer came forward before the repaint happened.

First thing we delivered the French provincial style dresser to a local address, it was an older house with original wood floors, the buyer was happy with her purchase, that was good as we had been storing it for her for a couple of weeks.

We continued work on the kitchen island, that has to be finished soon as four chairs to be stripped and refinished arrive on Monday.

29th December 2022

It was over fifty degrees today, the snow was disappearing before my eyes.

I unloaded the table and chairs so that Kelli had something to work on whilst I got on with making the trim pieces for the kitchen island.

With the snow gone from the truck I could see just how dirty it was, I felt ashamed to be driving it. I had to go to Menards for some timber, and the truck was the dirtiest in the car park. I passed the place where the new storage units are bing built, there’s a lot of timber used, must be a whole forest, it will soon be clad in steel and full of people’s crap.

We decided to go for a meal out this evening, we invited Mike and Lesley to come along. I brought a puzzle that I had been sent from Ryan and Louis’s in our Christmas parcel. The puzzle is called “Pyramid Power Puzzle” and it contains six rows of wooden shaped balls.

The aim is to construct a three sided pyramid.

There are no instructions or at least what the answer is, so it’s left to the creative instincts of the players, mmm, not much hope then.

28th December 2022

Kelli had decided that we need more tables.

I disagreed, but she found a free oak circular table with a broken base, but it meant driving to Hudsonville to collect. On top of that she found a small dining table and two chairs. I wasn’t sure if we could get everything in the truck.

We were to meet the person giving away the table at a dental surgery. The GPS led us on a merry chase, but eventually got there. The table top was heavy, and it came with two extension leaves. The base looked sad with one of the radial legs broken along a join under the timber, the result of being mishandled during a move. This will be an interesting repair.

The second pick-up was at a mobile home park. Usually this doesn’t fill me with much hope, but the furniture was okay. The style was more contemporary with a steel tubular frame and simple table top, the matching chairs had bland seat cushions, that could be better with a more colourful fabric.

The snow had started to thaw, more ugliness get revealed as the white blanket recedes. That’s the big shame, snow levels everything, the white landscape with the tree branches against a grey sky is a world in black and white.

27th December 2022

This is the long, slow, run up to the end of the year. The morning news is just a hash up of the same old stuff. What trump is doing saying, what “experts” expect will happen, and more transcripts released of other witnesses.

The amount of paperwork is tremendous, every word spoken is written down, It would take the rest of my life to read it all, personally I have better things to do.

We finished the bureau and dragged it into the house to take pictures, it turned out good, I hope the punters out there think the same.

I also started work on the kitchen island, each carcass is held together with hot melt.

I removed the old kick panels with the minimum of damage. I did apply more coats of sealer to the back panel in an effort to get a smooth surface to paint.

The temperature is supposed to rise this week that should thaw some of the snow, but it takes much longer to totally disappear than in the UK.

It’s a drag that I only got to use my snowblower twice, but there is still January to get through.

26th December 2022

We noticed the we hadn’t seen Larry for a while, his car hadn’t moved for days. Kelli gave him a call, eventually he called back.

He explained that he had been in hospital for the week before Christmas with a lung infection. We felt bad that we hadn’t known, and concerned that he was on his own during this cold period.

As we had to go out, we agreed to buy some food for him.

We were due to collect three kitchen units from a lady on the north side, and repaint them.

She wanted them to be used to form an island, in her kitchen.

I had given her a quote, including some extra trim to make it all look more realistic.

We stopped off at Menards to buy some supplies and then to the corner shop, close to home to get things for Larry.

We ended buying him a small roast chicken and some potato salad, not much, but it will get something hot inside him.

We took it over to his house, when he opened the door, he looked ragged and thin, and was overjoyed to get the food.

Kelli had talked to his neighbour, telling them of her concerns and they said they would keep a check on him.

25th Christmas 2022

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” and one was truly here. A constant sprinkling of flakes fell all day which was very impressive to the folks from England that we had FaceTime with.

Kelli was busy making the food, a wonderful baked salmon with paprika coating, baked red skinned potatoes and a vegetable bake.

It was quite a logistical challenge to get everything into the truck for the short drive to Kelli’s mum’s house.

One by one everyone arrived, all sniffing with colds, so a bloody healthy place to be.

The meal was great, unfortunately I had to share my wine which hurt a bit, but I had the largest glass.

The grand opening of presents began.

We had done ours much earlier, I had given Kelli a teddy bear that was identical to one she had as a child, it was a great moment, although she had actually found one on eBay, I just bought it and hid it for a couple of months.

The pile of discarded wrapping paper grew as the family members opened their gifts. I don’t usually expect to get much, and I wasn’t disappointed, I did get a bottle of wine from Cameron, and as a shared present we got a water filter jug from Kelli’s mum, the third time we’ve had one from her. We feigned surprise and delight, inside we were saying “oh no not again”. Kelli was also given a cheese grater, but one on an industrial scale, large enough to shred an entire cheese.

Back home we settled in for a quiet evening, the day was over for another year.

24th December 2022

It’s Christmas Eve and all is well. It snowed all day, but we didn’t care, we weren’t going anywhere.

Work continued on the bureau. I put sealer on the newly exposed maple, and Kelli put the first coat of paint on the carcass.

I did my usual thing of wrapping presents last minute, and placed them under the tree.

Not much traffic went past, not even the postman dared to be out.

23rd December 2022

There was about ten inches of snow up against the sunroom door. The wind had whipped most of the downfall turning it into blizzard conditions.

The result was the sliding door had frozen, the poor dogs were running round desperate for a piss. I rushed out into the garage to find the heat gun. A short burst of hot air was enough to free up the door, the dogs rushed out to do their business.

They didn’t want to stay out very long, they both arrived at the door waiting to be let in. I guess if my bare arse had sat on the snow, I would have had the same reaction.

I had some sanding to do on the writing bureau.

I manage to reclaim the original maple to and drop-down writing surface, and the inside shelf before my finger started to ache.

I had gone all day without trying my snow blower, I couldn’t wait any longer.

I fitted in the batteries and opened the garage door, the machine burst into life.

I ventured out into the bleak tundra, the machine was spitting the settled snow to the left of me. I quickly learnt that the depth of snow was too deep, so I had to take it in small chunks. I also didn’t take into account the wind.

I was trundling up the driveway, but as I got near the end, the wind caught the snow spray and thrust it straight back at me, I was now a snow man. Undeterred, I kept going, making progress and continuing to get covered. It was a good job it was dark, I didn’t relish the thought of being the neighbourhood idiot, although it gave Kelli a good laugh.