Well no one told me the clocks changed last night, I was oblivious, it was only when Kelli mentioned it that it sank in.
But life continues, I was relishing in the fact that it was earlier than I thought.
I was able to get in the garage to get the dresser ready for collection, that was until Kelli came out with the phrase “ I hate people” the signal that the buyer had pulled out, and offered a lame excuse. We know most of those. Why can’t people be honest and tell us the truth, it doesn’t matter, because we have done it ourselves. If they have second thought, it’s okay, it’s their prerogative, we don’t like it, but life is like that.
Anyway, after that letdown, I had a job for Elaine to do. Yesterday she brought over two wooden corbels that she wanted something added to.
There were two options, a wooden ball or a cone. She preferred the cone, but I suggested the bottom part of the ball with the cone on top.
So with skill and sandpaper I proceeded to sand the mounting surface so that the cone blended into it, I was quite pleased with myself, I just hope Elaine is.
Then Kelli called me in, it was time to go to her mother’s for ice cream. I quickly changed, and off we went.
It wasn’t until we got there that Matt, who looked surprised, said, “ What are you doing here, you’re an hour early”
Yep! We forgot to change the big clock in the house, duh!
A miserable day, grey and rainy, summer is long gone, and the change is very noticeable.
I wasn’t planning any furniture work, as Saturday is my “any other things that I want to do” day. Today was recording day, and Chris was coming down to work on the stuff we started last week. I have transferred all the data to the Mac Pro from the laptop, so now things are more stable. I was hoping to start at 12.30pm but as alway he is alway late, it wasn’t until 2.30pm that he actually arrived. I had told him that I want to finish at 5.00pm so time was limited.
We got into things straight away.
Now Chris is a professional musician and performs in care homes, so he is constantly playing guitar, but for some reason once recording starts he falls apart. This is known in the trade as the “Red light syndrome”.
This is where the concentration is so great it causes brain fade and you overthink the playing.
We scrapped all the tracks from last week confident that today would be perfection.
By the time we got to take six, it was not improving, so we had a cup of tea and a biscuit.
Starting again, he managed to get through it okay, but when we listened to it through the speakers the start of the song didn’t sound right.
I suggested that he worked out a different start, something that would lead in to the main body of the song.
After a bit of plonking and plinking he can up with something that sounded fine, and made the introduction more logical.
Kelli had gone thrifting with Elaine, so it was just the dogs in the house, but they didn’t care, all they do is sleep.
The timing was just right, the girls turned up just as we were finishing. I have to be pretty firm about finishing otherwise Chris would keep talking, but it was a good time, and I’m finding my way around the software now.
It’s the time when you feed children all the bad things you tell them to avoid, yes it’s Halloween.
Like all good and kind neighbours we put out a bowl of goodies. It was a last minute deal, I rode along to the corner store on my bike with a purse full of quarters, that was the only cash I had left.
I grabbed two of the closest bags of sweets that were left, and rushed to the register. I was hoping that no one would be behind me, and have to watch patiently as I counted out my stash of coins. Typically, a queue quickly formed, now there were a whole line of people all looking to see what the hold up was.
I tried to justify my predicament by saying I stole my child’s pocket money, but that didn’t sound good in a god fearing land, so I told the truth instead.
Transaction over, I left and rode back, by now the temperature had dropped to its evening levels, I was glad I wore my scarf.
We set out a bowl on our wall with a little note, waiting for the little angels to descend.
By the end of the evening, most of the treats were still there, maybe the lessons in heathy living has got home.
The day started well, a good breakfast, and a drive to collect a dresser that Kelli had seen on Marketplace. As we drove along her senses picked up the site of a free dresser on the side of the road. I suspected something was happening when I heard her neck crack, and the truck spun around. Concussed by the sudden change in direction I realised what was happening, and prepared myself for another salvage operation.
The dresser wasn’t in bad condition, a good scrub up and maybe a stripped top, and it could be out to be sold. This meant that we had to go back home to unload, then retrace our steps back to the original place we’re were picking up the original purchase.
This one had to be carried down the stairs, but it was a good make and in good condition,
We loaded the carcass and the drawers into the truck and headed off for our next appointment.
Up in the wilds of West Olive,was where Henry lived, you know the one who forgets things.
I had offered to give a quotation to trim out his newly renovated house overlooking Lake Michigan. When we arrived the place was buzzing with activity, roofers were busy laying new sheets of plywood ready for new shingle.
Henry greeted us and led us into the house which looked like it had survived a hurricane.
The rooms upstairs had been gutted and drywalled, and he wanted all the doorways and skirting boards redone.
This was a preliminary visit because they didn’t know what they actually wanted, Henry had one idea, and his wife had another. There was no guessing who would win this argument, but I agreed to give them a few sample ideas when I return in a couple of weeks.
This would be a nice change from furniture and probably more lucrative.
We did a bit of a conversion to a piece that wasn’t getting much attention. I cut a couple of shelves, drilled some holes, and added some shelf supports, and now it’s a neat bookcase.
Once breakfast was done we drove down to the garage to collect our truck. We were lucky to have borrowed Kelli’s mother’s van overnight, otherwise it would not be easy to get to.
After paying the three hundred and forty dollars bill, I climbed into the truck and started to drive home. What a difference, no droning, it was comparatively quiet, and almost pleasant to drive.
I had my meeting with Lloyd in the afternoon, I arrived a bit late, he was already there with the drinks on the table, although not our usual one.
A group of people had the audacity to use our regular table for themselves, I was not happy, well you get used to things, and our alternative table rocked. That is another thing that I don’t like is a rocking table. It required a folded beer mat to stabilise it, then we could get on with the serious matter, putting the world to right.
After our usual couple of drinks, Lloyd had to leave early, just as well because I was bursting to use the toilet.
I then had to drive back to the garage to retrieve my glasses case which I left there, I bloody hate having to wear them, and it’s not the first time I’ve left them somewhere.
Kelli, in the meantime had finished painting a three drawer dresser, that went straight on market place.
We took the truck to the garage to get the wheel bearings replaced, it will be refreshing not to have the drone all the time.
If only we had a clear garage, I might even be tempted to fix things myself. I used to do all my own repairs back in the old days when I had little money. A car in those days was essential, being a contract draughtman I always had to travel long distances every day, so car repairs took up most of the weekends. The tools I carried around in the boot were quite extensive, I could change out the swivel joints and track rod ends by the side of the road. I changed wheel bearings, and constant velocity joints, well, I drove a British made car, so this was things I did often.
I’m still working through the software issues on the new computer, there is something weird with safari that I can’t get to the bottom of. When I want to go to a website, it just shows a blank screen. However using a different browser I managed to load another software package, another tick, only one more to go.
I have been a bit distracted recently with all the software issues, I haven’t been so attentive to the furniture side, but I did a chunk of work today. The cedar chest is ready for painting and another dresser should be finished tomorrow.
It was back down to Byron Center, this time I didn’t have to pick up John the wood, he was already at the barn.
It was a wonderful drive even though the truck has developed a groan, possibly rear wheel bearings, I will need to get that checked. In the meantime I just turned the radio up a bit louder.
John was scurrying about when I arrived, the thicknesser was in pieces, and I didn’t understand why. The machine he had was old, but it could be converted into a sanding thicknesser, and also shaped cutters fitted to produce architectural details and skirting boards.
As of now it can’t do any of those things, which was a shame as I had plans to machine timber for the base for my chair.
As it was, we spent most of the time bonding the last strip to the slabs, then once they had dried, we cut everything to shape.
I did return John to his home, and then I had to drive to Hudsonville to collect a cedar chest that Kelli had bought.
The guy that helped me definitely had a problem, he hardly said a word, and once it was loaded he turned around and went back inside his garage without saying a word, strange.
My battle with technology continues. Since I set up the Mac Pro tower and discovered what was wrong, I have gradually ticked off the things that have got fixed.
I fitted the WiFi card which was missing, finding one on eBay that arrived without fixing screws. I complained to the vendor but just got silence in reply. I had to source M2 x 3 cap head screws from our friends in China. That was a breakthrough, with WiFi up and running I was able to get on the Avid website and download the version of Protools I needed.
However the email was quite unstable and kept crashing. I went on line enquiring if there were problems with the operating system installed, and email. Sure enough, there were conflicts with freezing and crashing reported, but there was also a number of fixes recommended.
I tried one of them, and it worked!
So once I had a stable email I could safely find the links that I needed for installation of the software.
Soon all that was done, I could run both the laptop and the Mac Pro on the same license, but not at the same time.
I was beginning to feel more confident, with the two successes under my belt.
Then I noticed that the interface unit that is the like between the recording side and the computer wasn’t connecting. A blue flashing light indicated problem.
I went on several Avid user sites looking for a similar problem, and there were many.
It looked like the interface needed new drivers to work properly.
With my new found confidence I located the site where all the downloads were and guessed on one. Hurrah! I chose right, the blue light stopped flashing and everything was talking to each other.
Now there were three successes in one day, I couldn’t believe it, could I do a fourth?
The last part I need to complete is to connect a drum machine to the system.
So far everything is connected, but there is a piece of a puzzle missing, I have read up on it, hopefully I can get that working tomorrow.
I did a solo run to collect the last of the wood floor pieces, now we have transferred the pile out there to our garage. Underneath the stack is a radiogram, that has never had to endure that amount of weight since 78 rpm records.
Now I have the task of removing the nails, a time absorbing experience. I tried a couple of sample boards, first I had to straighten them to the same angle for which they were applied, then hit the end with a hammer in a series of small knocks, a hard hit would just bend the nail, then you have to start all over again.
There is a knack to it which I’m sure I will perfect by the end.
Then we had to go to Kelli’s mum for Matt’s sixtieth, a number he refuses to acknowledge.
We bought him a tee shirt of an old eighties heavy metal band, as he lives in the past most of the time, it was perfect for him.
I met two of his friends that he has known since school, Kurt and Karl, identical twins. They had other brothers Kevin and Keith, it looked like his parents were members of the KKK and K club.
As they all had the same initials they could all wear the same socks.
It was enjoyable, and so was the cake, then it was back home for a walk with the dogs.
Today was dedicated to recording, something I used to do a lot, but not for the last nine years.
To say I was a little rusty is an understatement.
My friend Chris, who I have recorded many times in the past, was coming over to record some of his latest music.
He was a little late so it gave me the chance to set things up. I had played around with it during the week, so I thought this was just a simple process, I was wrong.
Protools is an industry standard, but it got more complex over the years.
I had set up a microphone, and I had a good signal coming in, but I could not hear it through my headphones, panic was setting in.
I followed all the routings and everything seemed in order, I repeated all the input/ output settings.
By now Chris had arrived, and I acted like I knew what I was doing, but my stomach was in a knot.
I was even prepare to set up my old laptop that had an even older version of the software, but I had forgotten how to use that, things were getting desperate.
Fortunately Chris had guitars to tune, whilst I muttered to myself, then, the aha moment happened, I turned up the volume on the microphone, and suddenly I could hear it.
I kissed to table top, we were now in business.
However I was still desperately trying to remember how to use the software, it was a new version, different from what I was used to, but gradually some of it came back to me.
Chris was having his own issues trying to keep in time with the click track, so between us we were slowly relearning how things worked, me the technology, him, his timing.
We spent four hours working on two songs, maybe they won’t be keepers, but we can only improve.
We drove back out to the farmhouse to start loading the flooring. The lady had cleared a way through the barn making it less hazardous.
There was a lot of strips, in different lengths, but all with the nails that had attached them to the subfloor.
We started the job of loading them into the truck.
Kelli was in charge of off loading the pieces that I would carry, and load into our vehicle.
I’m sure there is far more than we would use, but if we could also do the laundry room that would be a bonus.
When we filled most of the available space in the truck, we drove home, no more than ten minutes away, the unloading began. I made sure that all the face were together and all the backs were together, I wanted to avoid any further scratches. Once that was done, we drove back for another load.
Repeating the same routine, although the main difference was that lady’s dog came into the barn, and close to where Kelli was standing, it did a huge dump, and it stunk the place out. Luckily I was close to the door, but even there my eyes were watering. Poor Kelli, she had to endure it until the lady cleaned it up. Now recovered, she continued to feed me with more wood strips.
With what there was left, there is at least another load, which we will do on Sunday.
We had planned to have dinner with Lloyd and Nancy at a restaurant in the town, it made a nice change to have someone else doing the cooking.
As we were driving into the town, the was a van in front that had “Wood flooring fitted” now that was a coincidence I said.
She said they should be quick at doing it because they were Mexican.
I asked her how she knew that?, she then pointed, and said “ because his name is Manuel Rodriguez”
Another Lifetime to go 