Another Lifetime to go

27th September 2021

In an action packed day we were out and about in the trusty truck dropping off clothes at Plato’s Closet. Every so often Kelli delves into the Tardis of a wardrobe and comes out with armfuls of clothes she no longer wants.

This time it was three shopping bags that were loaded into the Toyota.

After doing that we drove to Zeeland to meet up with a person that had two dresser that Kelli had bought a couple of weeks ago. Originally we were meant to go to Allandale to collect them, but with the vertigo saga it was put off. Fortunately the person was traveling to Zeeland so we decided to meet at a McDonald’s close to the highway.

“How large are these dressers?” I asked out of curiosity.

“ One is fifty-five inches long by thirty-four inches high, but I’m not sure if the size of the other, but I don’t think it was very big” replied Kelli.

Well they were both big, and if it wasn’t for the strength of the seller I don’t think we would have loaded them into our vehicle.

She was so strong that at one point I thought that she was carrying me.

So with the truck full to the brim with furniture we headed back.

Stopping off for something else she had bought for Cameron as a Christmas present.

This was a flimsy thing for storing shoes and hanging clothes. As there was no room at the inn, it had to be lashed to the roof rack for the journey home.

It was also important for me to get a can of spray shellac to seal the blemishes on the dresser top I was having problems with.

With that purchase successfully achieved, we headed to the vegan cafe to collect sandwiches that were ordered earlier.

Finally we got home to devour the food.

Then it was work time.

We took pictures of the small side table, and I sprayed the shellac on to the cursed top.

I had to wait an hour before I could put a finish coat on, so I did a bit more scraping on the chair. I had a go on the seat area, this was hard, the factory finish that was under the white paint was like armour plate, even the scraper had difficulty.

Kelli wanted one of the new dressers out of the truck to start work on. With a bit of a struggle we managed to offload it without doing any personal injury.

Within minutes the heat gun was out and strips of paint fell on to the floor, there was no stopping her now.

By finishing time, the top and top drawers were stripped, and the other drawers sanded ready for painting.

A chap turned up to collect the cedar dresser we sold last week, giving us another small space in the garage to quickly fill up. Another piece is due out on Wednesday.

26th September 2021

We took pictures of all the finished pieces in the hope that sales might pick up. We were disappointed that the mid century piece, formally Pinky has not attracted much interest.

We had a lady stop round to look at it, but she decided it was too good for her son and left. It happens, the new ones should sell quickly as they are more plain,we shall see.

I got a bit pissy trying to fit doors to a low side table. We had to use different hinges which meant I had to machine pockets for the hinges to fit into on the back of the doors. Then the screws were just a bit too long, so I made a packer to go under the hinge plate. When the doors were fitted they stood out to much and looked real crap.

So I did what I should have done in the first place and cut the tip off the screws and make them shorter. I found my good snippers and proceeded to reduce the length. Although it was only a couple of millimetres it was really difficult to cut. I squeezed so hard I thought I was going to have a heart attack, my eyes were closed tight as I summoned every once of strength, eventually there was a ping! as the tip flew off in some direction. “Good” I thought, “only another eleven to go”

Now reduced to a weak shadow I was able to refit the doors properly.

To calm myself down I did a bit of scraping on one of the chairs.

25th September 2021

The lady turned up with the chairs she wanted stripping.

The garage has never been so full with nearly finished projects.

I’m having an issue with one top that seems to have something that has contaminated the finish. I think I will have to seal it with some shellac, but I have none at the moment.

The person that showed interest in Old Pinky which is stained woody and blackie, do not show up, so a pox on him.

Kelli spent the day stripping the train wreck of all its flaky paint, it looks better even though it hasn’t been sanded yet.

It is now less of a train wreck, more a minor derailment.

24th September 2021

An early jaunt to Menards to get some supplies was the start of a busy day.

I was parked next to a fine example of a disintegrating Chevy truck.

It was so bad I had second thoughts about parking next to it in case it was infectious.

When I returned it was gone, all that was left was a pile of brown dust no doubt dislodged when the driver’s door was shut.

I loaded my purchases into the back of the truck, two quarts of paint and a full selection of sandpaper, plus a couple of lengths of timber.

The temperature was back up in the seventies from yesterday’s dip into misery, so it was a great day for drying stuff.

Kelli was in the spraying mood, we had two pieces that were primed and ready.

She sat on her mobile stool as I brought the items into her zone, turning them as required to get painted. It was almost automation, in no time we had everything finished and looking sharp, it really make spraying worthwhile when there is a decent number of things to cover.

23rd September 2021

On the road again, driving to Borculo, yes, I never heard of it as well.

We turned up at this house not sure if we had the right place. The garage door opened, indicating that we had the correct address.

I could see the dresser looking good in its brownness, and walking out was an old guy.

Kelli went over to talk to him while I opened the rear door of the truck.

As I walked over, he saw me and said “Are you a father and daughter team?”

Kelli burst out laughing, and explained who I was, I was laughing, pretending that I was offended. I could have come out with a raft of humorous retorts, but I held my tongue, content that he was deep in embarrassment.

He said he was 85, and he was good for his age, maybe his eyesight might have been a little off?

Kelli had a small feathered creature turn up outside the patio. We are not sure if it hit the glass and got stunned, but it was standing motionless on the slabs. Both the dogs had their noses up against the window trying to get out. Pushing them into the house she went outside and picked it up and held it for quite a while before it got the strength to fly away.

There is a belief that a bird can be a messenger from the departed trying to communicate, and as we are coming up to the anniversary of Kelli’s dad passing, I like to think it’s true.

22nd September Wednesday.

Kelli found another piece to buy on Marketplace, so we went in search of the address. She decided to drive rather than suffer me behind the wheel, which was quite an insult. I might make turns a bit fast, but I haven’t shouted at other drivers, I may have annoyed some by taking things a bit slow at times, but at least I haven’t killed anyone.

We arrived at a trailer park, or what we call in England a mobile home site. There was a lady waiting outside, apparently the owner had died, and she was disposing of the contents. The place reeked of smoke, and death, there was also the deceased’s dog locked in a cage, barking at everyone, so it was a relief to get back in the fresh air again.

We stopped off for lunch, after all it was our wedding anniversary. We went to a small local cafe that had recently become a full vegan menus, which is rare in Holland. I had a large bowl of chilli that warmed me up, Kelli had something unpronounceable as usual, but managed to survive the ordeal, which was great. The last time we had been out to eat was Valentine’s Day, that seems a lifetime away, but it’s a small start.

21st September 2021

This was the day of hospital visits, first was the appointment at the Ear, nose and throat specialist. A pleasant man with a good bedside manner, he scored highly on the cool chart because he liked Ricky Gervais.

“I particularly like the way he says fucking hell”

He commented. That was a shocker a professional saying those words.

I’m not sure if he says that to everyone, or just because he knew I was English, but it lightened the tone of the session.

He went through his checklist of ears, nose and throat and concluded that there was nothing serious, and maybe there is a blockage of crystals that won’t let them get back into the utricle.

We learnt a lot about the ear, and a list of things it wasn’t, and he never mentioned ear hair or ear wax which put it way out of my interest level, but he suggested she visit an otolaryngologist who will get the crystals back where they belong.

It is common here to be passed on to another specialist, passing go, and not collecting two hundred dollars, but often paying it out, it has opened my eyes to how things work here, and I have also learned more long words.

Later we went to Kelli’s doctor to see what he could do about vertigo.

He concentrated on reasons why the crystals got displaced in the first place.

He went though and checked all her organs and discovered that her liver might be the culprit. This was deduced by the shouts of pain Kelli uttered as he pressed on various parts of her.

Although Kelli shouts out in pain for so many things, he selected more supplements to help the liver work properly.

Next he started to manipulate each side of her head to stimulate muscles behind the ear, or to stop her shouting, I’m not sure which.

All this meant there was not much activity in the garage. I had applied finish to all the drawer fronts and tops, but they still hadn’t dried when we returned, so we will start again tomorrow.

20th September 2021

Thankfully Kelli had a good night. She was able to sleep on her right side without incident.

She was able to get an appointment with the Ear, nose and throat specialist in Zeeland on Tuesday, and her doctor for later in the afternoon, so a full day of quackery ahead.

It was a busy day in the garage starting with the collection of the commissioned dresser.

I was glad to see the back of that, and the customer was delighted with it.

That left enough room in the garage to work on Old Pinky, which is now Blackie, and Old Stinky which is now duck egg blue.

I managed to sand up the stinky top, it was in rough shape, but an intensive sanding and a double coating of oxalic acid cleaned it up.

I managed to sand the cedar drawer fronts and top of yet another dresser, making three pieces work in progress.

The day of torrential rain did not materialise, there was a short shower and that was it.

19th September 2021

Kelli’s vertigo was back with a vengeance, she was lying in bed when suddenly it hit her, and she jumped up in tears. Here we go again.

We couldn’t think what could have caused it to start again.

Immediately we tried the Epley manoeuvre several times during the day hoping that it would be successful, but merely laying down would start the dizziness. I felt helpless as usual, we followed the procedure precisely and still we weren’t sure it worked. That put the whole day out as she could concentrate on anything else.

I suggested going to the hospital to get a professional opinion, which she agreed to.

Off we went repeating the visit we made a few months earlier.

The doctor checked her out, and listened to our account of the procedures we carried out.

He checked for any infections inside her ear, but saw nothing serious.

He recommended seeing an ear, nose and throat specialist, that was the best option so far, now we might get to the bottom of the vertigo problem once and for all.

Whilst we were sitting in the side room awaiting the succession of nurses, administrators and doctors, I look around at all the equipment. The beds have have every function possible, the structure is so complex, it was like something out of a formula one racing car, and probably costs as much.

There is always a good number of HM Healthcare products on show, some of them I would like in the garage to store my tools in.

Earlier in the day the owner of the table came to collect it. It was planned for Monday, but with a forecast of heavy rain all day he thought it was best, as he only had an open bed truck, still it was good to get it out of the garage.

18th September 2021

Surprise surprise, this morning you find us heading over to the north side of town for yet another dresser to add to the collection.

It was waiting outside for us, from a distance it looked in good condition, but as we got closer we saw it looked bad and smelt even worse.

The household were obviously smokers, and must have exhaled into the drawers. This is really difficult to remove, the only real remedy is unicorn piss, which is right there up with the rare things to find in Michigan.

We loaded the piece into the truck and both held our breath all the way back to home.

As soon as the truck stopped we unloaded and spread it out on the driveway. Nicknamed “Old stinky” it will turn out as a decent piece, it is either beech or maple not sure which until I can get close to it.

I put the finishing touch to the dining table, a good coat of beeswax rubbed in with a wire wool pad, it was smooth as a baby’s bottom.

I gave Bob a call and after he finished his forty-mile cycle he stopped off to look at it.

He was delighted with the result and arranged to collect it on Monday.

I also put the final coat on the commissioned dresser top, thank heavens that’s over, now just to attach it to the carcass and that’s out of here.

We had a chance to look at the buffet we had delivered last evening.

It is distinctive, with Art Deco style wood doors with appliqué wood mouldings, it’s a shame one drawer is missing.