Another Lifetime to go

5th August 2022

Phew! The heat continues.

I had a couple of pieces in progress, and we wanted to get the small cedar dresser on Marketplace in time for the weekend.

I needed a hearty breakfast to start me off. Kelli made a hash brown omelette, but was disappointed that she couldn’t flip it in one piece, I didn’t care, I would eat it off the floor, even fighting off the dogs to do it.

She made a smoothie and I cut up and segmented a grapefruit. We carried it outside and sat at our bistro table, it was bliss.

I only manage one cup of coffee these days, gone are the constant visits to the canteen making endless cups of the brown stuff.

I still like my tea in the afternoon with a couple of chocolate biccies, I try to maintain my Englishness.

I checked the filters in the pump, I wanted to convince Kelli that it actually did something.

I had to block all the pipes so that when I took the lid off the pump I wouldn’t get sprayed with water.

I showed her the filter that had dirt in the fins.

“There, it is doing something, it might take a while to suck up all the dirt that’s still sitting on the bottom, or, we have to stir it up”

4th August 2022

It was an early start, even before breakfast a lady had come to look over our latest dresser.

She was a nice happy oldish person, who loved the piece.

I had rushed to get the the garage ready, moving the piece into the driveway along with all the other furniture in various stages.

The other important item of the day was the inspection by the city who needed to check out the garage to see if there were any potential health and safety issues. So moving extension cables and hoses were the order of the day.

Kelli cleaned the small toilet and sink in the laundry room as a customer could need the facility.

The inspection did go well, considering what we did, there was nothing serious found, other than an outlet in the laundry did not have a functioning safety cut-out. I need to pick one up on my next trip to Menards.

The weather continues to dry everything out, the humidity is sapping, and I really do appreciate the air conditioning.

My new pool filter pump turned up a day early.

I opened the box and it was full of some serious parts, and well written instructions.

I followed them closely, connecting hoses and clamps then came the great turn on.

Now compared to the other pump, it was as different as night and day, but I thought the extra power would send a tidal wave across he pool like a couple of outboard motors, but no.

There was a noticeable movement of water on the input side of the pool, but not the bow wave I was hoping.

Kelli wasn’t that impressed either, she was expecting that any grain of dirt that had settled on the bottom would somehow be sucked up and removed. Maybe a turbo version, if it exists, would do that job, but I don’t think it would be safe to sit in the water with all that action going on.

3rd August 2022

We had to drive to Zeeland to the new surgery of her doctor. He had decided to run his own practice, and Zeeland was the promised land.

Kelli also had more old clothes to sell at Plato’s closet, so that was the first stop. This place has a lot of stock, and they alway get more people turn up with bags of stuff hoping to convert it into cash.

I needed to get a centre slide for the latest dresser, there was one missing on the bottom drawer.

We had taken pictures of the dresser outside, and as usual there was someone on it straight away putting pressure on me to repair the faulty drawer.

Stopping off at Menards to get the parts I needed, and to cash in my discount vouchers, I, of course chose the wrong length. I bought a 16” slide when really I needed a 14”. I had to go back and exchange the damn thing

Now the pressure was on to get it fitted and working perfectly.

The lady who wanted it was coming round early tomorrow, I needed to get fitted before I finished for the day.

I had to contend with humidity and poor light, but miraculously it worked first time, I almost passed out from the shock.

2nd August 2022

We had a sale and a delivery to Saugatuck.

Our latest dresser had a flurry of activity, and in the end a person who runs holiday cottages bagged it.

Whilst we were in the area we decided to stop at the Farmhouse Deli for a sandwich. We got there only to be told there was a forty- five minute wait, for a sandwich? I should have guessed at all the dead bodies that we had to climb over, that the wait was long. Not only that but they didn’t have any gluten free ingredients, what is Saugatuck coming to? A so called progressive town with little food choices, that was disappointing.

We grabbed a tuna salad and some potato crisps and sat outside munching away. I did grab a French stick from the freezer thinking that would go nicely with the salad, but little did I know it was frozen solid. I tried to snap a piece off but it would have broken a bone if I had tried break it over my knee.

1st August 2022

I was eagerly awaiting delivery of the filter pump for the pool. We were hoping to keep the water sparkling, and even though we have chlorine tablets and regularly vacuum the floor of the pool, the filter would also help.

I opened the package and removed the content. There were two hoses, the pump and filter and various clips and nozzles.

The instructions were in Chinese English, but even without them it was fairly evident how it all went together.

I made all the connections, attaching the hoses to the correct inlet and outlets, so now it was time to turn everything on.

I did expect a lot of movement of the water, especially where the clean water was pumped back into the pool, but there was decidedly nothing happening. Well what was happening was the pump was leaking, there was more water escaping from the pump then returning to the pool. I wasn’t impressed.

I disconnected everything and tried pumping water from the pool and to see how much ran through the pump. The answer was nothing much. The pump didn’t have any power to move any water at all.

That’s now being returned.

31st July 2022

I think Covid has left us at last. I still have the cough, but the rest of me feels a lot better. We even went out on our bikes, which felt good with the wind in our faces “blowing the stink out” as Dave would have said. We discovered that a lady down the road must have had Covid around the same time, so we are not sure if she gave it to us or we gave it to her, but I guess it doesn’t matter as long as we’re over it.

We had a couple arrive to collect a dresser, a last minute squeeze into July’s sales.

We also had to collect a couple of pieces that required a two trips to fit everything in.

There are many pieces now stacking up in the garage, most of which will be quick and dirty.

There is a lot of work in stripping the old finish from the tops, and for what benefit? We often drop the price, and that undermines the work that has gone into it.

30th July 2022

I still lack motivation, I can’t explain why I can’t get enthusiastic about stuff. Everything is such a drag to even start. There are some drawer fronts than need repairing, and I just can’t be assed to tackle.

I think it started early, when we decided to go and dig up some plants from a lady’s garden who died about a year ago. Her house had been demolished, like they do over here, but her garden was left. There were a number of grasses and some wild thistles, but with the heat of the morning digging them up was hard.

At one point I thought I was going to die. My eyes blurred with sweat as I tried to lift them and place them into polythene bags.

After a strenuous half hour we loaded the bags into the back of the truck and headed home. Of course we had to plant them meaning more digging.

Yes, I think that just wore both of us out, I sorted out the dead stuff, then replanted what was left, it all looked a bit underwhelming, but compared with what we have bought from the garden centre I hope it will take root and flourish.

29th July 2022

We were back on the road ready to collect a couple of pieces that Kelli had found in need of some love and attention.

An oak dresser had seen much better days, it must have suffered some trauma because the sides had splayed causing the front rails to disengage and the drawers to collapse. It had been previously repaired with a foaming adhesive that was all over the inside surfaces.

I had to cut a new tenon for one of the front rails, and glue back some of the shattered oak pieces at the base. To make sure these didn’t fail again I used an epoxy adhesive that has good gap filling qualities.

We finished another dresser, posting it quickly on Marketplace.

We were let down again by some time wasters.

This is happening more and more where people are all excited and say all the right things, but then don’t turn up when they say they will, prompting Kelli to message them, and then the truth comes out.

I was proposing making an effigy that I would fire staples into when we got let down, but Kelli just likes the subtle approach of just blocking them.

28th July 2022

There was definitely some funk about. For both of us there was a lack of inspiration. For me it started when I was sanding some drawer fronts. I had to fill old holes then carefully sand before painting. Then to help seal the filled area I sprayed a coat of shellac, this usually dries quick, but due to my impatience, I didn’t leave it long enough. I touched the area with fine paper and the edges curled, that was it. The sanding block went hurling through the air and landed halfway down the drive. That was the start of it. Then I attempted to make the side panels for the composter, but I could make them square, that is when I gave up.

We both thought a soak in the pool would calm us down, but that didn’t work either, the cold breeze that sprung up didn’t help.

It was easier to write the day off and hope tomorrow would be better.

27th July 2022

Something is definitely changing, I don’t feel so wobbly, I think I might be able to tackle more things today.

We had a cooked breakfast out on the deck, I was hungry, I even managed two pieces of toast, of course saving the crusts for the two scavengers.

I had planned to stain the dresser top that Kelli had been painting, and continue building the side panels for the composter.

I’m still coughing up my lungs like an old smoker, but it seems to be all I’m left with.

I couldn’t get past the afternoon without feeling wrecked, as it started well, I thought I would have no trouble, damn the Chinese.