Another Lifetime to go

30th April 2021

What a difference a day makes, after a bit of change to Kelli’s daily routine her morning was a lot brighter. It was by no means perfect, she didn’t sleep for a whole eight hours, but with what she did last night, gave hope to build on.

Firstly the magnesium tablets might have contributed, and also we found a hypnotherapy video dealing with sleep.

This was all about conditionings the brain to slow down, and by focusing on the dialogue and the mood it was created, she didn’t allow her brain to dive off in a different direction, or get fixated with not being able to drop off.

She had short periods of sleep, without the anxiety that interrupted the quality.

She awoke, although early, with a much more positive attitude.

Hopefully we can build on this positivity.

I bought more river rocks to carry on filling the gully around the decking, three five gallon buckets are all I can manage. I need to hurry up and finish before my strength gives out.

29th April 2021

When I started this blog my intension was to document my journey into the unknown. To observe things that I encountered in the future, however long that might be.

Some observations are interesting, some strange, and some even dull, but I never thought I would be witnessing the slow downward spiral that Kelli is going through.

This morning she demonstrated the frustrated anger of insomnia. From birth, sleeping is normal, it’s what we do for nearly a third of our lives, but not being able to travel to the land of nod, for most of us is unimaginable.

Having decided that she didn’t want conventional medical treatment, and opted to visit a kinesiologist instead, we are going through a bi-weekly series of consultations to work through what herbal supplements will work on her.

However without really tackling the root cause which is lack of sleep, progress has been slow, and if I am honest, I am still not convinced of that line of treatment.

The helplessness that I feel at not knowing what to say to someone who craves sleep so much that death would be welcomed alternative.

I have done research into Acupuncture, hypnotherapy and hypnosis as well as the good old NHS web page on sleep degradation, but that is only valuable if the patient is willing to try them.

Her visit to the kinesiologist this morning focused on the non-sleeping part, and after some physical manipulation she came away with Magnesium tablets, let’s see how these work.

My motto of “There is humour in everything” is not something that can be applied today without getting my face kicked in.

Output from Bristol Cottage Furniture has been bleak, I have managed to finish one or two pieces, the latest of which was sold this morning.

28th April 2021

With what strength Kelli had we dragged the latest furniture piece into the living area to take pictures.

This had been hard work stripping off the badly applied white paint, and then refinishing it back to light wood.

At the same time I started painting the latest dresser, and applying stain to the newly veneered top.

It was back on with the coat today as a cold wind blew through the garage when the doors were opened.

27th April 2021

Well I was right, the replacement for my patio furniture arrived on the back of a FedEx truck.

The guy carried it up the drive and placed it by the front screen door.

My heart sank immediately.

I opened the box, and no there wasn’t a right hand back panel, there wasn’t even a left hand back panel, there was a side panel, and I’ve got one of those already.

I got on the phone and contacted the customer service person, this time it was Sharon.

“Hi Sharon” I said cheerfully, there wasn’t any point at ranting and raving at her, it was not her fault.

I went through the story slowly, explaining that I had two left hand sofas instead of a left and right hand.

I gathered she understood the problem after bringing up a picture of the configuration I had ordered.

She repeated back to me her understanding, which was spot on.

She pulled up the installation instructions, so did I.

We agreed that we had the same version that showed six pictures of the different ways the furniture could be arranged.

We agreed that picture one was the one I wanted to build, so she printed out a copy and circled the part I needed. The other five pictures showed configurations using two left hand sofas.

We agreed that something was wrong with that logic.

She assured me that she will pass the markup to the person in the warehouse.

I will wait another week or so to see what turns up.

26th April 2021

It must be a national scare people to death day because all the advertisements on the radio was all warnings of imminent death. If you didn’t have a heart condition at the start of your journey, the chances are you would have by the end of it.

I went to a landscape supplies to purchase some small rocks to fill the gully around the decking. It felt wrong asking for it in gallons rather than cubic yards, but it applied to the buckets that you can use to carry it, and five gallons of rocks are heavier than you think.

I struggled to lift those into the back of the truck, and the echoes of those adverts reverberating around my head.

I did my usual mooch around Menards, I could spend a fortune at that place, but I have learnt restraint.

Once I got back I wanted to start filling up the gully’s with the rocks. Fifteen gallons sounds like a lot, but when poured into a deep hole, it quickly disappears. At this rate I will need about ninety gallons, which means my arms will reach the ground.

25th April 2021

The dresser top with the walnut top was still flat when I checked it, that was a great relief.

I lovingly sanded it ready for finishing.

I decided to cut the front lawn, I pulled out the push mower from the shed, wheeling around to the front of the house.

The new grass is a great improvement over the old crap that was there before, although there were still a few thin patches.

It was a light cut, that is to say it hardly cut much, but apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do to avoid stressing the grass.

Everything is America is prone to bloody stress, what has grass to get stressed about? It just has to grow.

I gave it a good soaking with water, maybe the rest will thicken soon.

I checked the new plum trees, they have buds growing, so my death fingers didn’t do the normal on those. The apple and cherry trees are in leaf, just another four years to wait.

The new raspberry bushes have taken but the gooseberries look a little sad, I hope I don’t lose them.

I put down a bag of mulch around the trees and ended up with black stained hands. Why doesn’t someone invent something that protects the hands, like gardening gloves. Note to self, buy some bloody gardening gloves.

24th April 2021

I lay awake most of the night thinking that I should have laid up and clamped the walnut veneer on the dresser top differently. Of course it was too late, it was laying on the garage floor with every conceivable item of weight I could find including the three bags of mulch I bought yesterday.

I couldn’t wait to rush out to see how it was.

I started to remove all the things stacked on top, it must have taken me fifteen minutes to move everything. I had realised one error at the time, because using carpenter’s glue it was difficult to spread evenly, I should have used a standard PVA that would spread with a brush or roller.

As I removed the boards my fears were realised. There were a number of ridges, let’s be honest it was like a ploughed field.

I’ve had this happen before, that time I removed the veneer and started again.

I remember watching a video where this guy used an iron to smooth out the ridges.

So I grabbed Kelli’s and proceeded to smooth out the wrinkles.

Miraculously it worked, I followed the iron with a block to add pressure, but I was happy with the final result.

I trimmed the veneer to the final size and gave it a light sanding, then put it aside to see if the wrinkles re-appeared.

I wanted to weed the back garden. There were hundreds of them, and they had grown a lot in the last week, but this was the day they would be gone and dumped in the bin.

There is a sense of satisfaction in pulling them up, and the sandy soil makes it very easy.

I could grab a whole handful and pull them out roots and all.

“At this rate it should only take half an hour” I thought to my self.

It took me much longer than that, I would pull out a bunch, but more weeds appeared, where did those come from? maybe there is a weed dimension just to taunted me.

I was filling up large plastic bags, the garden waste bin was full, so now we were in an overflow situation.

I noticed many of the weeds were coming under the fence from a neighbours garden, bastards!

I was tempted to throw them back over, but I didn’t want any confrontation, well at least until I get my residency.

23rd April 2021

I had a Mr Bean moment when I went to Menards for some supplies.

As I was driving to the car parking area I stopped to let two old ladies cross the road in front of me. One was using a type of walking frame and the other was helping her. Eventually they made it and went into the store. I carried on and parked, putting my mask on and grabbing my bag I made my way into the store. I headed towards the trolleys, but my way was blocked by these two old ladies. I patiently waited for them to clear the turnstile. I grabbed the trolly but couldn’t get passed them, so I went on a diversion down another isle to pick a plastic bucket. Returning to the main isle the two old ladies has moved about five feet and were still blocking my route.

I decided to get interested in toilet seats so that I didn’t appear inconvenienced. Finally an overtaking opportunity happened, and I zoomed past. I collected various things I needed then went outside to get some bags of mulch. I loaded my trolley with three big bags and headed for the checkout.

I was lucky that one opened just as I passed, so quickly reversed and loaded my stuff on to the belt.

I paid and re-packed my trolly then headed out towards the exit, that is when I encountered these two old ladies again blocking my way

I pretended to be interested in sacks of salt stacked by the door.

Once outside I could accelerate past them trying desperately to control my trolly, the last thing I wanted was to sail past out of control and smash into a tree. The bags of mulch made the handling tricky, I swept past the shuffling duo and made it to the truck where I loaded all my stuff quickly.

I managed to do all that and drive away before they got to their vehicle, bad luck to anyone stuck behind them on the roads.

22nd April 2021

Today is Earth day, or at least that is what my calendar said, not sure what I’m supposed to do for it, I have a pile of dirt in the back garden, but I was hoping to use that as dressing for the lawn.

We had a visit from the utility people who wanted to install a new water monitoring device, I said “ Help yourself”

Of course they asked me where the old one was, and I didn’t have a clue.

I thought it was outside with all the other meters, but it wasn’t.

Now looking like a complete plank we went in search of this device.

“It’s usually next to the stop valve”

That was no good I didn’t know where that was either.

Not a very good advertisement for a home owner who doesn’t know how to turn off the water supply.

Eventually we got to the crawl space cover.

The engineer stuck her head down and declared that it was there, along with the stop valve.

I felt better that I knew where that was, so I did learn something new today.

I finished the dresser with the built in organiser, and stripped all of the old veneer off the top of the other dresser we picked up earlier in the week.

I burnt my fingers a couple of times on the stops of lifted veneer, “Damn they retain the heat”.

21st April 2021

Would you believe it, it snowed.

Yes, well it wasn’t a blizzard but there was certainly snow on the ground for a short while.

I had taken the precaution of protecting my new gooseberry plants just in case the cold snap killed the poor sods.

Kelli was having a bad day because of yet another sleep deprived night.

I alway know how the day is going to play out.

Her level of energy is measured by the amount of things she can do in the morning, like folding the laundry and preparing her protein drinks. Then the rest of the day she lays on the couch occasionally having to get up to visit the bathroom.

It’s very concerning for me, and hard to keep quiet, I want her to get back to her old self, but this condition has to “take its own time”.

If I didn’t have projects to do in the garage, I think I would go crazy. I come into the house periodically just to see if there is something she might need, and prepare meals.

I’m not sure the dogs fully understand what is happening, they just want to go outside as often as they can, and then be rewarded with a treat afterwards, they’re not daft.