Another Lifetime to go

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 58

14th May 2020

The day finally arrived, the day when my residency had been filed. Both Kelli and I received letters confirming that we were in “the process”.

That was a lot different to what I had expected, dreading the arrival of the mail.

I watched as she went out to the box and retrieved a package and some letters. As she came into the kitchen there was no gloom, which made me relieved. I was in the bathroom when she let out a shout of joy, of course I was not in a good position to rush out and see what she was happy about. I expected it to be a piece of new clothing that had just arrived, or something equally exciting.

But no when I walked into the kitchen she was waving a piece of paper from the USCIS informing me that my application had been accepted.

For both of us it was an emotional moment, I didn’t think a piece of paper could bring such relief to me. After several months of not knowing there must have been inward stress building up that I would get kicked out of the country for overstaying my visa. This would have spelt disaster for our relationship, for me to be locked out, and not being able to live in our American home together.

I could have moved Kelli over to the cottage, but there wouldn’t been enough room for her clothes. She would need a transport plane just for all the different garments.

We have this re-occurring discussion about all the various types of clothing she needs for all the different seasons. In the UK it is winter clothes, and a change for the rest of the year.

Anyway that doesn’t need to happen, now I just have to wait for the next part of the process to happen.

To celebrate, and because it was a shitty wet day we decided to go to a garden centre and get some plants to brighten up the front of the house and the back garden.

We went to Countryside Greenhouse a massive place, like the whole of Wiltshire, but undercover. The masks and social distancing were in evidence, although some had the mask under their noses, which sort of defeats the object, some people eh?

I had a list of plants that my sister Nicola had given me, so I used that as a guide.

The moment we started looking, Kelli was going “cute” this and “cute” that at everything, so within ten feet we had a load of things that were not on the list. Eventually we found some that I recognised, so it wasn’t a total disaster.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 57

13th May Wednesday

It was a warm day for a change. I didn’t need my wooden jumper for the first time this year, I was happy.

I was really looking forward to reassemble the table that we got free. I had stripped the top and Kelli had painted the base. There’s more sanding required to make the top good for finishing then it can go with the six chairs that we have stored in the shed. Chairs are not our favourite things to work on especially when they have to be sanded. Six of the buggers have to be refinished so they can be sold as a set with the table. I can manage only two per day so that I do not go crazy with boredom.

I have started wearing gloves to stop my hands getting so dry.

After a day of hard scrubbing I was exhausted, I could barely keep my eyes all evening. If ever there was a person suffering from “old git” syndrome it was me.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 56

12th May 2020

There are times when the realisation of the current situation hits me. The freedom to go anywhere without caution troubles me. There are the two factors keeping me from returning to the UK. One the pandemic, and the other is the residency process. There is not a day when we watch the mail truck stopping at the box hoping that the papers are not returned. It’s not that I’m homesick, I would like to spend time with my family and friends and introduce Kelli to them. I have jobs to the cottage I would like to do, as well as many things here. I find most of my time is spent in the garage repairing things, sanding tops and applying multiple coats of polyurethane. It is not that I don’t enjoy the freedom to do these things, I just need more time to do all the others.

I have my mental note to set out new flower beds and to make a patio, these occupy my sleep. I dream about joists and foundations, the dilemma of wood over recycled planks is a constant question.

I still have the project to clear the moss from the front garden, I try to scratch more areas of thin patchy grass in the evening just to keep the progress going.

There is work progressing on the mid century pieces that we have had for a while. The biggest problem is done chipped veneer on a drawer front that I have tried unsuccessfully to repair. Having stripped the finish off to reveal that the veneer looks like teak, I couldn’t find anything that I could use to patch the damage. My only option is to get some veneer from eBay and try to make a good repair.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 55

11th May 2020

I spent some of the day at the moss farm, otherwise know as the front garden. The last owner of the house was not very active in the garden, and was happy that he could see green stuff. I am determined to bring it back to grass.

I checked to see what the cost of getting people in to renovating it, and was shocked to find that it could be as much as $5000 which was a little steep.

So I thought I would tackle it myself in stages, but first I had to remove the moss. This is no mean feat, as I tried a moss killer first but it didn’t have much effect, and getting anything stronger is hard to find, unless you are a professional business. I think it is because people were making homemade bombs, but I thought that was fertiliser. However the stuff you can buy is weak in comparison, although the really dangerous “Roundup” weed killer is widely available.

I did a little work on the coffee table by spraying a tinted finish to even out the colour.

We then had to deliver the dresser to Cameron’s apartment, not an easy task as the doorway was just wide enough to get the thing through.

We have been approached by someone to refinish a dining table and an old desk.

The table is not difficult, but I really don’t want to tackle the desk as it has so many hard places to try to strip.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 54

10th May 2020

It was a wonderful brunch, I had a large slice of the vegan quiche which Kelli had made the evening before. Using the JustEgg, it is indistinguishable from one made from the real thing. Anyway my tummy was satisfied, so we set about doing jobs in the garage.

I had my usual task of trying to make a coffee table top look interesting, not an easy task when the wood is so bland.

Kelli was working on a headboard and footboard, and in between she was painting the dresser we were getting ready for Cameron.

The weather was shit, so there was not an appetite to do anything outside, but as it was Mother’s day we had to drive up to Kelli’s mum to drop off a card and a pot of flowers. It would save a lot of time if we got her dead ones, as their chances of survival are pretty slim.

We went off to Menards to pick up some mulch and top soil for the garden.

We have started to watch Gardeners World and it has excited our desire to make the garden into something more colourful.

Plants develop later here than the UK as was proven by the pictures my sister had sent me of her garden in full bloom. Although mulch will not bring colour, it will bring order and a bit of weed control to our patch.

Kelli gets excited when she sees anything spring out of the ground even if it is a weed.

I rescued a baby sparrow that we had noticed floundering about earlier. Kelli had tried to catch but couldn’t, so as it had taken shelter under the holly bush we thought it would be safe from the dogs.

I noticed Phoebe was playing with something outside, and to my horror is saw it was the little bird. I rushed out, scaring the dog away and grabbed the tiny, wet, bedraggled thing.

I called to Kelli, and she appeared with a cardboard box with a towel inside. We placed the little critter in the box, whilst Kelli called to see who could help.

Eventually the little bird was put in the care of Matt, Kelli’s brother who has as good track record of keeping chicks alive, so we get constant update of its progress.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 53

9th May 2020

The front door bell rang, “who’s that?” We both said as we sat in bed checking our phones.

I threw off the bedclothes, struggled into some clothes, putting on a hat to cover my shark fin hair, and rushed to the door.

It was Don, a family friend and confirmed flounder of the quarantine rules, he had brought round an old dining table that had come from the dumpster at his Locksmith company.

He had mentioned it to Kelli a day or so ago, and we had plans to pick it up ourselves, but he beat us to it.

I helped move it out of his trailer and leant it against our wall.

It wasn’t in bad condition, and with a few hours work could look good.

We had the buyers of the pair of dressers coming to collect at around 1.00pm. I finished waxing the top when I noticed there was a drawer runner missing from the top position.

I flew into panic mode. I had 30 minutes to make and fit it.

Scratching around for bits of suitable wood, I worked furiously to fashion something that would work. Miraculously everything went well, and it worked first time, that does not happen often.

I rubbed a generous amount of wax into the runners to make the dressers move smoothly, a feature that come up often as an inquiry.

Fortunately they loved them, and loaded them on to their truck, and drove off back to Grand Haven.

I had been having trouble tracking down a subscription to BritBox that I had cancelled a long time ago, but I noticed that a payment was still coming out of my account.

I had contacted BritBox US and they noted that my account had been cancelled, they suggested I contact Amazon in case I had set it up with them.

I contacted Amazon, they couldn’t find any record of a subscription either, so I was stuck.

Whilst contemplating my dilemma, I tried to access my BritBox account using another email address that I had, and to my amazement it worked.

This must have been the one I set up last November, that I couldn’t get to work properly.

So now I knew, it was all my fault.

I composed an email and sent it off to BritBox explaining the situation, and requesting the subscription to be cancelled.

In the meantime, I was playing around on our television, when I thought about trying to get BritBox to work on it. With the aid of my wife who gave useful advice we managed to get it to work, so we were able to watch some British TV shows at last.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if they read my email, and cancelled my account” I mused.

Well that’s precisely what happened. This morning I received a reply saying that they had cancelled it.

“ Well you need to reinstate it again, after all the trouble we had getting it to work” said Kelli.

Fortunately in the email was an option to reinstate everything, probably know as the “Dick head” option, Yep! I know what that means.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 52

8th May 2020

Kelli was eagerly awaiting the delivery from Imperfect Foods, and things were running late.

She normally gets tracking information mid-week as our expected day was Thursday.

We kept looking for the FedEx truck to reverse up the driveway, but it wasn’t happening.

Therefore breakfast was just cereal, this morning.

The one positive message was her box of JustEgg was in, and ready for collection. Because the product is so good and so difficult to find, she had decided to buy in bulk.

She was so happy, it made up a little of the disappointment of our other non delivery.

My main job of the day was fitting the screen door.

I made the necessary adjustments to the height and width so that it fitted into the frame.

The hinges were spring loaded types that ensured the door was always closed, no excuse for me to leave it open.

Every went well except the quality of the door. The corner joints were not strong enough to ensure squareness when it was hung. Someone must have known that the design would not work.

I bet the company that made the bloody thing must have the name One Hung Lu, he certainly would, if I got hold of him.

To overcome the problem I would need a some steel corner brackets, so as we had to go out to collect a dresser from Hudsonville I could get some whilst we were out.

This did the trick, now there is a fully functioning screen door that I keep forgetting is there. The hinge spring strength is like trying to set a mouse trap. When it closes there is a loud “Snap!” That I’m sure will get on my nerves, so I will have to wedge it open.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 51

7th May 2020

“We need a screen door between the garage and the entry way so I can listen to music when I’m working in the garage” requested Kelli.

(Under my breath)that doesn’t happen very often, “yes that sounds like a good idea” was my reply.

“Also when you leave the door open all the time the dogs won’t be able to escape and get run over”

She made a convincing argument, it is one of my few failings. I tend to leave drawers and doors open, and Kelli can trace my movements by these signs.

In my defence, the door from the entry way into the garage does not close that well, and when I’m in a bit of a hurry it stays ajar, and she makes a point when she closes it.

We went out to do a few errands, and I needed more polyurethane, so whilst we were in Menards we looked around at screen doors.

The first ones we looked at were some cheap wooden ones, that were a heap of crap, it was China’s finest doors designed to wrap round a corner, or at least the one we had selected was. We decided to have the premiere version, hand crafted from the finest timbers from the land of the orient. It was better made, but up there with “we could have made it better, but it’s going to America, so we don’t give a fig”

We got a pair of spring loaded hinges so we were set.

During this pandemic, face masks are strictly enforced in stores like Menards, and we are now used to it. Kelli has a girly one and I have a Union Jack neck thing that I pull up over my nose and mouth.

The majority of people stick to the rules, and you get used to wearing them, but I didn’t know how much a mask can restrict your breathing until I climbed the stairs to get the screen door that were stored up on a mezzanine. By the time I got to the top I was gasping for air, for me it was like attempting to climb Everest.

My mask was all clammy, and nasty, I looked forward to taking it off and wringing out the liquid.

Kelli sprinkled some wild flower seed on our new piece of mud, she threw so much down I thought she was sowing grass.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 50

5th May 2020

Well this blog has been going as long as Anne Boleyn was Queen of England, so keeping in the tradition I will continue to put my neck on the block and await the sting of a blunt axe.

I eagerly wanted to try my new 125 foot hose pipe. I had bought some moss killer for the front lawn. I cut the plastic straps and prepared to unravel the tightly coiled hose. There was no pent up tension of the hose wanting to be straight after months of being tightly coiled on its journey from China. It just lay there taunting me. I attempted to unravel it. I would have better luck trying to straightening a metal pipe. I stretched it across the lawn, it resembled a giant spring, but I managed to connected it to the moss killer container to spray the infected area.

Afterwards I attempted to coil the hose back up, and although the coils would have made it easier, my arms were not long enough, or strong enough to hold it. In the end I just shoved it over the fence, I’ll have another go tomorrow.

Kelli was in a good mood, her money from the government turned up, she couldn’t wait to deposit into her bank. She had been struggling to find out where it was as most other people we knew had already got theirs.

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 49

4th May 2020

It was an exciting day at the homestead. Today after depositing over two thousand turds into our dog composter we were getting it sucked out. “You haven’t just worked that out have you?” Kelli remarked disgustingly.

Well you have to know these things, as we have been feeding the little darlings, they have been laying things on the lawn, so yes, it’s relatively easy to work out.

The man with the pump was quite amused, as this was his first dog inspired septic tank clear out. He laid out his large pipes, and I heard the lorry engine strain as it attempted to remove the muck. “It’s no good I will have to connect the hose to help move the material” the man said. I kept thinking that social distancing for him is the norm, after all who would want to stand next to a man who sucks shit up all day.

The hose certainly helped, not only did he remove the offending material he remove a lot of soil as well. With the extra depth in our pit we should get three thousand turds next year.

We took round the new top frame for the arbor, this went well, and soon it was all fitted, and the lady could now train her vines to grow round this fine new structure.