Another Lifetime to go

3rd October Friday

I had no idea what day it was, I didn’t even know that it was the end of a week. There were two dressers to finish, and even time to start a small project, but other than that, it was an ordinary day.

I was thinking about doing a rant, something I do when nothing happens, but I thought, no, my reader doesn’t want to wade through my rants. 

So I looked around, looked up the road, and down, there was absolutely nothing going on.

Okay Kelli had to go and collect some supplements that she had run out of, so nothing of interest there.

So, Avid Technology, what a bloody shower they are. I had a problem with Protools, my recording software. My gripe goes back years with them.

When I bought my first release from them it was great, you got a disc to upload and everything worked as it should, perfect.

A few years later, some bastard in head office had the idea to changing to licenses that you renewed every year, money grabbing buggers.

So when I bought a new laptop and tried to install the software I had bought, and was in my hand, a message came up to say it was old and would not load on my new laptop, so I would have to upgrade.

Now this company are difficult to work with, I don’t think there are any human beings working there, it’s all menus.

Somehow I did manage to talk with someone then, I explained I wanted to buy a license and not renew it every year, sure I would be locked in to that release, but for how I use it, it was fine for me.

Roll forward a few years, well many years, I wanted to start using it again. 

The conditions of using the software means you have to have a dongle, called ilok, this also had to be purchased and plugged into the laptop in order for the software to run.

Well, when I started using the laptop again a warning notice popped up telling me the ilok was not compatible with the software.

What the hell! 

This started a journey that has driven me crazy, there is no number to call, just pages of frequently asked questions, none of which were anything like the problem I had. Eventually I found a page where you could open up a case, fill out the problem, and send it off hoping that there is someone, or something that will answer me.

Sure enough, after a couple of days I received a email reply, which didn’t seem to address the problem.

I wrote out my response and sent it off, only to have it bounce back with a note that the email address I sent it to wasn’t valid.

How can you run a bloody company when the customer service email doesn’t work, I tried every way possible to send the reply, but each time it’s rejected. 

So I opened up another case explaining how I couldn’t respond to the previous case because the email didn’t work.

A short time later I got another reply asking for more details of the operating system I’m using, so I sent that off, only for the email to bounce back. 

Now I’m at my wits end, I’ve been searching for a phone number, which I found, and called, only to receive an automated response that made no sense.

They even had the bloody nerve to send me a feedback form.

I filled that out, it was feedback from hell, maybe I was hoping that someone might read that, and try to contact me to grovel at my feet, I haven’t received anything yet.

Anyway, that was the rant I wasn’t going to have, but it goes on.

2nd October Thursday

The season is changing fast, our next door neighbour has already raked up the leaves in is front garden. Mind you he recently has retired, so he’s probably looking for things to do.

Also the walnut tree next to us is shedding its nuts, making a thump on the ground. There is a cracking sound when a car drives over them, and the squirrels can’t wait to carry one off to bury. All this goes on whilst I’m sanding away taking in the sounds of nature.

Another drama that is emerging is the saga of Larry’s cat.

Larry himself is on the last part of his life journey, he is now in a hospice, with no chance of him returning to his home. He has a friend thin Dave who feeds the cat and changes its dirt box. 

There is another Dave who is the husband of Larry’s sister, he come round recently, we call him middle Dave. Finally the guy who lives next door to Larry who is also called Dave, we call him big Dave.

Kelli has been concerned about who will look after the car once Larry has gone, and none of the Daves has an answer.

So Kelli has taken it on herself to find a new home for this feline.

Her first thought was Dylan, Greer’s ex husband, he has been cat less since their marriage ended.

He came down this week to check it out, but didn’t take it because there was conflicting thoughts about what should happen to this cat.

Anyway to cut a very long story short, Kelli went straight to Larry’s sister and agree that It will go to Dylan, then it was a case of telling the Daves of the decision.

It’s a sad time, because Larry was a good man, generous, and a good mechanic, I keep expecting to see him walking about, doing his stuff, but that had gone for good.

1st October 2025

Kelli was awake early, again not a popular start. The new supplements haven’t worked, but after a chat with her doctors surgery, there was another option. This meant driving to Zeeland to pick up some pills. Kelli own stash was depleted and another bottle was due tomorrow, she managed to get a few loose ones to keep her going. Whilst she was there she saw her mother what had an earlier appointment. Talk about a family reunion in the surgery. It does actually run in the family, the doctor must be rubbing his hands in glee.

Of course we had to go to Goodwill, and this time there was a dresser for sale which we quickly grabbed. There was damage on one corner of one drawer front, a blob of Bondo will repair that.

We had a buyer for the four chairs that we picked up at the garage sale at the weekend. 

This was due to happen later in the afternoon, but this was later changed to tomorrow morning.

 

The story of the Charlie Kirk murder continues, there are multiple theories of what happened, each one as plausible as the others. But it’s all odd, the venue for the memorial was booked back in May, it all has the trappings of a movie.

But interestingly, the mainstream media are still following the original FBI investigation.

30th September 2025

We managed to squeeze in the last sale of the month by delivering the piece to Zeeland. This was another repeat customer who we like because she gives us eggs, not only that but she included blackberry jam and salsa, all homemade. I made the journey solo as Kelli was in the kitchen preparing for dinner.

On the way back I remembered that I needed coffee and tea, so I stopped off at Meijer.

This is not my usual place, as it is vast.

It is open twenty four hours, and the only day it closes is Christmas Day. I’m sure people could live there and not get noticed. 

I managed to find the tea and coffee isle, only to be met with infinite choice for coffee. I walked up and down for several minutes trying to decide what packet to choose, beans or ground.

In the end I settled on an organic ground, I’m sure I will find out what it’s like tomorrow morning. Then it was off looking for tea. 

In the past I have found Twinings, but this time the shelf was empty, luckily there was Tetleys.

Now armed with my products I headed over to the checkout. Apart from the size, this is what I hate about these enormous stores, self serving checkout. As I have said before, technology hates me, and because I only had two items, I thought it should be easy.

Passing the items past the scanner was simple, the reassuring beep meant I passed the first hurdle. Now I had to pay for it, slipping a twenty dollar note into the slot that was flashing didn’t seem to work. I trying a few times to flatten the note, thinking that was the problem. Then a warning message came up on the screen.

No t didn’t want to terminate the transaction, all I wanted to pay for my packets. 

Eventually I managed to remove the message, how? I haven’t a clue, but it was gone. 

Desperate to solve the problem of the unwanted note, I put my glasses on, this made all the difference. 

The solution was you had to guide and push the note into the slot, which seems unnatural to do.

It’s like getting your fingers close to a saw blade, something I try to avoid, but as soon as the note was grabbed, I let go, waving my hands in the air  it was an action of triumph, my fingers were still attached.

My change was dispensed from a different slot which happened to be the same one I was trying to shove the original note into.

I guess I will remember for next time ( nope!)

Today I remember Michael Elliott who died six years ago, a deeply religious person, a talented musician and someone desperate to fit in.

It still leaves me cold to think that he died alone, but I miss him.

29th September 2025

Kelli was going horse riding with her friend Bethanne, leaving me alone, a good chance to get some old gits music going.

Unfortunately today was the day we lost the internet for a few hours, and as my playlist was on my phone I couldn’t access it.

But I had a lot of scraping to do, the sun was shining, although when I first started there were definite signs of autumn. That meant long sleeves, but it soon changed to short ones as the day progressed.

We also had two pieces that were being collected, one we had been waiting for several days, hopefully today was the one for that.

The other, the taller dresser, also was off to its new home.

I had calls from Kelli letting me know that they got lost trying to find the horse place, it turned out that they were way off, and had to grovel to get their session rescheduled.

I joked that the only ones they had available were the old cart horses, and they had saved them from the glue factory.

 She had a lot of fun, but her joints hurt for the rest of the day, I smiled secretly every time she moved.

All this fun meant that our shopping day was delayed, as we had run out of most things, we had to do that at one of the busiest times.

We did it as quickly as we could knowing that someone was coming to collect the dresser. As it happened they arrived early, whilst we were on the way back, so we will deliver it tomorrow, fortunately they live in Zeeland, so not a problem.

28th September 2025

Kelli became a Great aunt for the third time. Matt’s daughter Mandy gave birth to a little boy.

Of course all the family are thrilled, so I expect it to be spoiled to bits.

Most of the day was spent deflating the inflatable things for the pool, and getting rid of the ones that had punctured. I cut the grass at the front and the back even though most of the grass had died, the few tuffs that are left got a good scalping.

There is so much still to do, but I need to concentrate on pruning the trees. The good news is the apple tree that I thought had died, might be saved. I gave it a brutal pruning to remove all the dead leaves, but I left a few and they stayed green, hoping next spring we shall see.

I been following the news from the UK on plans to introduce digital ID, that is a terrible idea and would move the country close to the one global government that the WEF have advocated.

I hope that the country can unite to stop this crazy plan, I added my name to the petition, everyone should do this, if nothing else to maintain our personal freedom, once that goes it won’t come back.

Over here the support for Israel is decreasing, Americans are at last waking up and discovering how evil it is. Most of the politicians, on both sides get funding from Israel, and that is why they fully support it. There is so much money involved that it controls America, and gets it to do all its dirty work. In fact if you even hinted about anything critical about Israel you would be labelled antisemitic. Its influence is so integral in American culture that censorship is prevalent in the mainstream media, education, banking, as well as social media. There is so much shady dealings going on, including the Charlie Kirk’s assassination, that now a high level of young people are no longer fooled, and call them out as vicious killers, that would have been unheard off just a couple of months ago.

I continue to believe that distraction happen every day, the day of the assassination the government voted not to allow the release of all the names that was on the Epstein list.

Of course that is because most of them are on it. American politicians bathe in a cesspool of corruption, and perversion much of it includes child prostitution, its dirty, and they know that we know, and they rub it in the faces of the American people, they need to get their comeuppance.

27th September 2025 

I decided to take an outdoor shower today, yes, it was house washing day. 

I pulled out the power washer, connected all the pipes and blasted to green shit off the siding.

It’s the north facing walls that gets the build up, but I cleaned around the front as well.

It was also draining the pool time, there were hoses everywhere, the pump was in full flight moving the water out, and draining down the street.

We even had time to go to a garage sale where Kelli found two sets of skis and a number of gardening tools. Later she went back for some outdoor chairs that she hopes to sell on.

I hope she is also successful with the skis, it is not my intention to use those on the white stuff.

I managed to find a WorkMate, much more substantial than the farty one I have.

It was a pleasant change from furniture, but sad that we are preparing for autumn.

26th September 2025

After waking early, Kelli was not in the best of moods, whether she was troubled by the issue of her supplements being discontinued, or not, it was not a good start.

It was down to me to get the dresser ready for collection, a quick bit of polish on the top and it was ready. 

However the arranged time came and went, a possible no-show was looming, but she had paid for it, so it didn’t matter much.

I had plenty to do on the second dresser, trying to get the drawers to run smoothly.

I had arranged to meet Henry, the college professor for a coffee at 3.00pm at a cafe in Holland. But he cancelled, because he is having some serious remodelling to his house, and was having a dumpster delivered.

I rode my bike down south shore to a house the Lloyd and Nancy were helping to clear, interestingly, the house is opposite belongs to Brian Walker, the ex CEO of Herman Miller.

I alway wondered who owned that hideous carbuncle, now I know.

I came to view a desk that was being sold at a garage sale on Saturday. These are the kind that we convert into matching side tables, but I wasn’t keen at this time, I really want to clear what is in the garage first.

I rode back as Kelli was trying to fit the handles to the drawers, but found the screws too long.

As I wasn’t meeting Henry I took a trip to Menards instead. 

I took the opportunity to buy the metal spikes that get hammered into the ground to fit the fence posts into. I felt this was actually easier than digging a three foot deep hole, buying a ten foot post to fit in it, and then filling it in with concrete. Also there are lots of tree roots in that area, so being able to dig a hole in the first place might have been a challenge.

25th September 2025

I met up with Lloyd for our first breakfast together, and it was fun. 

We went to the Southside Inn, a place stuck in a time warp, but unlike all the big chains, typically American. It is a popular place judging by the number of cars in the car park, inside, the customers were also stuck in the same time warp, so I fitted in. 

We had the same in-depth conversations, in between forks fulls of hash browns and sausage.

After numerous cups of coffee, we went our separate ways, the whole thing lasted just over an hour, and it was enjoyable because, A) I didn’t have to make it, and B) I didn’t have to wash up afterwards.

Once I got back, Kelli wanted to go to Nature’s Market to look for a supplement to replace one of hers that has been discontinued. I urged her to hurry as I had my appointment at the “Geek” centre at Best Buy at 1.00.

I got there a little early, but was met by a chap that looked twelve with round glasses.

I explained the problems, and he flicked around the screen before announcing that the problems are because of the age of the laptop. Gave me some bollocks about hard drives slowing down if they hadn’t been used much, and really I should upgrade to a new MacBook. I had expected someone who could integrate the programs, with fancy shortcuts and magical key strokes, but no, what he was doing I had done many times myself. It was a complete waste of time, but fortunately I wasn’t charged for it. So I still have a computer that won’t shut down properly and a mail that crashes. It’s not the end of the world, but I would have liked to have sorted the issues out.

24th September 2025

I wanted to get back to normal, no trips to Goodwill, no visits to Menards, I just wanted to do something, and achieve a positive result.

So with that in mind, I wheeled out a piece that we picked up at a house clearance many months ago. It was in a state, but we believed it could look nice again. This was going to be a concentrated effort to remove the old finish and see it differently.

Kelli wanted to do something different as well.

She is into dying clothes, and today, armed with a bottle of green dye she was taking a brave step and change the colour of one of her newest purchases. She wanted me there for moral support, after all what do I know about that?

Setting out the components she found she didn’t have any salt, apparently an essential ingredient needed. I rushed down to the corner shop to buy some plain salt. On the way back I stopped at a stand by the side of the road that sold sourdough bread, I love sourdough, and as it was a local person making it, I shoved the money in the box and chose a cheddar and herb loaf, jum jum.

Now Kelli had all the things needed for the big event.

The dye was in, the salt was in, and the hot water was going in. A good stir to mix everything together, and then the moment came when the garment was submerged into the green liquid.

My job was to set the timer for thirty minutes, it was a tense time, but as it ticked away things were looking positive.

As the alarm erupted, out came the newly green garment ready to be rinsed.

I was very impressed, all the original colours were now more earthy and really nice. Kelli was relieved, and she was keen to do it again. Luckily one had arrived in the post an hour or so earlier, that was number two. That turned out good as well, now with all the excitement done, I could go back outside to continue working on the dresser.

It is an interesting piece, with a wavy front and drawers to match. I scraped off all the old finish, and repaired all the damaged edge banding, to a point when it started to look better all ready.

The drawers are the next big challenge.

When we collected it, it had been stored in a garage and the veneer had started to peel away, there was not much hope of salvaging those. 

With a heat gun I removed the damaged veneer, the raw timber will be sanded and painted, but there’s a lot of filling and sanding ahead.