Another Lifetime to go

13th July 2020

I decided to tackle cutting the front lawn. A patch of ground without a decent piece of grass on it. I had started to remove moss and weeds, but the soil is not good for growing anything. I have done a bit of experimental seeding, but that came to nothing. Some shoots came up but the harsh sun dried it to a crisp. I am told the best time to seed is early autumn, so I might try again then.

We had a house assessor come round to value the house, not that we are planning to sell it, but we wanted a current value that I can include in my paperwork that I have to return to USCIS with all the rest of my financial information.

We finally finished the dresser that we bought as a project piece months ago.

The handles that we had to purchase on-line turned up today, so we tried to assemble those.

That was a trial in itself, although the hole centres were exactly three inches, the drawer fronts were curved so we had to fiddle those to make them to fit.

Kelli started to strip another dresser outside in the sun. Wood dust was blowing everywhere, but the incentive was to finish the sanding then it was pool time.

12th July 2020

I never expected to paint the garage door today. Maybe I should have expected it as I had done the repair work, but the thought of a rest was quite out of my wife’s mind.

Over breakfast she went on about when the door would be ready, and thinking on my feet, I listed out what had to be done first. I thought it would buy me a bit of time, by which she would have been distracted, and found something else to do.

However this was not the case. I started by filling the screw holes and sealing the joint where the new wood met with the old. A bit of sanding and a wash down with water and we were ready to go.

We had the paint, the same that we had used on the front door, this would certainly make a statement on the garage.

The surface was textured, so a roller would skim over the surface leaving the indentations, that would my job, and to paint under the lip seals.

It was not so hot today, when we started the sun was in the back garden, but as it moved over, the heat was reflected by the concrete driveway back on to us and the door causing it to dry fast.

As I was painting, my mind was thinking about pool time and how quickly could we finish so we could crash out.

With two people on it, me doing the fiddly bits and Kelli splashing it on, we did it in good time.

We then stood back and admired our handy work.

“It’s very red” Kelli said sheepishly,

“ But it’s a nice red” I replied.

“ Do you think it’s a bit bright?”

“ it’s a bit brighter than it was before, but it’s a nice red” I said reassuringly.

“ Do you think the neighbours will complain?” I could sense Kelli was worried about public opinion.

“F*** them” I said “ it’s our garage door and we’ll paint it any colour we want”

11th July 2020

I finally decided to repair the bottom section of the garage door. This had been like it since we bought the place, and at first we tried to buy a new section to replace it, but it had been discontinued.

Over the years the weather had got in and rotted the bottom edge so it looked a bit tatty.

I had bought some treated timber last week, so it was a good day to work on it.

Greer and Kelli were planning a pool party, which meant I could carry on uninterrupted.

I did an inspection and the rot was a little worse than I originally thought.

Each panel was made with a textured skin of hardboard on a soft wood frame with expanded polystyrene as the core.

The outer skin had delaminated along the bottom edge, so all that had to be cut away.

That was a difficult job, and the heat reflected off the door was uncomfortable . All the time I could hear laughter and splashing about and generally merriment, and I was just sweating.

After a few hours I finished screwing the new wood strip to the door, and decided that the hole filling can wait till tomorrow.

10th July 2020

We had heavy rain during the night, that filled the pool close to overflowing.

I needed to remove some of the water using the one bucket at a time method.

Kelli emerges and suggested that we move the pool to a slightly more level spot. This would give us an opportunity to clean it, but it meant draining it again.

Now that I had the pump. It was not the task it was with just buckets.

I connected the hose and lowered the pump into the water, I put the end of the hose into the dog bog.

After I filled that up, I pulled the hose to the side of the road to empty the rest.

Whilst all that was happening, I got on with thicknessing timber for my next projects.

It took about half an hour to empty the pool, there was a large puddle at the side of the road, but in this heat it didn’t take long to dry.

Then it was back to moving the pool. We tried it this way and that, trying to find a more level spot. Each position had its positives and negatives points, but we ended up putting it back in a similar position to where we had it before, we placed the sand bags along the long edge, having inflating the lower section first. It certainly was easier without the water in it.

As we were impressed with our sandbagging, we thought we would use the same method at one end that was a little lower than the other.

Back to Menards we drove for more sand.

“We need a new tarpaulin” we said in unison.

This has been a saga in itself, the original was too small, the fitted on didn’t fit, so we got one that could cover most of downtown.

9th July 2020

We had fun re-packing the pool cover into the box to send back. There must be a special skill to be able to make something physically smaller than it can be. With tremendous effort and some sticky tape, we managed to close the carton.

We finally managed to get rid of a dresser and side table that we had sold in January, but has been stored in our back room next to the garage.

The buyer was from Indianapolis which is a good three hours away, but with all the out-of-state restrictions this was the earliest he could make it.

He arrived in a large black open-backed truck, with an exhaust the size of a dustbin.

It was so loud that it would frighten the virus away.

He appreciated that we were able to store them for so long and thrust a twenty buck note into Kelli’s hand by way of a storage fee.

We loaded up, and with an ear-splitting blast, he fired up his truck and was gone, leaving just the exhaust note fading into the distance.

It was time to tackle the out-of-shape issue with the pool. The size we have must be the maximum dimensions it can be for the volume of water. I keep adding air to the bottom section, but it seems to make little difference.

We concluded that we needed something to support the long side to stop it bowing out.

Off to Menards we went, to buy some sand and sand bags to shore up our droopy problem.

We filled six bags with about twenty five pounds of sand and laid them down the exposed side of the pool, to our delight, it made a difference, so we marked it down as a success.

8th July 2020

As I looked out of the sunroom after letting the dogs out, I saw that the parasol was in the pool.

I rushed out to investigate. The base that we got from her mother, had broken.

The post attachment had rusted, and gave way, thus the floating parasol.

Fortunately there was no damage to the pool, but we had to resort to sticking it back into the ground, and moving it around to follow the sun.

We had our first dinner out since the whole restrictions began. Kelli made the reservation for the outside area for 6.00pm as a surprise because Wednesday night is Stein night.

We got there on time, and taken to the hottest area of the yard, and right in the centre was our table.

The most unwelcome material in this weather is aluminium, even Satan himself would have said f***! sitting on those chairs.

We sat there for a while, I could see her forehead glistening and beads of sweat running down her cleave.

Fortunately we were able to move tables although they had a strict system for the allocation, we could move as long as we were done by 7.30pm.

The stein quickly emptied as we watched new people being seated at our old table. They looked like they had just come from a cryogenic chamber, so needed the heat.

I’m just glad that we could be of service.

Talking of service, I was in the process of paying the bill, and debating what level of gratuity to apply. There was a choice of fifteen, twenty and twenty-five percent, now usually I select the twenty because I don’t want to be a tight-ass, Kelli lent across and tapped the twenty-five.

Her reason was the staff had to work outside in all the heat wearing a mask, I reminded her we had to bloody sit out in it.

But it was a welcomed end to a uncomfortable day, we managed to paint the dresser, and I worked on repairing the drawer.

As soon as we could throw ourselves in the water the better, I have even been thinking what jobs I could do submerged in the pool.

From the beginning we made sure that we covered the pool at night to avoid getting any unwelcome guests during the night. We bought a tarpaulin to fit the size we had. At first it was okay, not perfect, but it worked. Over the time I think the pool is getting bigger. The tarp is now like a stamp on an elephants ass. This prompted Kelli to order a pool cover to the exact size, which we thought would be perfect, that would be a beautifully sculpted fit.

Instead it was still like fitting a slightly larger stamp on a bigger elephants ass.

7th July 2020

It was so hot that thoughts of doing anything in the garage was horrendous. The only consolation was we had someone coming to collect a bookcase that we picked up last week and we didn’t do a thing to it.

We both were working on a project piece that we’ve had for a while. It has a curved frontage that has been stained dark, whilst Kelli painted primer on to the carcass. I have re-veneered the top, so that is into the multi coats of polyurethane to get a deep finish I want.

A water pump was delivered so that we can drain the pool without having to use buckets. We wanted to test it out, so we pumped nearly half the contents into the dog bog. Of course when refilling with fresh water it was colder than the water we removed, something that Kelli found out when she got in. Now I’m usually the wimp when it come to getting into cool water, I have to have showers hot, so the shriek was welcomed by me, and it made me smile.

6th July 2020

How hard can it be to print something from a tablet to a wireless printer?

Kelli got that call from her mother, so after we had dried ourselves off from our bout in the pool we cycled up there to try to sort it out.

Yes all the apps had been installed so we thought it was a five minute job, but nothing involving her mother is a five minute job.

What she was trying to do was print a label to send something back to an online supplier using a UPS application.

We went through the simple process, we had the label on the screen, but there was no way we could print it, the icon was greyed out.

So this started an hour long investigation into why the function would not work. I’m not used to an Android system, so I thought Kelli would be able to sort it out. She was as confused as I was. Whilst this was happening her mother had a number of other things that needed to go back to EBay, so Kelli engaged herself as a customer service person and was on the phone trying to sort that problem out.

Eventually, wracked with frustration, I had the information emailed to me, and I was able to call up the label and print it, but we never got to the bottom of the original problem.

The temperature soared Ito the top eighties by midday so the was a limited time to do anything strenuous. We had people coming round to pick up the entertainment centre that we finished yesterday, much to our relief.

Although it is still early in the month we have sold just two pieces so far. It is too hot to work for long periods, we just need to keep progress going.

5th July 2020

We had a buyer for a dresser that we had finished last week, Kelli was panicking because we didn’t have anyone jump on it straight away. The lady turned up early in the afternoon, and we loaded it into her truck, and off she went.

I worked on another dresser that we bought as a project piece back in May. A project piece is something sold as incomplete because, usually the person can’t be bothered to finish it, or they don’t have the skill/equipment to complete it.

We have do a few of these, and mostly they turn out well.

This one needed a new top, because the veneer was chipped, and large parts had been removed. The basic carcass was okay, a cross rail had been fixed with a two inch nail, so that needed to be removed. Once I did that I found that the tongue holding it into the frame had broken, so another inserted piece to make good, and the repair was a good’n.

I started reading the John Bolton memoir “The Room Where It Happened” I had it sitting on the coffee table for a while, but non of our Republican friends and family saw it, which was a shame.

We dragged the entertainment centre that we just finished into the living space, it was a heavy beast, good job it came with castors.

4th July 2020

We moved things that were in the shed around and squeezed in the two dressers that had been giving me some grief.

Now my poor mind only has to focus on what I can see, even though there is still a lot to get through, including those wretched chairs.

I started working on the one that was semi-detached with itself. One side of the back had snapped at the seat, and when I removed the wedges, half of the other stayed in the seat.

The only way I could think to repair it was to fit a tongue into the good wood and bond back the broken pieces. So that is what I did, I still have the broken seat to deal with, but that is for another day.

Kelli was in the kitchen making food of the family get-together in the evening. We still had a chance for a splash about in the pool.

What I didn’t realise is all the things you have to do to maintain it. The chlorine tablets, the testing kit to check the Ph and chlorine levels, have to be done to stop the water turning green and attracting alligators.

The party went well, the food was great, as usual and I stuffed two meatless hotdogs down my neck, along with a couple of beers.

I should have had more, but then I would have gotten into some political arguments and ruined the whole day.

By the time that ended, then watering the garden I was shattered, I think I fell asleep during out TV watching time, what a loser!