Another Lifetime to go

30th May 2021

Finished the floor in the shed, and filled it up again. Well, there is now plenty of room, as I did not put back the televisions, they are in the back of the truck for disposal.

That is not easy, I think there is several reclaim places in Holland, but it will cost us twenty five dollars each. I also moved the tandem into the garage forcing me to make a start stripping it down and repaint it.

To complete the decking I dug up the Japanese blood grass from the front of the house and transplanted them into the bed set into the deck, they should get more sun now.

Kelli seems to have gotten over her vertigo issue, although she is weary of making sudden head movements, she can now put all her energy into getting fit again.

I was excited to see a strawberry growing, I didn’t really expect to get any fruit in the first year, but it is ripening and ready for my strawberry and cream.

29th May 2021

I don’t often have bloody good ideas, but today takes the biscuit, or rather the digestive.

Since finishing the deck I had a number of sixteen foot lengths of the composite planks. Some were damaged and a few surplus. I had been thinking how I could use them, and every time I walk round the side of the garage there they are, all stacked together.

Well today is the day when they will have a new purpose.

I decided that I would use the material to lay a new floor in the shed. Over the years the squirrels have stored their nuts in there. Last year I re-sided the shed with feather-edge boards, and that stopped the little buggers getting in, but there were places where the floor had got wet and rotted which limited where we could store stuff.

The decking material would be ideal to tidy the shed up.

Of course I had to clear out all the crap that was in there. Out came three bicycles, and a tandem (must get round to renovate that) three old CRT televisions ( must dispose of those) numerous plastic plant pots, plus a few bits of old furniture that we used before we had the deck ( those definitely won’t go on there). Oh yes, not forgetting the two push lawn mowers that are now consigned to history.

I made a good start full of enthusiasm, the sun was shining and I was making good progress.

It didn’t dawn on me to check if I had enough decking to complete the job, I guess I went with my instinct.

Laying the strips was playing havoc with my knees, getting up and down, forgetting tools, walking back to get them, it was exhausting.

I hit a brick wall mid afternoon. I worked out I would just have enough pieces to finish the floor, so I was happy.

I needed to hydrate, so endless glasses of iced water were poured down my throat, but I just couldn’t finish the flooring. The dogs needed feeding, and I began to prepare dinner, that was the excuse I needed to call it a day.

For the rest of the evening my body complained that all my joints ached, and I would have to do it again tomorrow.

28th May 2021

This is the start of Memorial Day weekend where Americans hit the road, and the air to get away. People were leaving work early to get a heads start, I know because I was stuck at a junctions waiting to pull out.

Kelli needed some supplies from Nature’s Market, a natural food store. There was a tub of green powder that I had collected a few days ago that Kelli did not like, she was concerned that it contributed to her non-sleeping problem.

This has happened before where we have returned something that had been opened, and they still gave us a full refund. I can’t understand how they can do it, they can’t re-sell it, so apparently it get returned to the supplier. How can a company have a policy like that? I’m blowed if I know.

The temperature dropped today, off went the air conditioner and on with the heat.

The wind dislodged a clump of old leaves that had been trapped in the cleft high up in one of our trees. It had been there for a as long as we have lived here, it looked like an Eagle’s nest.

I started painting the parts for the second Adirondack a tedious task, I need to focus on getting it finished quickly, or I might lose interest and it will gather dust somewhere.

27th May 2021

I was expecting a number of purchases from online vendors today. One was a dovetail cutting jig that I saw on a YouTube video. It wasn’t expensive, and it had small magnets that caught the saw blade to keep it straight.

I thought it was a good idea, so I thought I’d give it a shot. The next purchase was a small dowel jig that would be ideal for small door construction. I have another jig, but that is better for panels.

I was waiting patiently for them to arrive, in the mean time I had a lot of wood priming to do, as well as starting on a chair repair where I had to replace two spindles.

My phone showed that I had an email that showed that the dowel jig had been delivered by UPS. I rushed to the front door but there was nothing there. I looked in the post box, nothing inside, I checked under the truck, between the wheely bins, everywhere possible, but not package.

“Could it have been delivered to someone else?” I thought, if so, the person would see my name and address and maybe drop it round. I waited until early evening, in case they had been at work all day, but nobody came, so I contacted EBay and registered that I hadn’t received it.

Later, they emailed me to refund my money, stating there had been “Vendor irregularities”

Mmm, not sure what that meant, but I ended up ordering it direct from the manufacturer.

26th May 2021

I was slightly energised today, only slightly, but I was able to get out of the house to do some man stuff.

First on the list was getting my packet of digestive biscuits from Meijers.

There has been extensive building work carried out on the exterior, that also meant lots of disruption to the interior as a consequence.

The last time the isle for the International cuisine was where it had always been, but now it had moved.

I then embarked on a search for the illusive section. Back and forth I walked looking at each shelf, and each marker. Eventually I found it well away from the rest of the food section.

This is bloody typical of the American attitude, “we’ll move it to some obscure location just to piss them off” and piss me off it did. I expect Mr and Mrs Patel with their children and parents couldn’t find the curry paste either. There could have been an international incident at the International isle.

They made sure the Mexican food was in a convenient place, and there is a lot of that stuff.

I cannot understand why the Americans have such sweet shitty biscuits, the should adopt the digestive as a sign of refinement.

25th May 2021

I drove to the surgery of the root canal specialist to make an appointment for my other tooth.

Boy! The receptionists was a bit abrupt, no pleasantries just a “What do you want? “ the experience was almost as bad as the procedure itself, but without sitting down.

Eventually I explained what I needed, and a date out in July was agreed.

Kelli needed more supplements from the kinesiologist’s surgery so on the way I picked those up, I’m getting used to collecting and dropping off things, maybe I should get a job with Amazon?

24th May 2021

I finally put a “finished” note on the project piece we got for free back in October last year.

As I hammered in the last nail into the back panel, it was a relief to get it done.

I got the strimmer out to trim all the edges of the lawns. There is nothing fun about doing that task, I know for the first ten minutes I’ll be untangling the cable. No matter how neat and careful I am coiling it up, when I come to use it’s alway a mess.

The place always looks tidier when it’s done.

Kelli is still suffering with her vertigo even though we’ve done the Epley manoeuvre several times, she read something on line about keeping her head steady for five days.

This sounds crazy to me, but if that’s what she wants to do, I’ll go along with it.

I was busy sanding all the chair parts when I noticed that I was also wearing away my thumb, it got sore after awhile, then I remembered, it happened the same last time.

23rd May 2021

The buyers of the dresser arrived to collect, they were a young couple with a grizzly little kid. The kind of child you could accidentally slam a door on his head just to give it something to cry about.

They were suitably impressed with the piece and so they should as Kelli had reduced the price by twenty-five bucks.

We fiddled around trying to get it into their SUV. In and out, in and out, finally we slid it on its back, and bungee’d the hatch back closed.

Off they went back to Grand Rapids grizzly kid as well.

I wasn’t planning to anything else, but the allure of the other Adirondack chair drew me in.

Stripping it back to its compound parts is quite satisfying until you see the bad bits, and there were a lot of rot in this one.

There are other things I want to do to the back garden, new steps to the upper level, and the pool pad on the lower patch.

The grass in the back is very rough and patchy, and just needs to be dug up and re-seeded, but that’s a job for the autumn.

22nd May 2021

I finished repainted the blue dresser, thank goodness, it was a warm day, and the paint was drying super fast. I also finished painting the Adirondack, and started the re-assembly.

I went to buy another 15 gallons of river rocks to finish the gully around the deck. They are used to seeing me with the exact right money ready, I told the guy that they can leave the rocks in the river because I’ve got enough. Whilst I was there I saw a family of large people wandering around. It was into the eighties and they were dressed like it was winter with coats and sweaters, I perspired just watching them.

Then it was back to grass cutting and weeding.

I now get it, you reach a certain age when all there is in life is pottering in the garden. I used to mock my mum and dad for doing it, although I don’t think dad had any hobbies, he was too bloody exhausted after cycling to work everyday.

I was just finishing my days work in the garage, when our English friends Mike and Lesley knocked on the door. They had just returned from Grand Rapids after having dinner at our favourite Indian Restaurant.

The handed me a bag with two samosas and a left over eggplant curry. They thought as we could go with them they would bring it to us.

That was so thoughtful, they are great people, and I hope it won’t be long before we can share a few bottles of red with them.

21st May 2021

A moment of panic almost overwhelmed me.

I was preparing Kelli’s protein drink, and I had to put three scoops of protein powder into a jug that I fill with yogurt, fruit, honey and almond milk. The container with the powder was nearly empty which meant that in order to get the scoop full I had to put my whole hand inside. The neck of the container was just a little smaller than my hand, but with a little manipulation I managed to get it inside.

However getting it out, and holding the scoop, was difficult, the more I tried, the hotter I got, making my hand swell up. The inside surface of the neck had sharp edges which dug into my wrist as I tried to pull it out.

All kinds of things went through my mind, I could try the hospital, but driving could be difficult, but do I was to run the risk of humiliating myself by arriving at A&E with a plastic bottle attached to my arm.

I could try to cut it off, but it was hard plastic and knowing my luck I would probably severe a artery.

In the end I used my other hand to compress the trapped one just enough to extract it.

I’m not trying that again, now I have tied a stick to the handle of the scoop so that it will reach the bottom and collect the powder.

We had someone else enquire about the dresser, Kelli advised them of the colour, and they didn’t mind, but I had just finished repainting the drawer fronts, so they will have to have white.