Another Lifetime to go

6th August 2019

I got back to doing, what has become my main occupation in the US, stripping table tops.

Louise, my daughter in law has begun renovating furniture in her spare time, and has started selling things at the Trowbridge market. She had a gate leg dining table that clearly needed some attention. I offered to help by scraping off the old finish. I knew from the first stroke of the scraper that it was going to be different. The tops in the US have a high build that crackle and spit as the scraper bites, this one just created a pile of black dust.

It did prove a bit challenging, but slowly the oak surface started to shine through.

Back at the cottage, I finally bolted the last remaining sleepers in place, giving the concrete bases a good chance to harden before boring the holes. I was also amazed that I was able to align the bolts with the holes first time, a triumph in itself.

5th August 2019

I rang the American Embassy at 9.00am hoping to speak to a human being, or even an American. But no luck, just the menu of buttons to press. I had to listen to the same selection five times just to get the number of Visa Queries. I eventually got through to a real person, who was Asian. He told me to go to a web site where I can pay the fee and book my interview. The web address he gave me was the same one I had already been on, and it had taken me to a third party site dealing with visa application for which I had already submitted. When I told him that, he asked me what device I was using. I told him I was using an iPad, he then said that I would have to use Google chrome. “What!!! “ I uttered in desperation. “ It will not work on an IO platform” he elaborated.

I was losing the will to live now. I began to feel that there was a conspiracy against me every getting back into America and seeing my wife again.

My mouth was dry, I had a sick feeling in my stomach, and all he said in consolation was “ You could go to a local library and use a PC there, have a nice day”

My head was spinning, and I hadn’t even had a drink.

I called Ryan and explained the situation hoping that he had a PC that ran Google Chrome.

“Just download it for a Mac” he said

Suddenly I felt like a stupid old git, Of course, it was just a search engine, why didn’t I think of that?

Once that was installed it was a piece of piss, the system took my money, slick and efficient, like most people in America do, and I was able to book a time for my interview, I was on my way back.

I was mentally exhausted, frustrated, and angry at just self for not working the Google thing out.

My interview was set for the 23rd August which would have been the day that I wanted to fly back, so that would have to slip a couple of weeks to allow time for my passport to be returned, Kelli was not impressed.

4th August 2019

I am missing the cut and thrust of the Bristol Cottage Furniture world. Kelli has kept me up to date with everything that is going on. I seem to spend every day at the cottage, on my own muttering to my self, instead of wandering around Goodwill looking for potential money makers.

I had to cast another plinth for a step into the shed. I’m getting quite used to doing them, and this is the last sleeper to fix.

The other big event was to bring the large suitcases up to the house from the shed. They had been there for two years, and had not been attacked by any little rodents.

The first was the silver bastard, the one I used on my trip to India. It still bore the marks of abuse from the feeble baggage handlers, but with some excitement I opened it up. There were five pairs of identical black jeans from a time when I just bought a new pair instead of washing the old. There were about fifty pairs of socks, and the equivalent pairs of underwear, although they were washed and ironed.

There were also trousers from years ago when I was a lot larger around the waist than I am now, why did I keep those? Was I expecting to grow into them sometime.

The second case, just contained more jeans, and shorts I would be seen dead in, not sure where they came from?

There were woollen jumpers, T-shirts and more socks.

By the time I emptied it all on to the floor the place resembled a jumble sale.

I coldly sorted through the heap separating out things I wanted to keep, scrap and donate.

It was a sort of cleansing experience, and of coarse a bit more room in the shed.

I decided to use the Silver bastard to take more clothes on my return to the US, I could pack some serious shit in that. I expect some amazing eye rolls from Kelli when she sees this stuff.

3rd August 2019

I finally got round to planting the scrubs. My green fingers quickly turned black as they dug away at the soil. I remembered most of what Rob had taught me about packing the dirt around the roots. Afterwards I had a great time scrubbing my fingers trying to get them to resemble skin colour. The last time I flew back to the US, my hands and fingers were so badly stained I looked like a zombie.

2nd August 2019

The concrete plinth turned out pretty good, but it needs to harden a bit more before I bolt the sleeper on to it.

I used some of the off-cuts from the sleepers to neaten the edge of the garden steps.

I had to slice together two sleepers together because I miscalculated the overall length of the step. I set up trestles on the path and set about making a bloody mess. I set about making cross cuts about a quarter of an inch apart, and by the time I had finished I was up to my ankles in sawdust and wood chips

The poor postie had to negotiate the tools and cable littering the path. No matter how small the task, I always seem to get out every power tool I have.

By mid afternoon I had cut and cleaned up the scarf joint and bolted the two pieces together.

I had been bothered by wasps buzzing around. I noticed that in a neighbour’s tree there was a large nest with a constant stream of the little buggers going in and out.

This was a good time to finish for the day.

1st August 2019

Today was the day for mixing concrete to form a plinth for the lower step. I used bags of ready mix instead of the loose stuff because;

1. It is convenient

2. Can’t be bother using anything else.

I had made some shuttering for it already, so it was just a question of fixing it securely and filling it with muck.

My battery drill decided to crap out on me, so whilst I was out getting the bags of concrete I picked up a new Bosch model. Just as luck would have it, it was the exact same as my previous one, so the battery packs were identical, so now I should never be without a full charge.

Whilst at Wickes I watched some poor sod having forklift training. The instructor had set up some pallets as an obstacle course. The trainee got off to a shaky start, grabbing a loaded pallet from the top shelf with the objective of lowering it to the ground. It took for ages to move down, the instructor visibly aged as it passed his head on the way down.

The next part was manoeuvring around the pallets for which he failed at the first hurdle.

He got so pissed that he stormed off, guess the pressure to perform was thwarted by his desire to have a smoke.

When I returned to the building site, I mixed up the rest of the concrete and finished the pour.

Now I’m one more step closer to finishing the whole project.

31st July 2019

My friend Rob paid a visit. He hadn’t seen the garden since he planted some shrubs after I went back to the US. He had also sprinkled some wild flowers seeds around that my sister had pulled out thinking they were weeds.

We went to the garden centre for more plants. I could never remember the names of anything we selected except one that reminded me of a cabbage.

I had to pull in the reigns a bit because he is really good spending other people’s money, but we had a good selection, but even with his discount, it was still a princely sum, and you can’t even eat the cabbage.

30th July 2019

I had a few things on my list that was weather dependant, but as it was raining I decided to pick up the extra gabion I had ordered last week.

When I got back the rain had stopped, so I was able to resume my other jobs.

As I was working hard I thought I would reward myself with an iced lolly. Nicola had put some home made ones in my freezer. I pulled one out of the rack and proceeded to suck on it.

It was a nice orange one, but there was no taste to it. It felt smooth, but not really cold, I was a little disappointed. There were some drips appearing round the holding stick, and that tasted sweet and orangey, so I wiggled the stick a bit, and blow me, the clear plastic mould slid off, I had been licking that piece. I did laugh at that, as I devoured the ice lolly.

29th July 2019

I couldn’t sleep, I checked the Homeland security website again, and called the number for assistance.

That was a waste of bloody time, the person on the phone couldn’t tell me why my status changed, all she suggested that I apply for a visa at the American Embassy in London.

The next hour or two was spent filling out an on line form. At the end of it I had to attach a recent photo, which I didn’t have.

I drove to Trowbridge and found a place that processed visa photographs. A quick flash and it was done, a picture, devoid of positive emotion. The eyes spoke of really being pissed off and wanting rip someone’s head off.

I rushed home, attached the photo to the application, and submitted it. Now I have to wait.

On a lighter note, Damian drove up to pick up my old Toyota MR2 that I had given to my younger son Ryan when I had the Jag. He plans to feature it on his YouTube channel.

The poor vehicle had been parked at the front of Ryan’s house covered in a tarpaulin for six years. I was not hopeful that the car would start even with a new battery.

Damian got in, switched on the ignition and tried to turn the motor over.

To my surprise, and Damian’s excitement the engine fired up immediately, and sounded really smooth. There is testimony to good Japanese engineering.

28th July 2019

I drove down to Barrington to visit my sister and Colin. I wanted to thank them for all the care they have given to the garden, so I took them out for a Sunday lunch.

We were going to go in the back entrance of the restaurant, but noticed an old man shuffling in that direction. We looked at each other, and decided that we wanted to eat today, so made our way to the front door.

We found our table, and as Nicola and Colin made their way to the buffet the old guy beat them to it. Ten minutes later they returned.

However that wasn’t the end to it. As we were leaving, the old guy’s equally old wife accosted Colin asking him if he had a car.

“Yes I do” he replied innocently.

“ Oh good” she said “ Could you give my husband a lift please, he’s ninety three, and a little tired”

Poor Colin, he couldn’t get out of that, she had him in a headlock.

Fortunately they lived quite close, but it was the fear that he could peg out on the journey that really concerned us.

So the car was brought round to the front, and the next twenty minutes was spent watching him totter towards the car. It was long enough for Colin’s appetite to return.

We shoe-horned him into the passenger seat and waited for Nicola to return. She had got involved with the wife and a battery powered buggy.

We set off with Colin trying to extract the directions from the old guy. By the time he uttered which turning we should take, we had shot passed it.

Turning round, and making the correct turn we were then stuck behind his wife in her buggy.

She was oblivious to us following, and with the grand speed of one mile an hour, she dominated the width of the road. Colin’s car was almost stalling, as he checked to see if the old guy was still alive.

Finally we reached their house, and helped him out.

Colin couldn’t get away fast enough, he was annoyed that he had been caught out, but it did give a laugh on the way back.

I think she asked everyone in the restaurant, but they were a bit more savvy, or pretended to visit the toilet, and sneaked out.

I think Nicola crossed that place off the list.

The evening ended badly in the worse possible way. I received an email from the Department of Homeland Security informing me that my ESTA status had changed.

I immediately went on the site, entering my identification number. Sure enough my status had changed to ” Not permitted to travel”

It was a good job I hadn’t booked my ticket, but I needed to sort something out quick.