Another Lifetime to go

24th August 2022

We drove to Saugatuck to collect two side and a coffee table that I have to strip and refinish.

These are Lane style pieces because they have dovetailed inserts in the top, so stripping them will be tricky. I feel a bit intimidated because they are well made expensive pieces and I don’t want to screw them up.

We then drove back, and rode our bikes to the Way Cup cafe for some lunch.

Afterwards Kelli finished spaying the low side tables and I completed the composter.

I was eager to put the first stuff in it, so I cut the grass and put the cutting in bay one.

We will keep our original going just to rot down, but the new one will take over.

There was high humidity today which brought the sweat out of me, but a splash around the pool helped with that.

23rd August 2022

We got the two side tables finished and collected this evening, Kelli had already primed two more, and I stripped the paint off the top of a large black dresser we collected yesterday.

The lady from the city called round to check that the new GFCI was fitted and properly functioning, so we have to pay fifty bucks for the privilege. She did ask us to look out for a buffet, which might be a good endorsement of our operation.

The dip in the pool was short because the sun failed to co-operate, as soon as we settled down on our floating armchairs it went behind the clouds signalling the end of our soak.

The young chap arrived to collect the side tables, he was pretty excited with them and also what we do, hopefully we can sell them more.

22nd August 2022

There are a few things about American TV that I have grown to hate. I know hate is a strong word, but they drive me to distraction.

The main target of my hate are not the shows, but the audience’s reaction to it.

In particular, I watch a number of late night satire shows that are very clever, and I take my hat off to the writers who have to come up with topical lines to make the gags or comment work.

When the punchline comes there is a sudden outbursts of whoops, cheers and shouts far in excess that the line deserves. A good laugh? Yes, but this yelling is totally over the top. Now I cringe every time, and I aware it’s the same bloody person, I would like to put a bin liner over his head, and pull it tight.

We have also watched house restoration programs, the American version has the house owners jumping up and down crying, whooping, and shouting and generally going over the top. The British version has them saying “Oh that’s very nice” so much more refined, after all it’s mostly only paint.

We got on and finished the side tables, there are still a few blemishes, but we are being very critical, the buyers often throw them into their trucks, and when they get home throw shit in it.

We also finished a tall dresser, and got the two side tables out of the truck that we bought at the weekend.

There was a trip to Jenison to collect a dresser and supposedly a desk, but the seller had deleted the post taking all the correspondences with it, so Kelli did not have the name or address of the seller.

In the evening the person did send a message asking if we still wanted it. Kelli explained the problem, and arranged another day.

I even managed to erect the composter, so a busy day all round.

21st August 2022

We inspected what we primed yesterday and we weren’t impressed. There were indents that the filler didn’t do a good job, so this meant spending more time working on those.

The good news was we sold the entertainment centre to a couple from Grand Haven.

Kelli managed to complete the tall dresser that needs the top to be oiled.

We didn’t have time to use the pool, or any work on the back garden, or even go on a bike ride, what is happening to us?

However Kelli made an amazing quiche with a number of home grown ingredients, very satisfying.

20th August 2022

There is nothing like pressure to focus the mind.

We are working on converting two desk pedestals into matching side tables.

The pressure comes from the fact we have a customers house wants to collect on Monday.

All the repairs have been done, but we noticed that the original paint on the side panels hadn’t adhered properly, so had to be scraped off.

The heat gun didn’t do a very good job, it just made the finish go gooey, the only option was scrapping it by hand. The problem with that was the panel was a coated hardboard which, damaged easily, so these had to be filled.

We managed to get everything primed, but that showed up a few more flaws that will have to be corrected, tomorrow.

All this work meant no bike rides and no pool time which was convenient because it was a rainy day.

19th August 2022

We alway take a leisurely breakfast, sitting out in the morning sun, often we lose track of time, then we realise half the day is gone, and we rush to start our day.

That is the result of a lack of discipline, no one to report to leads to late starting.

I was considering this as I floated in the pool staring at the blue sky, thinking “I should be in the garage working”. Then I splashed away to the other side of the pool.

I do use the time constructively, I was planning the next part of the top garden renovation.

I plan to reduce the grass area on the upper part of the garden and create deeper flower beds and a meandering path to the back gate. Next to the shed will be a paved area supported by two four foot long gabion walls. This will be the bird feeding area ( and all the other furry critters who steal all the seeds)

Whatever happens, it will be a lot better than the burnt grass that we have every summer.

18th August 2022

There are a lot more flowers to water now. The new planting looks a lot better than it did, now they just need to establish. We packed in two bags of mulch, which is a dirty job. Some of the big houses close to us have this stuff delivered in bulk. These tankers turn up and pump the mulch where they need it. Usually there is a short Mexican gardener trying to control the hose, it must be like trying to control an angry snake.

Kelli found a cheap dresser on Marketplace, so we went to collect that. It was similar to many we’ve done before, so this will be a quick and simple redo.

We were able to take pictures of the low entertainment unit with the doors fitting properly, I have no idea why they didn’t before as I had to remove about 3mm from the width of the door.

17th August 2022

Fitting the new GFCI was not a walk in the park as the YouTube video made out. Instead I was faced in a much older type of device. As I removed the outlet bits started to drop out which I thought “this isn’t right”

Most videos showed a simple unscrewing of terminals and swapping out old for new, bish bash bosh!

But no, for me was snipping wires and baring them back ready to fit into the new unit.

I took careful note of where the”load” and “line” wires were terminated, and as I removed each, I located them into the new unit.

“Simple” I thought as I screwed the outlet back into the wall.

I had bought an outlet tester, so I plugged it into the vacant outlet. I then switched the circuit breaker back on.

Immediately the tester flicked off, it should have stayed on with the lights glowing.

Panic! I turned the circuit breaker back off and removed the outlet to check that the wires we tight in the terminals. Everything looked correct. As I said at the start, I had checked all the wires were going to the correct terminals, and I was certain they were correct.

Now it was reading through the troubleshooting notes on the instructions sheets. I located the problem that I had, it said that the wires were fitted incorrectly and they had to be swapped over.

How can that be? I made sure they were right, but reluctantly I rewired the outlet, plugging in the tester and turning the power back on.

Nothing happened, until I pressed the “reset” button, then all the lights on the tester lit up, it was working as it should.

Scratching my head, I refitted everything back how it should be, finally the job was finished.

I must be going crazy, I just don’t know what happened, the only consolation was I got the Earth wire correct.

The other big job was planting the flowers we bought the other day.

These were going into a circular bed at the front of the house that were filled with lilies and hostas, these had to be dug up and moved. The hostas were being re-housed in the hosta forest that we have under the pine trees in the back garden.

The lilies were surplus to requirements, so Kelli advertised them on a local neighbourhood site, and they were gone the same evening.

16th August 2022

After a largely sleepless night we both found it hard to get motivated, or indeed fired up about anything.

Not that there’s nothing to do, I have to fit a GFCI in the laundry room, there are the plants that we bought yesterday to replace those that are in the front garden.

That would have required digging up the old plants, moving them to a temporary home in the back then arranging the new stuff, after preparing and fertilise the soil, so that was put on hold.

I managed to finish the repairs to the desk pedestals, now they have stripped of paint, but I didn’t feel like doing that either.

Kelli finished the entertainment centre, but after fitting the doors found that they needed trimming so that they closed properly.

We didn’t feel like doing that as well.

We did manage a bike ride, not very energetic, but it was a bit of a workout, not that we felt like doing that.

Towards the late afternoon I had a sudden rush of energy, so I stapled chicken wire to one of the end panels for the composter, chicken wire is not the easiest to try stretching, but I managed it.

15th August 2022

Dreams can be strange things to experience.

Last night I woke up early to use the toilet and I found it difficult to get back to sleep.

My mind was churning around a fragmented thought of Robin Gibb.

This is not a person that is high on my list of people to dream about, but the trail I was following was bazaar.

Before he died he had composed a musical based on the story of the Titanic, fortunately he did live to see the first performance, but tragically died soon after.

Through technology his image was projected singing the Titanic Requiem. This was a moving musical piece that formed the theme of my dream.

In it I had to find this original piece of music that I knew existed, but all traces of it had disappeared. There was nothing on the internet, no CD available on any online outlet, everything had been erased.

This was killing me because the song was in my head, but no one else had heard it.

Needless to say I was not relaxed, and the attempt at sleep was torturous, but when I did awake, I had to check it the song was still there, and thankfully it was.

The rest of the day was far more predictable, a bike ride to the park, and major repairs to the desk pedestals and Kelli spray painted a low entertainment centre, and a visit to the garden centre to use up the vouchers that we had built up.

What a swizz that is. You have pay full price for the plants, then the voucher value gets taken off. So basically you wander around picking up a plant here and a shrub there not really knowing what the total is until you get to the checkout. After a time of scanning and repacking the amount hits you, then you discover you have spent far more than expected even with the vouchers taken off, I needed a little lay down after that.