Another Lifetime to go

22nd November 2022

Well at least we could have the garage door open, it was sunny, but still cold round the kneecaps.

I did more work on the warped drawer front by setting in some strips of oak to help stiffen it up, not sure if it will do anything, but we’ll see.

Kelli finished painting the low entertainment unit, and she even dragged out an old chair and painted it orange. She likes the idea of have odd style chairs in different colours around the dining table, so this was a quick project to give us an extra seat at Thanksgiving. This is at odds with my style, I like things to match especially classic style furniture.

We had to get more drugs for Dhama, we had run out of the anti inflammatory tablets, and she was reluctant to get out of her basket.

We stopped off at the corner shop to get a few things and a bottle of red for my Thanksgiving sedation, it makes me less prone to talk about Trump, which would be the best way to cut short any family gathering, maybe I’ll do it anyway.

21st November 2022

With the temperature rising slightly, the snow would start to thaw this week.

Kelli didn’t have a very good night, my breathing disturbed her sleep, which in turn disturbed my sleep. This put us in good stead for a great day.

Kelli had a doctors appointment in the morning so another opportunity to sell more clothes at Plato’s Closet.

This wasn’t so profitable as she thought, maybe they have sufficient stock to last through the winter.

I was dropped off at Starbucks whilst she went back to collect the items they didn’t take, and look around to see if there were any future returns.

It had been a while since I had been inside, there was an inner thrill of being on my own, and time to catch up on the world news.

Then it was time to get back to the garage and work on the outstanding projects.

The misshapen drawer front was still a challenge and I had ideas to relieve any tension in the wood. I machined a deep groove along the line of the worst part, this allowed me to clamp it flat, ready for the next stage.

Kelli was busy on a low entertainment unit, but she wasn’t happy with the top, and stormed off in a huff, I took a look, and did a bit more intense sanding to get it in a better condition to paint.

20th November 2022

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, yes, it is my birthday.

I got a new pair of slippers, which I really wanted, they replaced some slip-ons that made me shuffle about like an old fart. Now I have a pair that supports the heel, the arches and the toes, a real pair of grand touring slippers. I had FaceTime with both my sons and their families, and a string of birthday wishes from loads of people, some I hadn’t even heard of.

I managed to polish up the dining table ready to be collected.

The couple arrived eager to see their table, and they were delighted how it turned out.

That is alway a relief for me, although I always aim to do the best job possible you never really know what the customer expects.

We loaded it into their truck making sure there was nothing on the blanket that could do any damage. They sent back a picture later of the table in its place, and it looked good. Next will be the chairs once Thanksgiving is over.

Then we drove to Grand Rapids for my birthday dinner. We were joined by our English friends Mike and Lesley who introduced us to this fabulous Indian restaurant PInd. The last time we were there was pre Covid, and this was significant because this would be the first time Kelli had diner out since her health issues started. She did great, she drove us there and back, and had a tasty meal.

We got home a little later than she usually crashed out for the evening, but she survived, and that should boost her confidence a lot.

19th November 2022

One last push at Greer and Dylan’s new home, and braving the swirling snow storm to get there. I had to repair a internal barn door (the sliding kind) that had fallen apart, the good example of crap workmanship I had to deal with. I needed to get a few things, luckily there was a hardware store close by.

As I walked to the truck, I noted that next to the mobile home that I suggested be burnt to the ground, because it looked tatty, was a truck with its engine running, inside there were three people. I didn’t take that much notice, and headed off to get my materials. About twenty minutes later, when I retuned, the truck was still there. The engine was still running and the three occupants were still inside. I could only imagine that it must be some form of entertainment, or to keep warm. I don’t think they went anywhere because the truck was in the same place.

Not long after I returned the three people got out, the engine was turned off, and they all went back inside the tatty dwelling.

I managed to mount a stuffed deer head on the wall that apparently was shot by Dave in his younger days. He paid $140 to have it mounted back in the eighties, that was a lot of money in those days. I can’t imaging Dave shooting anything that stood still yet alone a wild animal, unless it had died of old age.

This was not the most pleasant job I had to do.

The other was hanging a shelf unit on the wall. With all that done we headed back through another snow storm which is far more scary at night, but with Kelli’s safe hands on the wheel, we made it back without incident.

18th November 2022

The amount of snow certainly caught me out, I had plans to get a cordless snow blower but I haven’t done it in time.

I had the job of clearing the drive using the push shovel and it nearly killed me.

The problem is the concrete slabs what the drive is made up with are at slightly different levels, so when I’m pushing the shovel hard, when it hits the next slab it stops, suddenly.

But I did the first clearing of the year, gasping for breath at the end. Snow always looks nice when it’s freshly laid, but give it a day or so it freezes and can be a harder to remove. The secret is to sweep it as it falls, get a snow blower, hire a man with a snow blower to do it for you.

We had a road trip today, first we stopped off at a shoe repair shop where Kelli wanted an old pair of warm boots repaired. There was a tear in the suede upper that she had tried to fix herself. These were long overdue to be chucked out, but she loved them because they were warm and comfortable and wanted to keep them.

The store where the shoe repair man had his shop was within a larger place that sold vacuum cleaners. To one side was a counter where the repair man worked, as we walked up we could see a red Trump sign. The date of 2020 had been crossed out, and 2024 was written over in a black marker.

As the details of the repair was being discussed Kelli made some remark about the amount of shoes he had stacked up for repair.

He explained that he did have three people working for him in the past, but one by one they left. Kelli then remarked “was it that they saw your sign?” This fell on stony ground but I thought it was cheeky and laughed.

We then drove to Goodwill, and found a few items that would be sold, and a couple of furniture items, a low cabinet with glass doors finished in a sparkling gold, yuck!

Then it was round to Kelli’s mother to pick up a mid century dresser to work on. It was not in particularly good shape, one of the drawer fronts had warped badly which will give me some head scratching, which I need to do quickly because it might already be sold.

Nothing like a bit of pressure to keep the blood moving.

17th November 2022

We carried the latest dresser into the living area to take pictures. It is a mid century style piece with walnut veneer drawer fronts and oak drawer bodies, so well made furniture.

I had to machine up two tops for the side tables that have been waiting for me to work on. The material that I hoped to use, made by cutting down the desk top, didn’t work, so I had bought a panel of glued up pine. I covered the dining table that I had been working on to keep it clean, and set about cutting the tops and machining a edge profile.

It had snowed most of the day, just the fine stuff that doesn’t settle very much, but the sky is dark and foreboding.

The news is full of Trump’s bid to become President again, I know there are people out there who can’t wait, but what the heck.

The man has so many potential indictments for criminal activity against him, plus he is such a big bully, I can’t believe they will let him run.

Well that’s modern America for you, heading down the shitter.

16th November 2022

Another early awakening with the city boys and their beep beep machine, that again didn’t go down well with Kelli.

We drove up to Allendale to do what we didn’t do yesterday.

I spent four hours laying carpet tiles, why should that tire me out? But it did. I expect that a lack of sleep didn’t help.

There was a lot of cutting, and trying to place the tiles in the order that he wanted was hard.

However I did get it finished, although Dylan’s choice of colours and pattern left a lot to be desired, and would make most interior designers give up and get a job at a checkout.

Driving back through a snowstorm was interesting, this is the first time since I’ve lived here that it has snowed this much in November, hopefully this might mean a mild winter.

15th November 2022

Kelli was awoken at 06.30am by the city boys clearing the leaves on South Shore. They could have done it quietly by not having the constant “beep,beep” of the grabber going into reverse.

That put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

The only bright point was the collection of the three piece set that was sold last night, but it started to get dark from there on.

We were supposed to drive to Allendale to lay the carpet tiles in Dylan’s office, that didn’t happen because there were too many other small things that we had to do that ate into our time.

It was best to abandon that for another day.

Kelli did some spraying on the dresser, but her heart wasn’t in it, it’s best to put it to one side in situations like that.

14th November 2022

We had to drive to Hudsonville to collect some free furniture. There was a combination unit with wardrobe and drawers and two matching side tables all in Maple.

There was the necessary stop for petrol, which is $4.04 a gallon.

When we got to the address, which was in a new development, it was like we’d be there before, but of course we hadn’t. It just highlighted that the layout and design of the place was identical to others we’ve been to.

There is the large lake surrounded by houses with large decks, each floor plan is identical but the finish and style is different. This is the new suburbia, little boxes, all the same.

Anyway, getting back to the story.

We had to wait for the lady to arrive, but when the garage door opened, we saw the furniture stacked in an immaculate garage, they looked brand new, hardly a mark on them. The reason they were giving them away was there were two drawers with the guide had fallen off.

We couldn’t get them in the truck fast enough. It was a tight fit, but we did it.

We sped off back, stopping at Menards to pick up some materials.

Once we were home I took out the two side tables, they looked fine, made in Canada and a good quality.

We kept looking at them, they were too good to paint, but Kelli wasn’t sure that the colour is current, I said, someone will love them the way they are.

So we took pictures of them in the failing light, and Kelli posted them on Marketplace. Throughout the evening there was a lot of interest leading to a sale, one of the quickest we’ve had.

Of course Kelli took credit for my decision which is typical.

I continued to add finish to the dining table. I had a small issue with one of the leaves. When I applied the finish after a short while small clear bubbles appeared. I would wipe over them so they disappeared, but then they would reappear. This was a head scratching time, I’m not sure what’s happening there.

13th November 2022

Well the snow was on the ground when we awakened. There were flurries for most of the morning, even the wild turkeys weren’t put off.

They flocked on mass at our wild flower bed, pecking away like their lives depended on it.

The crows weren’t impressed and tried to intimidate them, but the turkeys gave them the finger, and carried on pecking.

The heaters went on in the garage because I wanted to cut the tops for the side tables.

After the saw went through I could see what the substrate was, and I don’t think I have ever come across it before.

Inside was filled with large chunks of wood, it was like the contents of the planer was soaked in glue, it was the roughest particle board ever.

We drove to our storage facility to collect another piece that Kelli could work on.

She finished painting the side tables and the dining table skirt and needed something else to work on. She picked out a mid century style dresser in walnut veneer, so we loaded that into the truck and headed back.