Another Lifetime to go

10th January 2021

After a lazy morning that I think we deserved, I finished the mid century furniture ready for pictures and posting.

I attached the top to the long dresser, and the few remaining handles to the drawers on the tall dresser. The style is not to my taste, but I’m sure there will be someone out there who will love it.

I reassemble the dining table top to the frame that I painted yesterday, it will need a bit more attention on the top before I’m happy with it.

Kelli was successful selling two quilts that she found at Goodwill keeping the coffers filling up.

We had someone interested in the dresser we posted a few days ago, Kelli was concerned that there was an apparent slow down in Marketplace traffic, but this re-affirmed our faith in the system.

10th January 2021

Another day out, this time a drive to Allegan to pick up a half finished project piece. The term “project piece” usually refers to a piece of crap that a person had started and never got round to finishing it.

It was waiting on the porch when we arrived, and it was a little smaller than I imagined, and yes it was a pile of crap.

We joked that I could probably carry it down the steps on my own, which is exactly what I did. One reason it was so light was one of the drawer bases was missing.

Could we turn it into a desirable piece of furniture? Heaven knows, we have had worse.

On the way back we stopped off at both Goodwills hoping to find other things we could work on, but the shelves were bare.

I started painting the under structure for the dining table, hanging the legs from the garage door track to make it easier.

It was another sunny day, but a lot colder, my nose was running like a tap.

9th January 2021

It was a sunny day, and perfect for a walk on the beach with the dogs. It was not as cold as one would expect even though I dressed for the Antarctic. There was no breeze, just the sun reflecting on the calm water. Most of the cottages are empty now and boarded up for the duration but there were a few people walking their dogs along the sand.

Laying in the water was a branch that had shards of ice hanging on the branches like a giant chandelier it glistened in the sunlight and gently washed by the waves.

It was a wonderful event, and good to get away from the garage. I had applied finish to a dresser top and a small dining table so there was nothing else on my list to do.

We had taken pictures of the latest piece in the morning, this was one we got in part exchange for a dresser sale last week. We had high hopes it would get sold really quick.

7th January 2021

One week in, and boy what a week. The news anchors were screaming over the Democrats winning the Georgia senate seats and the Republicans were shouting foul as they have since November.

This result will hopefully be the final conclusive end to all of Trump’s bullshit, but somehow I don’t believe it for one minute.

There are so many people who still believe in stolen elections and all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories I cannot believe it.

It made going on poop patrol quite exciting looking for the frozen piles and flicking them into the scooper.

The snow is still about, but thawing slowly the outlook for the week ahead is for warmer weather.

The Christmas tree came down, so apart from the lights outside, all evidence of Christmas has been packed away.

Kelli carefully wrapped all the ornaments placing them in a storage box ready for the next one. She handles each piece like a valuable relic from the past, which of course they are, each has a meaning for some memorable event through the year. Most of mine have a British theme which is expected.

6th January 2021

My dad would have been 113 today, a sobering thought. As a kid I always thought he was a hundred, that’s the result of having a child late in life. I never had a proper father son relationship, he was never sporty, and didn’t have the same sense of humour which limited the time we spent together, but I will always remember his birthday, which is why it was thoughtful for Greer to choose this date to get married.

Kelli and I made our way to the court house for the civil ceremony. It was short and simple, and under the Covid restrictions it was lucky that it happened at all.

We laid on a simple meal afterwards with a bottle of bubbly, the main party will happen in the summer when restrictions hopefully will be lifted.

Needless to say Bristol Cottage was not open today, the first time in a couple of years that I didn’t wear a pair of jeans and covered in sawdust.

Later I watched in disbelief of the events happening in Washington DC with the capital building invaded by pro-Trump protesters.

It has taken the US a couple of hundred years to find the weaknesses in their political system. I was telling Kelli how these things couldn’t happen in the UK because rebellion and sedition has been knocked out of us through few hanging and be-headings in our history. What America needs is a few political anarchists taken out and beaten to death as a lesson to others. OK that might be a bit extreme as there are so many of them, but something had to change, people like Trump cannot be allowed to ever be president again.

5th January 2022

All the news on line was about the run-offs in Georgia where two Democrats were up against two Republicans the results were important because if it went the Democrats way they could control the Senate.

There is only so much that can be said about it, but that didn’t stop the pundits going on and on in double speed talking.

Honestly is there a world record for talking fast ? If so than America is the place.

I am left exhausted, and longing for a proper Parliamentary debate where English is spoken at the right pace.

Kelli was doing a lot of painting of drawers, the garage floor was laid out like drawer box city. There are several projects going on at the same time, but with my big feet it isn’t easy to walk through without knocking them over.

4th January 2021

We drove to West Olive to collect a dresser that Kelli had bought, it was a real rustic piece that looks like a mini log cabin, I’m not sure what we plan to do with it.

There wasn’t much furniture stuff at any of the Goodwills although Kelli picked up some items that she plans to sell, she has a good nose for this, and it has kicked the month off to a flying start.

On the way back we had to stop off at Kelli’s mum to help move some things from the basement, it gave me an opportunity to collect all Dave’s stash of veneer that I will be able to make use of.

Then it was back to the garage with more repair work.

I had just finished patching the veneer on a drawer front when I pulled out another there was damage that I could not repair, so we decided that some of them had to be painted over, not what I wanted to hear.

3rd January 2021

A fresh fall of snow overnight was just the excuse not to go out. Most of the day was spent doing veneer repairs and finishing drawer fronts.

My mind was blown when an audio recording was released of Trump on a phone call with the Secretary of Sate for Georgia badgering him to “find” some extra votes. I stood with my mouth open in amazement, “Is this real, can it be happening?”

I watched as the other news network picked up the story, as it spread around the world.

America is a laughing stock, Trump is a mad person who should be dragged away and placed in a padded room. What continues to be alarming is a number of Republicans who don’t see anything wrong, and that it is all legitimate.

Why does it bother me so? I guess in my simple view of the world we should be able to put our faith in our leaders regardless of their political persuasion. But this leader lies, and he’s not very good at it, children, in their innocence, tell more believable lies, but they are not in charge of a country.

What is more serious is how they are dealing with the pandemic and the vaccine distribution.

I am happy to stay locked away from people for as long as it takes, but I want to come back to the UK when it is safe.

2nd January 2021

We made our first furniture delivery of the new year.

There were many inquiries for the white dresser with the black stained top, many asking if we would take less, as usual.

Fortunately Kelli found the one person who paid full price, so we loaded into the back of the truck, not before the areas missed during the painting process were discovered and rectified.

The address was not far away, but we first drove to Menards to buy bird seed and squirrel food. I had received my rebates from the things I had bought three months ago, so I donated them to the animal survival cause.

There were some tricky moments unloading the dresser in the snow, trying to make sure we didn’t slip on the ice.

The customer had just moved into the house and was excited to see the piece.

When we got back home I spent time polishing up the handles for the set of mid century style pieces we bought a few weeks ago.

The handles were very distinct but there were two missing which was a problem as they were seven inch centres. We were worried that we would have to replace all of them with new parts which would have been expensive.

I noticed on the back of the cast brass handle was a part number, I typed it into google and up came a picture of the exact same design.

The site was on Etsy and the seller had five of them. Kelli message asking if we could buy just two of them, and the response came back that we could, so they are on route to us now. What are the chances of that?

Kelli managed to sell the children’s tepee for a really good price, although not much use in this weather unless you’re an Eskimo.

1st January 2021

So here we are again. We continue to be scared shitless of contracting a virus that should have been controlled.

We have a few more days to see if a bunch of cowardly Republicans are going to delay the final count of votes from the electoral college holding up the inevitable passage of Joe Biden to be the 46th US President.

Kelli managed to sell a wooden basket she got from Goodwill, she would have sold a couple of wicker baskets if the buyer had turned up.

Still, it is a holiday, and it was cold with icy rain, so no one in their right mind would dare to drive on a day like this.

There have been a number of Goodwill purchases that Kelli has speculated with, including a children’s Tepee, and a long pile carpet. We concluded that in order to increase our income, we needed to sell items that we can sell on, having reached a ceiling of what furniture we can push through the garage.

Our target would add an extra 25% to our monthly total, with a run rate of 75% meaning there wouldn’t be too much stuff not sold.

This should work as she has a good nose for things that sell quickly.