Another Lifetime to go

8th March 2019

I wanted to fit the support for the sliding barn door. I had bought everything before I went back to the US, so it should have been quite a simple job to do. The kit supplied was for fixing to solid walls, I had a stud wall. I needed to find some large wall plugs suitable for plasterboard. The hunt was on, I tried Wicks, Jewsons, Bradfords, and Travis Perkins, all of them did not have anything suitable, and what’s more, the sales assistants could not suggest any other places I could try.

So I was stuck, I had been out over two hours and achieved nothing.

Now I had another problem to solve.

7th March 2019

Reality hits. Kelli isn’t here to give me my orange juice or brew my coffee, and more importantly give me her big smile. Often it’s a laugh when she sees my morning hair. Without her I hate to think what I would look like.

I had a couple of small jobs to get me re-acclimated, but nothing too challenging.

6th March 2019

I was enjoying the second film at about thirty seven thousand feet when the man next to me suddenly goes into a spasm. His arm shot into the air, brushing my cheek. His wife started shrieking desperately trying to bring him round. Not wishing to spend the rest of the flight next to a corpse, I got out of my seat and tried to check for life signs, you know, wallet, watch, any jewellery (just joking, you know that his wife was already doing that). After a while he started to groan and moving, so that was the end of that, or so I thought.

About half an hour later he started choking and gasping. This time I hit the call button to alert the cabin crew. After the last outburst, I made sure I knew where it was. A lady rushed to my row with a large plastic bag, and handed that to his hysterical wife who placed it in front of the struggling man, and just in time as he vomited several times. I can’t do vomit, the sound and the smell can set me off, so I walked to the back of the plane and inquired if the man could be moved to another seat preferably near the toilet. It was suggested that I could move, which I immediately accepted. Then I had to find the place in the film that I was at when this whole drama erupted. I settled down, and resumed the rest of the flight.

As the aircraft flew in low to land there was a lot of cross wind, so there was a lot of twitching, although the touchdown was better than I expected.

Damian and lisa were there to meet me, then we drove down to Blissford to collect my car.

The drive back was a little odd. I hadn’t driven much when I was in the US and I was tired from the journey, but I made it back, and the place was just as I left it. My sister Nicola had been checking my mail, and had put some essential in the fridge, she is a wonderful person.

5th March 2019

I had an early evening flight out of Grand Rapids, so no rushing. The weather was not good, so after saying goodbye to Kelli’s Mum and dad, we headed off. We had to make a brief stop to meet up with a lady who had bought a chair from us.

The car park was at GR bursting, something to do with spring break. The terminal was heaving with the coming and the going.

Leaving is always difficult for Kelli, she always need support from her children when I travel. This time she had both of them to accompany her on the drive back to Holland.

There was a little delay, as first the gate was changed and then the de-icing, but I had a couple of hours in Chicago.

What a job the de-icing team have. There is no summer consolation, they only go out when it’s bloody cold. Being stuck on the end of a telescopic arm squirting goo onto the aircrafts is not a glamorous job, and although essential, you would think an automatic process would have been designed by now.

Whilst sitting having a coffee, I overheard a father giving his son a maths test. All the time he criticised the lads handwriting, and kept telling him off for getting the answer wrong.

This man did not seem the best example of a parent.

The flight was quite full, and I found myself surrounded by Indians. They must have been a group travelling together to sample English curries. No one spoke English, the women were all talking loudly, and all sitting in the wrong seats. Eventually that all got sorted out, and I settled in for my film binge.

4th March 2019

A frantic morning to get the cupboard ready to take to Hudsonville. The simplest jobs take the longest to sort out, and this case, it was the doors. Both had a bow at the top, the other a bow at the bottom. As the hinges were not adjustable I had a heck of a job tweaking them to get the doors to sit right together. The temperature had dropped quite a bit, so working in the garage was out of the question.

It had started to snow again, making the journey to Farmgirl a little tricky. There was a driver who pulled out in front of us causing Kelli to brake hard. By chance there was a cop car behind us who then overtook us and pulled behind the offending vehicle. Kelli showed her joy at not being the victim for once by whooping and gesticulating her support for the law enforcer.

We had to pick something up on route. The snow was falling and the roads were white. I asked what it was we were collecting?

“It’s a sign” Kelli replied.

After a pause I said “Does the sign say Road Closed?”

This didn’t get the laugh I expected.

We eventually got to Farmgirl and unloaded the new cabinet. A quick check around to see what had been sold over the weekend, but not much had gone, so a little disappointing.

3rd March 2019

Kelli had a few people picking up stuff including a lady who came to collect the white storage box that had been on special sale this weekend. We showed her the piece, but she looked apprehensive, and a bit disappointed. So she passed, got back in her truck and drove off. This is a bit depressing, as we were counting on getting the sale.

We drove to a petrol station on the north side to meet up with a buyer of another of Kelli’s amazing purchases. Pulling into the forecourt looking for a particular vehicle is a little creepy, and must be intriguing to anyone looking at the CCTV. So another deal done, and heading back to work like dogs to get the piece finished for tomorrow.

I have one full day left to wrap up the other two projects.

2nd March 2019

Kelli managed to earn $100 whilst still asleep. The selling machine rumbles on relentless. This time it was an article of clothing that someone wanted that Kelli just happened to have hanging in her closet. Well to be correct there were several, all the same style but different colours. When she likes the fit she goes all out to collect every option available. When she saw this request she responded with a crazy price, expecting it to be contested for a lower amount, but no, it was accepted.

This has been going on all week, with another pick-up in the late morning.

We also had a visit from a guy that we had bought an old oak desk from last year. He had another piece that he was desperate to get rid of, and thought we might be interested. He showed us pictures of a massive pine structure that he had removed from the bathroom of a house he was working on. It had a basin attached and a cut-away drawer underneath. We said we were interested (it was free) and made arrangements to collect it.

To say it was heavy was an understatement. The corner posts were made from 4”x 4” solid timber, the worktop and shelves were 1 1/4” thick, but somehow we managed to load it into the truck and get it back home.

Kelli put it straight on Marketplace and described it as ideal for a man cave, with the basin and space for a fridge. We shall see if we get any takers on it, if not I have plans to make it a little more manageable when I return.

A visit to Goodwill rewarded us with a double door cabinet that could be a quick project, which was just as well because we heard that one of our dressers had sold.

We picked up Kelli’s “Birthday present” carefully loading it into the truck.

Once we were back home, and no sooner than me saying “ I need to use the bog” she had it in place and fully loaded with stuff, and greeting me as I opened the door.

1st March 2019

I had brunch with Dave at Bob Evans, and surprisingly there were very few old people there. I expect most of them got wiped out in the recent cold spell. It is our opportunity to chew the fat and a chance for me to slag off the Republicans, in the nicest way possible.

Kelli had already agreed her birthday present, not sure who with, but you have to give her A+ for effort.

She likes to get things sorted well in advance, sometimes six months ahead. However as her birthday is in April, it’s not so bad. I have to be on my toes as hints are fired off at any time, a bit like a clay pigeon shoot. I have to be ready with a good reason why not, at any time.

I have practiced the art of deflection, and I pride myself that I can hold off for as long as it takes until she has another choice, and we go through the same dance again.

Anyway the latest “present” idea is a piece of furniture at the animal charity thrift store. It is too expensive to buy to sell on, but she had phoned, got a discount, got all the dimensions, and had it put on hold, so all my potential reasons for not getting it were shot down before I start.

We took the two side tables to Hudsonville, and prepared the booth for our “pop-up” sale weekend. The space is pretty full now, hopefully we can start the month off to a flying start.

On the way back we picked up a pair of tee shirts with ”Hubby” and “Wiffy” printed on them, I just hope we get them the right way round.

28th February 2019

“All you have to do is to sand the tops of those side tables” these words reverberate in my ears very often. I was expecting to get them done over the week end, but no, they now have to be ready to take to Hudsonville on Friday.

So I started, first I spread paint stripper over the one with the high gloss finish expecting it to erupt in a bubbling mass of muck, but it did not happen. The stuff just sat there with no signs of any chemical reaction. I gave it time, but the clock was ticking, and I needed to give Kelli something to work on. I took my trusty chisel and scraped the surface of the second table. Within a short time I had exposed the raw wood ready for sanding, but number one was still sitting there, I had no alternative but to scrape off the stripper residue and hopefully, remove some of the finish with it.

Well that didn’t work, the gloss varnish was still there, so I attacked it with my chisel. Once all that had been removed, the sanding began. After four hours I was still going. Whatever the wood was sealed with was like armour plate. Piles of worn out sandpaper lay on the floor along with the sawdust. Eventually, with my fingers raw and aching I handed it over to be painted.

Once the primer had been added, I stained both the tops with a walnut colour.

By the time that had been done, both of us didn’t feel like making dinner, so it was just the excuse we needed to go out to eat.

When we got back I coated the tops with a clear lacquer and crashed out for what was left of the evening.

27th February 2019

Well we finally got a pot to piss in, Kelli found it at Goodwill this afternoon.

This, and other treasures that we managed to find included, soft furnishings, some metal stuff and a pair of matching side tables. When I go to these places I automatically get drawn to the furniture things whilst Kelli will alway look at clothes. There is never a time when she will pass the racks without pulling something out to look at. I on the other hand can survey the place in ten seconds flat, and then be ready to leave.

There is a new store that supports animal charities, which is a really good cause. The problem is they will often say “ would you like a donation” what a daft thing to say, where are we going to find any animals in this cold weather?

I had to make a new drawer guide for one drawer in the new dresser we picked up yesterday. I went down into Dave’s workshop and machined a suitable piece to do that job.

I have a lot of things to do before I head back to the UK. Most of it should allow Kelli to finish off.