Today the temperature was up in the seventies, a rare blip before the fall into the freezer. It was a good opportunity for a bike ride, and the chance to work outside.
The wind would suddenly lift all the leaves and blow them over to Larry’s yard, poor chap he was out sucking them up with is tractor, twice.
It must be costing him a fortune in fuel, and he looks so dejected trundling up and down his plot.
I sanded the Apron and legs of the dining table ready for priming tomorrow.
Kelli was doing her thing whilst listening to a podcast covering Quantum Physics and Biology. The subject is fascinating, there are a number of topics that I was aware of, but there are so many warning that we ignore. I am a great believer in self healing, and you are what you eat.
It was back up to Allendale for yet another day helping with the decoration.
The plan was to lay the tiles, but there were other jobs that were far more important.
First stop was delivering a dresser to a remote farmhouse that was on our way.
The husband mistook me to be Kelli’s father , which has happened before, I’m used to that.
Kelli put him right, and I added “I hope you’re embarrassed “ with a smile of course.
Back at the mobile home there were rooms to finish. I took on the main bedroom, up on a ladder cutting in to the ceiling. Up there I noticed all the areas where the painted line wasn’t straight, so I took time tidying that up.
Kelli, Greer and Dylan were in his office finishing the painting.
His choice of colour was a bit dark, no it’s really dark, it’s night two hours earlier than anywhere else.
All this painting did take longer than we thought, meaning that we ran out of time to lay the tiles.
It is alway a time of apprehension when I’m standing in front of a near perfect piece of furniture with a scraper in my hands.
Then it’s time for commitment, the scraper bites, a band of finish is turned into dust.
“No going back now” I said to myself.
Once that is done, the rest is just scrap, scrape, scrape.
I worked up to the area of the scratch, most of that disappeared with the ever increasing pile of dust on the floor. There was only the point of impact that was visible.
I finished stripping the complete top then went back with the sanding block, paying particular attention to the divot. I didn’t want to sand too much and leave a dip in the top, so I used the hot iron and wet cloth trick to try to lift the crushed fibres. This worked well, and with a good go over with some fine grit sand paper the blemish disappeared.
We took pictures of the latest dresser that was ours, and which was replaced with the pot bellied bakers table. Kelli posted it on Marketplace and within a few hours it was sold and paid for.
We later went to Menards with Greer and Dylan to help them choose carpets for their new place. Talk about indecision, we wandered around for ages while they were trying to make a choice. In the end I pointed to the mix and match stack of floor tiles that I thought might get them started, which they did. They picked out thirty-six tiles of different patterns that meant sorting through two tall piles without disrupting or blocking the isles.
It was down to Dylan to choose, as we lifted each tile he would approve or discard.
I was surprised with his choices, but it’s his room, and he has to live with it.
It was a change from decorating, but it was a big day for us. I needed to clean up the garage because we had the people coming to deliver the dining table with the scratch on it. I swept out all the leaves that blew in when the garage door is open.
It was also the day when Kyle the mouse exterminator came to inspect the traps, I think there is one more visit and it will be done.
With the amount of poison he’s laid in the lofts, it won’t be a heathy place for mice to be.
We had to go and collect a small desk from somewhere out in the plains of Trumpsville, that is the farming area of Holland. I fail to see what that man did for farmers apart from stopping their crops from being exported.
We are into the mid terms season, when every media was trying to urge you to vote. There is a strong possibility that the Republicans will take back the House of Representatives with a host of crazy election deniers, this, I fear will be the end of America as we know it. After two hundred and forty years, the land of the free, won’t be anymore.
The people with the table turned up scratch and all. They would like it back for thanksgiving, so I proceeded to try to repair the scratch using superglue to fill in the groove, then careful scraping to remove the excess, this kind of worked, but I could still see a faint line, so I decided that the finish would have to be removed and a new one applied, fo that’s my job for the next few days.
Kelli wanted to start the desk dis-assembly which is what I usually do, but she ended up doing a better job of it. I put it down to excellent tutoring by me.
The clocks went back the hour, meaning extra rest, then it was up for a bout of Tai Chi, and a good breakfast, I had a feeling it was going to be a long day.
I checked on the top of a dresser that I had coated yesterday, it was still sticky in places which could have been caused by some contamination. This happens from time to time especially when the weather changes and the finish takes longer to dry. So we dragged it into the house where hopefully the heat will dry it out.
Then it was off to Allendale, this time with my trusty tack remover, essential for more staple removals.
This proved very effective and the task was completed in record time.
Now the fun began.
I was tasked with painting the kitchen where the previous owner had attempted to cut in with a slightly different colour to what the room had been painted in. In fact most rooms had been painted in their own unique shade of grey.
I was given the paint that was believed to be the proper shade of grey for the kitchen.
I climbed up the step ladder and proceeded to paint over the incorrect colour.
I was pleased with my progress, I had covered over half the room, when Kelli and Greer came to inspect my progress. I could hear a lot of muttering but couldn’t make out what they were saying. The words “not really” and “ it’s not right” became clear. I had painted over the wrong colour with the same paint.
Now it became the search for the correct colour. A number of paint pots were amassed, each appeared to be a possible contender. I was given another pot to use, so I decided to start from opposite end.
It didn’t take long to establish that that colour was wrong.
There was another group discussion trying to identify which grey went in which room. The whole debacle had taken hours, the light was failing and I was tired of painting, I was almost tired of life, now, even staple pulling seemed appealing.
After a sleepless night, I wanted to move alone the current projects in the garage. There was the small side table commission that needed more finish adding, but we had agreed to help with the decorations of Greer and Dylan new home in Allandale.
First we had to deliver a dresser in an address in Coopersville. Fortunately it was in the right direction so we did that first. When we finally got to started on the decorations the first decision was to remove the carpet in Dylan’s office. I think it’s always a good thing to get rid of someone else’s stink, so spent most of the time pulling up the carpet, and removing the gripper. There was evidence of previous carpets fitted by the number of staples fired into the floor. That took forever because they only had a screwdriver and a pair of wire snips to do the job. Soon there was soon a pile of old staples sitting on top of the underfelt. Of course that was the next task. A shitty underfelt held down by five thousand staples all of its own, oh yes I could hardly wait.
We stayed working as long as we could, Kelli helping with the painting, and I on my knee extracting pointed metal things.
With help from Chris, Elaine’s step-son we managed to complete the trimming out at the front of the RV. I took the completed hockey stick assemblies down this morning.
I was concerned how tight the fit of one of the assemblies was, and on further inspection discovered inaccuracies with the existing framework.
There was no alternative but to dis-assemble the frame and reposition it in its correct location, then my hockey sticks fitted perfectly.
The last job was to build a box cover that spanned between the hockey sticks.
In terms of time tis was a much simpler part of the whole project, and although I finished later than I wanted, I was happy that I was able to be there at the end.
Elaine has a bit of painting and finishing so that the RV will be ready for its drive down to Florida to be sold, I just hope she won’t return with another one.
As I neared home I saw Kelli riding her bike towards the lake, obviously she waited for me, but as I was later than planned decided to go on her own.
I got back home, retrieved my bike from the garage and set off after her.
I engaged Turbo drive, and hurtled along the pathway seeing Kelli’s back lights in the distance. Panting like an old dog I caught up with her, talk about old age catching up with her, I was so out of breath I couldn’t speak.
It was great to see a sunset over the lake, the first one we have seen in two years.
Whilst I’d been slaving away elsewhere, Kelli had been keeping the business afloat.
She had worked on three dressers , sold one and prospects on the other two, fantastic result.
Another Lifetime to go 