Another Lifetime to go

22nd August 2017

Today was the second coffee meeting of my old classmates from the Bath Art School 61 to 66.

I had arranged to meet at The Boston Tea Party in Alfred Street in Bath, a cool place with plenty of room.

I was the first to arrive, followed by Rob (Donks) and then Carol. It was good to see Donks again, it was about five years ago that we last met, and since then he has built a business of producing chalk board signs for pubs and cafes. He still keeps his hand in with painting, and is quite good at it.

We were waiting around for Maggie and Tom, who both said they would be there.

Eventually Carol had a message from Maggie to say they had both waited and had decided to call it a day, it transpired that both had waited at the Kingmead Square branch, not knowing there was another, better luck next time.

I had to go to the bank to get a certified bank statement to send to Friends Life before they would pay my pension. What a crock of shit that has been. All my other providers have accepted the details I had supplied, but not Friends Life.

I had a day off from Pavilion building, which was a bit of relief, it’s been quite exhausting work.

21st August 2017

I can never have enough pencils, when I’m working outside, they disappear. I often find two lodged behind my ear, other times, they are no longer in this dimension.

It is the same with tools, they are never in the place I need them to be, rather they are where I used them last.

Louise, suggested I have a tool belt, I’ve tried that, doesn’t work, I could have four around my waist, and they would always be empty. I start off with the best intentions, but quite quickly it descends into anarchy. 

It begins with moving a step ladder, trying to find a bit of level ground, finding a firm footing, only it starts sinking the moment I put any weight on it. It never sinks evenly, often it lists to port, so I jumped off cursing, pulling out the legs along with a clod of earth. Soon the site resembles the Somme, with pits full of rain water. The ladder is gradually losing the plastic end caps that are buried somewhere in the battlefield.

God I hate cleaning. I had two cleaning projects to do today, one was wash the floor, the other to clean the cooker. Fortunately, I hadn’t got the cooker in a real bad state, so I purchased some toxic materials and set to work. The grill pan was the worst, it required a two day soak in something nasty. The trouble is once the cooker is done, I darn’t use it. That has been the problem with packing, the only thing I haven’t packed is the kettle. This makes my meal options down to, cold water, warm water, hot water or steam.

20th August 2017

Well it hadn’t rained for at least twenty-four hours, so I decided to cut the grass at the cottage.

A lot of work needs to be done to make it attractive again. I’m trying not to get distracted, the garden will have to wait.

The weather turned crappy again, so it restricted what I could do to the pavilion.

I am desperate to leave the build weather proof before I leave. This is playing on my mind, but hopefully I will at least get the roof felted.

This project has been a challenge, I have tried to use as much of the pallets as I can, even the nails, although I have had to use some new wood for door frames for uniformity.

I can’t believe how much crap I have aquired in five years, far too much for one person. I have purged my clothes, and put all my work shirts in the clothing bank, I won’t need those again.

The only clothes I’m taking to the US are flannel shirts, and sweat shirts. I will be experiencing the autumn and the beginning of winter, so I need to be prepared.

I am looking forward to seeing the colours of the fall, I have been in Michigan at that time before and it is breathtaking. I will be spending  thanksgiving, and even my birthday away, so a lot of new things happening.

19th August 2017

Moved out most of my big pieces of furniture, so all I have are a few basic things and a load of clothes to sort.

The place looks like it’s been burgled, maybe I’ll get some aid parachuted in courtesy of Bono.

This is my last day of dog sitting, and to celebrate I burnt the rice again, damn it!

I fitted some cladding panels on the pavilion, so it’s started to look a bit more realistic.

Ryan, and family arrived back about five, they were glad to be back, and amazed at the progress. I forgot to mention the few times the saucepans boiled dry, and the elbow grease I laboured to get them shiny again. The beer I had drunk, and Dexter’s ginger biscuits I had eaten.

So back to the empty rental, for more packing and cleaning.

18th August 2017

I hate digital magazines. I like nothing more than flipping the pages of a glossy, but I also hoard them. I don’t like to throw them away, so a small stack slowly build into tall stacks, then multiple stacks, then suddenly they start to cut out the light.

Today I had to say goodbye to my magazine mountains and take the to the recycling place.

I loaded them into the back of the car, and headed to the city dump. “Closed on Fridays” the sign on the gate stated, so that put an end to that. Where else could I take them? I remembered that the local supermarket had recycling pods, I’ll Take them there.

Just as I got there, the heavens opened directly above the recycling pods. A perfect dark cloud full of thick rain, hovered over me. Like a wimp I waited in the car, hoping that it would pass. Eventually all the windows misted up, so rather than being the subject of some perverted adult activity, I made a dash to the supermarket. My purchases could have been construed as some weird fetish field trip, with black plastic bags, black sticky tape and string. Stangely aware of the possibility, I lightened it a bit with some bananas, tomatoes and cucumbers. I think I got away with it.

The end of crappy day was heightened by dinner with Helen R. We went to the Bunch of Grapes in Bradford on Avon. I had trout, my first bite contained a load of bones. I had a dilemma, should I choke to death like a gentleman would, or should I spit it out as if nothing had happened. I decided the latter, I think I got away with it. Death has a habit of being a dampener on an evening.

17th August

I had been really lucky with the weather, but today the forecast was not good. However, I was sharp enough to collect a tarpaulin that I had found in my shed, thinking ahead.

I managed to fit the front roof section, and the frame for the doors and window.

I could not fit the OSB to the roof panels because they were just too heavy, I planned to get Ryan to help me when he got back.

I stretched the tarpaulin over the roof section in preparation for the deluge.

Almost immediately it started to rain. I sat drink a beer, smugly thinking to myself, how good was I.

The rain got harder and harder, and I noticed that pockets of water were trapped in the roof sections. I thought “I’ll go and just push the water off” so that is what I tried.

I grabbed a broom and headed out into the storm. I was then aware that the bloody tarpaulin was leaking! How does a tarpaulin leak? Does it have a shelf-life?

 So, I was under a tarpaulin in the pouring rain, getting wetter than if I just stood in the open. It was a bit depressing.

Progress before Big G decided to test me.

16th August 2017

The timber delivery was today. Sheets of OSB and lengths of rough- cut timber ready to make some real progress.

The first job is to move everything into the back garden, ” Shit! Those boards are heavy” and they just got heavier as I went back for the next. 

I was able to lay the floor panels and check the squareness, which was quite good. For once I was ahead of my schedule. I was able to complete the rear roof section, hurrah!

Flooring down.

Rear roof section complete.

Time for another beer.👍

15th August 2017

Every retirement person I have met, say that you will always be busy, too busy to have worked.

I used to think, ” Huh! How can that happen? I will just do what I want to do, when I chose to do it”. I now know what they mean.

I had a restless night thinking about everything I need to do in the next two weeks. My head was spinning. I had to clear the rental house, move my stuff to store at my cottage, arrange to meet builders to discuss changes that will have to be made before the kitchen and bathroom can be done, and that’s just the start of it. I have to make sure that smart meters for the gas and electric are ordered, and that water meters are arranged, and that my Broadband swap-over works. Then on top of that, work on the pavilion and keeping the animals from starving to death. 

When does retirement start to kick in? I guess when I stop working myself to death.

The trouble is me.  I have always like working, and the buzz I get out of seeing things come together. My focus now is less for my self, and more to help others. I don’t mean in a charitable way, more about using my experience and skill  to help my family and friends achieve something they need.

There have been times when I have thought, “Bugger this for a game of soldiers” when I have been trying to lift roof sections on to the top of the pavilion, I realise I’m not as strong as I used to be. I can also be bloody minded, and this gives me the extra energy I need to make the final lift.

In the evening, with the dogs sleeping on the floor, and the cats thinking about their next meal, I lay on the sofa, watching Game of Thrones, fast forwarding the adverts using the only finger that doesn’t hurt. 

14th August 2017

I like my sleep, I may not get much, but what I get, I enjoy. 

I am staying at Ryan and Louise’s to look after their two dogs, two cats, and to build the pavilion.

Dave (the girl) and Dexter (the boy) have completely different temperaments. Dave is really chilled, but Dexter has a bark that loosens fillings, he will head butt the front door trying to get to the postman. His mission in life is to search out food, any food. He has been known to grab stuff dangling from the cat’s mouth. His speed is outstanding.

He is a yapper, guaranteed to make you jump out of your skin. I have to make sure that he sticks to his special diet, otherwise the consequences are devastating. 

I thought it would be fun, to look after (feed) the hordes for the week.

I settled down for peaceful night, but Dexter was yapping intermittently, but I thought he would settle down, some hope.

The yapping became barking, this unsettled Dave, so I got up, thinking they needed to go out.

Out they went, Dave was very quick, but Dexter just wandered about, not doing anything.

I waited for about ten minutes, but Dexter was just doing his thing.”Shake the biscuit barrel” was the instruction I was given in case there were problems getting him in to the house. I was shaking that biscuit barrel like a man processed. Boy! That sounded really loud at two-forty five in the morning. In desperation I tried chasing him, trying to force him back, but he was too quick, and too crafty. I was prepared just to lock the door and let him stew outside all night.

I sat down trying to think of ways of retrieving Dexter, so I opened the biscuit barrel and took out a ginger nut, Dexter shot into the house like a bullet, I had found his weakness.

I crawled back into bed, hoping that peace would prevail, and I could get precious sleep.

13th August

The build continues. If truth be known, using pallets to construct a building is not ideal. There is no precision in how they are manufactured, and it conflicts with everything I’ve been used to.

I have toyed with the idea of building a modular structure for many years, after building my own “MegaShed” back in 1985. There are a lot of companies around specialising in prefabricated buildings, so trying to make something respectable out of old pallets was a challenge I wanted to try.

I already found that trying to make a floor was really difficult, so building a structure that had to be square was the thing I was not looking forward to.

The first layer that I did yesterday, worked pretty well, but adding the second layer would show all the dimensional inaccuracies, and could turn into a nightmare.

I am never content with taking a “safe” option. The pavilion design had a angled cut-back at the front, and an oversailing roof. Originally, this design was going to be pre- manufactured using bolt-together panels. This would have been relatively straightforward.

I added a second level of pallets, this went better than expected. Each section was joined using wooden cleats.

I finished the day in a pretty good mood, I would have to wait until the following Tuesday when the OSB’s are delivered to check on squareness.

Now I needed some rest, the bones and muscles are not what they used to be.