Another Lifetime to go

18th March 2019

The weather forecast for today was supposed to be dry, which meant digging the garden. I also wanted to cut wood for the new step into the bathroom. I lugged my saw up from the shed and mounted it on to the workmate. Plugged in the extension cable, and cut my first piece. Measured and cut the second when I felt a few drops of rain. Checked on my phone app only to see that rain had appeared. “Oh, okay its only until 11.00 then it’s clear again” I said to my self. The rain got heavier, this meant I needed to move the saw into the dry. As the rain was only limited I put the saw into the porch, which then meant I couldn’t get into the house without severe stretching of the legs. I decided that there were a few things I could do in the house, but I needed things from the shed. I couldn’t get out of the house because the saw was blocking the way.

Things were getting difficult, I spotted a bit of clear floor, “if I could get my foot there I could climb over” went through my mind. However, the space was just a little bit smaller than my shoe, so I had to launch myself in a ballerina pose, hoping my toes would hit the clear space. In total I did it over six times, and still the rain continued. I was running out of jobs to do.

I then remembered that I had to take the truck back to the garage for work to be done. The rain eased off for a while, lucky as I had to walk back. Just as I got to the path it started raining again. I decided to have my lunch, but that meant negotiating the saw once again.

Eventually the rain stopped, allowing me to cut all my timber.

I took the opportunity to start building my double bed frame. This had been sitting around for a couple of years awaiting this day. It was one of the last home projects I did at Herman Miller, that was lucky, because I would not have been able to do that level of machining at home on a workmate. The frame was made from oak and was rather heavy, getting the “dominoes” in position and clamped caused the sap to rise, but eventually it was left for the adhesive to cure.

A guy arrive to pick up some speakers that I had advertised on Marketplace. I am going through stuff and hopefully make some space.

He had driven down from Swindon to collect, and was the first to respond. In all I had nine people contact me for these, but no one had asked about the coffee table I had advertised last week.

Flushed with success, I went into the shed to find the next item I wanted to sell.

17th March 2019

It was the day of the Bath half Marathon. I got up especially early to drive into the city, to find a place to park. I wanted to support my daughter in law who was taking part in her first thirteen miler.

As I entered the city, all the places I usually find to park had other people’s cars in them, so I ended up having to use the paying ones.

It was a wonderful morning, the wind was bitter, but when the sun shone it was perfect.

I had a lot of time to kill, so I walked around the streets that were filling up with competitors and their supporters. Nike seemed to be the footwear for choice, the brighter, the better.

I made my way down Pultney street, and found a good place to stand. It was good because the sun was not obscured by buildings. It was right in front of the place where all the runners would assemble, therefore the best place to see Louise.

The person on the PA was obviously a professional, he spoke non stop about everything important, and a lot that was not, but it was entertaining. Gradually the crowd around me was filling up fast, normally I do not like lots of people, but today felt different.

Soon the experienced runners appeared doing their warm-ups and looking very cool in their mirrored sun glasses. I had never seen so many tattoos in one place, one guy was completely covered. It looked like he was becoming engulfed in his ink work, the plant like design slowly creeping up his face. I saw these close-up because the lady next to me was part of a group from Poole in Dorset. She did have the loudest shout, and I realised it when my ears tingled. I certainly wouldn’t want to wake up next to her when she was in a bad mood.

As the numbers of assembling runners grew, I suddenly felt quite emotional, not that I burst into tears or anything, it was the feeling that I was sharing other people’s dream. Not so much the experienced runners who run to win, but the many who wanted just to do it, like Louise.

At 11.00 the Marathon started, all the legs started to move, slow at start, as they walked, trotted, or jogged to the start. I was scanning the passing runners hoping to see my girl. There was so much eyeball movement I thought they would fall out. I think Louise saw me first, but it was such a great moment, she had worked hard for this.

She was sponsoring Bloodwise, which covered research into Leukaemia, that took her mother, and Lymphoma that nearly took my son. This was my eye moisturising moment, I was so proud of her, and I know her mother would have been too.

I waited until the last competitor had passed before I slowly headed back to the car.

I managed to lay out the new path in the garden, there is a lot of soil to move, but thankfully it is good soil, but still back braking work.

16th March 2019

Bristol Cottage was having a good day. We sold the heavy vanity unit that we got for free. This was a relief as it was taking up all the space in the garage.

Kelli was on a roll and also sold a red bench seat that she only bought yesterday.

I, on the other hand fitted new windscreen wiper blades, and polished the headlight covers. Now I have lights!

I picked up two brackets for my TV stand. Of course they weren’t correct so, I set about modifying them. I found all my metal files and set about making the brackets fit. I wired up some speakers, and fitted a bathroom shelf, even I was on a roll.

15th March 2019

Shogun MOT day, what a shitter. The truck failed on windscreen wipers, washers, dull headlight covers and a leaking exhaust. In the old days I used to take my car in to be pre- examined, any faults were identified and rectified before the MOT. This was a much better idea, and avoided paying twice for the test.

14th March 2019

My sister and Colin visited for a tea and a chat.

I had been working on the strengthening blocks for my barn door rail. I hope this will do the job.

Drove down to Blissford to pick up the Shogun, Damian hadn’t used it whilst I had been away, so the battery was flat. He had various apparatus for starting cars, but none worked, instead out came the good old fashioned jump leads. The engine burst into life, and after a quick cup of tea I headed back. Driving it is a difference experience. In the Jag, getting from naught to death is so fast, in the Shogun there is plenty of time to contemplate end of life, which I much prefer.

13th March 2019

I was the first time I had seen Steve for sixty years, as he walked in the the Boston Tea Party, I recognised him, and he recognised me.

The few benefits of Facebook worked its magic. Through an old school friend it led me to Steve, who was at the same village school in Upper Swainswick.

His memory of our early days was as good as mine, but he was able to add to my recollections.

It felt strange, but wonderfully empowering. His life was so different from mine, he was happy with what he had achieved, and enjoying his retirement.

We talked for over two hours, we only covered the headlines, but the door is now open for more coffee meetings.

In the afternoon I met up with (Studio) Dave for a coffee and a catch up. With all the coffee I had been drinking I was sloping about a bit. I felt guilty that I still hadn’t got much work done on the house.

On the way back I picked up a TV stand from Moss of Bath. I was excited to put it together, but like always there was a problem. The fixing hole pattern didn’t match the TV. A phone call to the shop resulted in a couple of lateral brackets for me to collect. I also thought that the stand was too high, so as the column is an aluminium extrusion, so a slight modification will be in order.

12th March 2019

More painting, more filling, more sanding, more painting, it goes on. The only consolation is it is off the list, one less to do.

I put my first item on Marketplace to sell, I need to get rid of stuff. I had a living room with two coffee tables, so one had to go.

I checked on EBay to see what HM tables go for, as mine was pretty plain I priced it accordingly. I also had a Rubner desk that is very rare. There was nothing on eBay, and also nothing on the internet. I looked up Karlheinz Rubner the designer, and found no reference to any work he did for Herman Miller.

The product was the subject of much controversy at the time, and it was discontinued very quickly. It is sad that it seemed to been erased from history.

11th March 2019

An early visit to the dentist to have a crown re-attached, not my ideal experience, but things have to be done.

I had lunch with my friend Rob, the one who knows everybody in Bath. He was waiting for surgery on a shoulder injury sustained when he fell off a ladder. He was decorating a client’s bedroom when the accident happened. We laughed when he explained that he had just moved the bed, had he left it where it was, it would acted like a trampoline and bounced him right back up.

I took the opportunity to have a hair cut, this makes me more streamlined for the hard digging I have to look forward too.

In the evening another wonderful curry evening at The Mint Room with my best friends.

Kelli had a good day at the Painted Farmgirl selling two pieces.

One was a commissioned piece where we were given a requirement for a dresser that we found, and finished it.

The other was a small hutch that Kelli had delivered to Hudsonville late last week.

There was also someone wanting the big white storage chest.

10th March 2019

The task for the day was painting the door frames. Several coats later I could see imperfections that I was not happy with. I started mixing P38 and started to rebuild missing sections. Some might say I was being fussy. I must have given the frames four coats, and even that didn’t seem enough.

The painting took most of the day to complete, and afterwards I drove down to see Ryan and Louise and get ravaged by the dogs who remembered me, ah, so good not to be forgotten.

9th March 2019

The objective today was to get the barn door sanded and painted. First I had to machine a groove along the bottom edge to accept the guide that attaches to the floor. This stops the door from flipping out. I rummaged around the shed and found my trusty router. I pulled out my workmate, my extension cable, and adjustable spanner, I made the cut in a single pass then had to put everything back in the shed again.

Kelli sent me a picture of some mangled metal and asked me to identify it. I was not sure of the scale of the thing, so it took a little time to recognise it. It turned out to be the missing ornament that we thought fell out of the truck at Aldi, and how I had to drive back in the freezing cold to look for it. Turned out that it must have fallen out of the truck in the driveway, and I probably ran over it when I drove to Aldi to look for the bloody thing.