Another Lifetime to go

16th June 2019

We got up early to get the chairs ready for collection before receiving a text to say they would be picked up in the evening.

We had other things to collect from the Hudsonville area. I call these ” Kelli’s gold”, because most of them I wouldn’t give room in the rubbish bin, but mostly they turn out amazing.

Driving around gives me the opportunity to see places where other people live. Some are palatial, some are seedy, but the one thing in common is, they provide us with the raw materials to create our pieces.

We picked up a small dresser covered in thick paint, this will soon be able to breath and look great.

Today is Father’s Day, and Greer gave me a card. This does mean a lot to me as I have always thought of her as the daughter I never had. I have watched her grow up, and have worked with Kelli to give her some stability, our new home is just that.

The chairs were collected, and we gave them the broken ones, the ultimate recycling.

15th June 2019

We had arranged to pick up an old desk from a storage facility on the north side of Holland. There are many of these springing up all over the area especially for people to store all the junk they don’t have the courage to dispose of.

It is a sad place of up and over doors and padlocks. Walking round I noticed second locks added to indicated that the rents haven’t been received. Several people had decided to have sales of the contents. Some are such rubbish that we had put better stuff at the side of the road for free. After waiting for twenty minutes we lost patience and left, we had a pick up due, and didn’t want to be late. In messaging the desk person we learnt that she had forgotten about the arrangement, what a loser.

On the way home Kelli, and her super eyesight saw six chairs at the side of the road with a free sign attached. One quick U-turn and a drive across a pavement later we were loading them into the back. Once were were back I picked the best four, took a picture, and on to Facebook they went, and in a short time someone wanted to buy them.

This evening Kelli and I were invited to an exhibition of sculptures by Tom Newhouse at a gallery in Saugatuck. Tom has now retired from industrial design in favour of art, and his work is unique, and clever. It uses stretched fabric over wood or acrylic formers. The way the forms were cut and upholstered created fascinating shapes and patterns. As usual Tom’s excitement filled the room brighter than the lighting.

We ended the evening with dinner at Pereddies. During our meal Kelli sensed that something had happened that caused our server, Chris to run outside. When he returned he told us that someone had left without paying the bill. In situations like that he would have to cover the shortfall. Kelli knew all about that, having done the same kind of work herself. So before we left, she sneaked off to talk to the manager. He had assured her that things would be squared up, and thanked her for her concern. Not content with that, she left some money under her napkin for Chris to find later.

Kelli has such compassion for others, and she couldn’t leave knowing the server would be out of pocket. Those are rare traits in people today, and I love Kelli for that reason.

14th June 2019

Maybe I’m having a bad day, but I’m really questioning the purpose of what Kelli and I are trying to do. We lost a several hundred bucks when Painted Farmgirl closed suddenly with little chance of getting any of that back, and then we get people offering disgusting amounts for what we are posting on Marketplace. We feel obliged to accept these because we need to build up our cash reserves. I hate this, but it is quiet time for selling furniture, so we can’t even tell them to “piss off”.

Fortunately Kelli has built up a good name, and we often get repeat customers who value what we do, but there are not enough of those to soothe my anger.

The owner of Painted Farmgirl has already earned my “Rot in Hell” award, and by the end of this month there will be others, and I know things will improve, but it kicks a hole in my enthusiasm.

We had another day in Saugatuck, a welcomed break, and good cup of coffee to repair my fragile mood, then its back to finish the top of a table.

The day improved when we had offers for other furniture pieces that were closer to the prices we wanted, so we rushed to get those ready for tomorrow.

13th June 2019

“We’ll only be an hour” said Kelli listing out the timetable for the day. She had to return something she had bought in Granville, so that meant a mind numbing journey to the Mall. Why did I have to go? That is a question I asked myself, but included in the plan was a trip to Menards to purchase some walnut stain which I needed.

Now, the chances of the journey only taking an hour was impossible, Kelli cannot do anything in an hour, if she had a watch, it would only show twelve hours in a day, and although I had a list of things to do I went along for the ride anyway.

We had a person ready to pick up the dresser that we finished yesterday, so yay for that.

It often happens like that, either something gets snapped up immediately or it can languish on Marketplace for ever. Fortunately our average is pretty good, so long may it flourish.

I finally got round to fitting the tyre back on the truck. I had been putting it off as the bloody thing was so bloody heavy.

I spent the evening reading up on lawn care. I want to do something to improve the front garden, so yet another project to do.

12th June 2019

Got back to work day. We managed to finish the dresser from yesterday, and I sanded the top from another coffee table.

I thought it would be a good idea to scarify the back lawn. The grass is not in good shape, so my idea was to get rid of the thatch that must have built up over the years. Of course I totally underestimated the time it would take to do.

I scraped away for ages, got up loads of dead stuff, but just doing it made my body ache all over. I hurt my neck some weeks ago doing something, during the move, but the action of scratching the ground seemed to aggravate it.

I only managed to do half the lawn and fill up a bag and a half of stuff, and collapsed on the sofa.

I must look on YouTube to see if there is a yoga session dealing with lawn care.

11th June 2019

“We need to get the puncture repaired” I announced, “and whilst we’re out we need a tail light, and a wheel brace”. The list of car things were growing. The police around here just need any excuse to pull you over, especially if their quota for the month is light. The wheel brace we need in case of another puncture.

On the way to the tyre place we stopped in at Goodwill. It had been many weeks since we had been in either of the two in Holland, we expected them all to be wearing black armbands in memory of Kelli. As it happens they weren’t, but what they did have was a pine dresser with a “broken slide” for five dollars. So we snapped it up. To our delight it was seniors day with a 20% discount on purchases, so we got it for four. There is alway some advantages to being an old git.

We got to the tyre place only to be told that it was unrepairable. As we only bought them in September it was a bit of a blow, however at the time we took out a warranty. This meant that the new tyre was free, and all we had to do was renew the warranty. I’m sure it was a bit of a scam, but for seventeen bucks I’ll take it.

On the way back we stopped to get the car parts.

“I’m looking for a wheel brace” I asked the guy behind the counter who looked blankly at me.

There was a awkward silence, “to tighten wheel nuts” I added.

“Oh, you mean a four-way?”

“ Does it tighten wheel nuts?”

“Yup!”

So he walked over and found it for me.

Another lesson in Americanise.

10th June 2019

Back to the book store for a few hours, then back to carry on scraping the finish from the top of a gate leg coffee table. This is a hard job without damaging the veneer. In just over an hour I managed to strip one leaf, only one left to do.

Kelli Painted the side tables, so soon they will be on Marketplace.

There had been some correspondence from another vendor from Painted Farmgirl discussing the possibility of taking the owner to court for fraud. The consensus is we are unlikely to get the money we are owed, so this is the only option open.

Kelli knows from experience of closing her clothing consignment store that settling up with the consignees is a difficult, and out of pocket expensive. With Painted Farmgirl we have some sympathy, but also bitterness because the amount of money is significant. We lost the opportunity to restock without funding it out of our own pockets.

9th June 2019

The rain came down, I had jobs to work on in the garage.

I also had to change the rear wheel of the truck because it had a puncture. There was a shard of metal in the tyre. It is never fun changing a wheel in the rain, but it is not my first experience of doing that. First I had to empty the back of the truck because as usual there is boxes of stuff for donation stacked in the back. Then lift the carpet, remove a plastic panel to find the jack. There was a space for the wheel brace, but guess what? no brace.

I searched around in the tool boxes for a spanner or socket, but no luck there. My only choice was to borrow one from Larry. I walked across the road hoping he would be in his workshop, but unfortunately he wasn’t, that meant I had to go to his front door. This is a bit scary as he has a lot of rotten wood on his porch. I climbed the steps carefully, edging my way towards the door, dodging the dodgy boards, and knocking on the door. The door opened and Larry appeared. He reminds me of “Doc” from Back to the Future, although his hair has been cut for the summer, it is usually wild and unruly. I explained what I needed, and he asked me to meet him at his back door, then he disappeared into the darkness of his home.

The back door opened, he emerged and unlocked his workshop. He earns money fixing up cars so he has a good selection of tools and a collection of wheel braces. I took one that looked the right size and walked back to finish my task. The wheel nuts were on really tight, a real white knuckle job to get them off. At one point the joints in my hands locked solid on the brace, a very painful and unsettling conditions. I had visions of never being able to release my hand, and forever cursed to go the rest of my life attached to a wheel brace.

I managed to loosen all the nuts, and changed the wheel, then returned the brace back to the workshop.

The spare was brand new, probably never been used, it was as heavy as bugger.

8th June 2019

We were only in Saugatuck for a half day in the bookshop. We had a selection of enthusiastic customers, and I managed to finish Trevor Noah’s book “Born a crime” before starting James Comey’s “A higher loyalty”

Noah’s book tells the story of him growing up as a child of a white European father and a black mother in South Africa during the apartheid period. It’s describes the inhumanity of divided development, and the horrors created when it fell apart.

This is the only time I get to read, and I get totally enthralled, and often miss people standing at the counter waiting to be served.

The Comey book was targeted by the media as an anti Trump tirade, but there’s also a story of the devious workings of the US government.

He writes of the struggle to maintain impartiality and working to uphold the rule of law.

After the cultural embodiment, I faced a thrilling walk around Target, a store that’s only saving grace is it’s cool carrier bag. This, for me was just tolerable, indulging Kelli in her retail therapy session.

We went out on our bikes for the first time this year, and it was quite different. Last year it was all about looking at houses and wishing we could find one we could afford, what a difference a year makes.indulging Kelli in her therapy session, we drove home.

We went out on our bikes for the first time this year, and it was quite different. Last year it was all about looking at houses and wishing we could find one we could afford, what a difference a year makes.

7th June 2019

It was a stonkingly hot day at Saugatuck. Kelli had to work at the book store, and summer must have started. For the first time I could expose my legs to the sun and dazzle the locals. Although the holiday season hasn’t yet kicked off there were plenty of potential shoppers to keep us busy, I say us, but Kelli does all the work, I act as unpaid protecter to ward off weird people and make sure they don’t bother my wife. I’ve not been tested yet and I’m not sure my flexing muscles scare anyone, but at least I will be able to scream in their ears very loud.

I had my first coffee at Uncommon Grounds, the usual collection of kids on laptops occupied the key tables, but I just tapped furiously on my phone to capture the moment, so basically I’m no better than they are.

We took the dogs down to the beach at point west, the first time I had been there on this trip, and it was glorious, the water was cool and clear, the sand still hot from the sun. I was glad that we were still able to enjoy this place, and now all the moving shit is finished we can do this much more.