Another Lifetime to go

31st March 2021

We finally got round to dragging the finished furniture into the living space to take pictures.

With everything that has been happening it’s been no surprise that the figures for March have been appalling. It illustrates how much Kelli does to drive the business, she can certainly paint faster.

Some of my attention was taken up working on the deck and cold frame, plus stripping paint from ornate brass handles is not a quick job.

We had to collect a dresser that Kelli had spotted on Marketplace, thankfully it was close by.

By the afternoon I had the top stripped ready for staining, I want this finished quickly.

We had people interested in both the dresser and the old entertainment centre, which is now a bookcase, hopefully that kicks April off.

30th March 2021

I needed to finish the dresser today, it has been hanging around it seems for ages.

I had to trim a bit of the drawer front so that it fitted better, but then it has to be painted again.

I did some tidying up outside, sweeping up leaves that hid in all the nooks and crannies.

The grass at the front is starting to grow again, I had bought some fertiliser ready to kick it into life again.

29th March 2021

There are lots of buds on the trees and bushes, even the new apple trees look if they have survived.

There were a couple of jobs that I could do outside.

I filled the flower bed by the deck with dirt and manure ready to be planted with grasses as soon as the garden centres open.

I also put the window frames that I had stripped on the cold frame.

Kelli needed some herbal medicine from Natures Market, so I was also out and about a bit.

Finally got to order some new garden furniture from an online store, these will arrive in a couple of weeks, and hopefully make the deck more homely rather than an exercise plot.

I did a bit more paint removal from the dresser handles, this is tedious work. I had bought a different type of paint stripper that I hope would act faster than the orange stuff that has to be left overnight.

In the evening a friend of Kelli’s, who was her previous landlord brought round a pizza and a salad for us, it certainly saved me putting the house at risk but cooking something.

That was so unexpected and kind, and renewed my faith in the good intensions in people here.

Apparently there are many people that Kelli knows have suffered a similar condition of mental and physical exhaustion,

28th March 2021

It was unbelievably cold today with a flurry of snow for good measure. The weather changes so quickly, because tomorrow will be back to the sixties, crazy.

I had to go to the corner shop as I had run out of coffee. I buy a local brand, from Grand Rapids, it is one of the best I have tried, not bitter, it had a great taste, and although quite expensive, I think it is worth it.

I also needed biscuits, now the Americans do not know how to make decent biscuits, mostly they are chewy and not crisp. I found some that looked promising, but when I opened the packet there were only seven in there. What is that all about? One a day for a week?, I need to hunt around for my digestives.

I finally fitted the top to the dresser that I lovingly stripped and re-finished, I know Kelli will want to keep it, and secretly, so do I.

I still have to strip the paint off the handles which are brass, but this will take ages.

I also painted the top that I repaired, so that was enough for today.

Kelli was having a bad day. She started out feeling okay, but sometime during the day, she turned and went down.

27th March 2021

I couldn’t wait to see the results of my top surface repair. With heart racing, I rushed into the garage grabbing a sanding block and some 80 grit sandpaper. I lovingly sanded the surface flat, then finished with 120 grit.

It looked good, but I had been fooled before, so I went over it with primer.

I had to get more timber to finish off the deck, so off to Menards I went.

I wandered around looking at patio furniture totally unimpressed with anything I saw. It all look so old fashion, better suited to a care home.

I collected some bags of dirt and lawn feed, I was now a gardening expert, or at least I felt like it.

I drove round to the timber yard, the truck knows the way, and I don’t need to steer at all.

I stopped at the cedar racks, and climbed the stairs to pull the pieces from the racks.

Each piece had something wrong with it, and as I had paid good money for them i wanted three perfect planks, cos that’s the king of guy I am.

I went through about fifty lengths until I found the best ones, then lashed them to the roof rack.

By the time I got home I was ready to see how the paint had dried. I was relieved to see no new blistering, so I slapped on another coat just for good measure.

I off-loaded my timber from the truck, I needed to plane it to the required thickness, meaning I could have chosen some of the more dodgy pieces back at the timber yard, but bollocks to that.

I was using the timber to build a frame around a flower bed that was part of the decking just to finish everything off. Unfortunately I ran out of stainless steel screws, so another trip to Menards is needed.

26th March 2021

The temperature goes up and down, today we’re down in the 40’s and tomorrow it’s up in the sixties, it can’t make up its mind.

I put a coat on and worked out in the garage, adding a finish to the stripped oak dresser and removing paint from an old window frame that will be used on the cold frame.

Kelli was having a bad day, and crashed out early on the sofa in the sunroom.

It is very difficult for her as she is an active person, it’s really hard for me to see her this way.

I had completed(what I thought) painting the top of a dresser. It was one that we got cheap from Goodwill. The top could not be saved as it had blisters in the veneer. I split the blisters and injected adhesive into them, and weighted them down. I was confident this would work, and when dry I sanded and primed. All looked good until I added the top coats. Suddenly there were even more blisters. I was left with two options, one to strip off all of the veneer, and lay a new one, or two, open up all the blisters until I got to a place where the blister area stopped, I chose this one.

After gouging at the top I was left with lots of divots that I then filled with “Bondo”, I then left it overnight.

25th March 2021

The day I dreaded had arrived, I had to go and have my root filling. The appointment had been cancelled once, and deep down I hoped the same would happen again.

The building was drab, opposite the main Holland hospital, and not the shiny modern building I mistakenly went in first.

All the safety protocols were in place as I entered the reception. I had to wear the mask they gave me, and shown to the lift to go down to the ground floor. There I had to fill out registration and health history, and sign that I could not hold the practice responsible for anything that went wrong.

I was collected from the reception by a nurse who led me to a small room to have my mouth scanned. I had to stand against a structure that gripped my head whilst the thing spun around my face.

Afterwards I was led to a small room with a really narrow doorway, I could only enter sideways and asked to sit on the reclining chair. The surgeon came in and studied the images, then he moved a larger screen in front of me to go though the various options.

He explained that the damaged tooth, the one I thought the appointment was for was not worth saving, there was very little tooth left to work with. He said that he could clean out the root, but warned that any crown fitted would not last more than a couple of years.

The tooth next to it had a cavity that was close to nerve, and advised that he work on that one.

Reluctantly I agreed, at between 1100 and 1200 dollars for the treatment I didn’t want to waste money on something that wouldn’t last.

So the procedure started, face numbed, a machine resembling a large microscope was moved into place that allowed the doctor to see what he was doing.

The smell of burning tooth wafted into my nostrils and then the bouquet of cloves. Within thirty minutes it was complete.

I handed a wad of notes to the receptionist who said I would get a reduction if paid in cash.

I left, and drove back home with the left side of my face frozen, and my wallet much lighter,

and a number of new decision to make about my dental health.

24th March 2021

I was determined to finish laying the decking.

It had rained during the night leaving puddles on the joists, I noticed the first time I sat down on them. Each strip took me approx fifteen minutes to fix. There was collecting it from the side of the house, not easy as they were sixteen feet long. It was like trying to carry a stiff dead python.

Lay it on the chop saw, resting one end on a cart and supporting it in the middle with a stack of wood off-cuts. Cut off a couple of feet, then carry it over to the deck, and mark it for the final length, then carry it back to the saw for the final cut, making sure not to trip on the joist. After the cut, carry it back to the decking for final fixing.

Gradually the end was in sight, I had gone through a couple of hundred bucks worth of clips, and three boxes of screws on this project.

They must make a bloody fortune on these clips, a bit of painted punched steel that must only cost less than a penny a hundred, bastards!

I also learnt that my ears were not designed to hold two pencils.

It is instinctive to stick one behind the ear, this time I had an abundance of pencils . I tried unsuccessfully to stick a second one behind the ear and wondering why it wouldn’t stay there.

As the evening drew in, I finished, just the last piece to rip down to finish it off, I have no idea what has been sealed up in the deck, and I don’t care, my body just said, “now you can crawl away and die”.

23rd March 2021

I was the proverbial juggler with drawers to the left of me and carcasses to the right, and on top of that there was the decking.

Whilst the finish coats were drying in the garage, I was outside sawing and screwing down decking planks.

There were some areas of the structure that was not at the correct level, that needed shimming. Maybe I should have noted if the joists had a bow or a droop, but anyway I had to adjust them so that the decking was level.

I had a stock of thin timber that I ran through the planer. I got very good at tapering the shim, I won’t go into the detail, needless to say, it’s all in the wrist movement.

I worked all afternoon, or until I felt like I was ready to collapse.

The last job of the day was to collect up all the wood shavings from all the shims, and there was a lot of it.

I had popped out earlier to get more joist tape using my rebate that had arrived on Monday.

Usually it takes three months for these to come through, but this was only a week, amazing.

22nd March 2021

Kelli had an appointment at the kinesiologist, so I had to experience more body bending and cracking. I still don’t fully understand what this treatment does and how it works. The reactive therapy of pushing against the doctor then putting a liquid on the tongue then going through the same routine again to see if it had any effect on the result, call me sceptismo, but it’s just witchcraft to me.

We left with a bottle of pills that deal with stress, adding to the collection that is building up on the counter top.

There was a new Plato’s Closet in Holland so it was a great opportunity for Kelli to sell a lot of clothes that are too large for her.

She came away with a couple of hundred dollars which helped fund her doctor’s visit.

I decided to check the LED lighting in the deck.

I had to fiddle the positions of them because of the length of the cable, the tricky one was difficult to get too without removing one of the planks, WHICH WAS BLOODY TYPICAL.

Anyway they worked, making me happy