Another Lifetime to go

18th September 2023

It was definitely a landmark day, despite a restless night sleep. Kelli had a doctors appointment in Zeeland and I was a little apprehensive that she would be okay for it.

I was pleasantly surprised because she didn’t appear to be affected at all. Things got even better as the doctor checked her resistance to the supplements she is on. He was able to knock off four of them drastically reducing her monthly expenditure. That was fantastic news, and all mainly due to eating meat again.

This has been a major shift in our eating pattern, and I have to admit that I feel better for it. I really need to build muscle mass to stop me becoming scrawny, so throw another burger on the grill.

These visits do have an impact on our day, because once we have our bike ride and some lunch there is only a few hours left to do any work.

There seemed to be a little interest in our finished pieces, hopefully they turn into firm sales, that would give us room in the garage and some money in the bank.

17th September 2023

There wasn’t much on the agenda today, we moved the small round table into the sunroom marking the end to outdoor eating.

There a chance to catch up on all the unedited news, I’ve got fed up with all the two party slanging match. I learnt that Americans are kept at each other’s throat through fear so the news is designed to keep the fires burning.

After breakfast, I had to mask up a couple of chairs that had been returned to us with paint scratched off part of the back. We had painted them almost a year ago. The masking is what takes the time, carefully sticking small pieces of masking tape around the spindles is a real fiddly job.

In the afternoon, we had to go to Kelli’s mum for Brenda’s birthday cake cutting and eating, I like that bit. It was fun kicking Brenda’s small dog’s ball in difficult places and watch the little bugger try to retrieve it. For once I had a decent slice of cake, although that was because there was only a few of us there.

Once the celebration was over we came back and took the dogs around the lagoon, of course Phoebe had to poop on someone’s lawn, fortunately we always carry a poop bag with us.

16th September 2023

No work in the garage today, instead I got the pressure washer out, it was time to clean the house. The north side gets all the green muck, and the washer works well at a distance of one inch. The downside is the spray that comes back on me. I carried the extendable ladder to the front of the house and tried to remember how it worked. It has a clever latching system, that in my opinion is too clever. There is a knack to operating it, unfortunately I had forgotten what that was. There was a couple of false starts, but I did get it working in the end. I leaned it against the side and ascended the ladder with the nozzle in hand. The first blast rattled the ladder, but I soon got the hang of it. Five hundred gallons later the side of the house was clean again.

15th September 2023

It was shopping day, more drama over the lack of the kind of dog food in stock. The packets of salmon and sweet potato were missing from the shelves. Don’t mention the disappearance of the canned version, the dog have been depressed, well not really they will eat anything. Sometimes I feel sorry for them, they have eaten the same food twice a day since they came into this family. They don’t care, they still rush into the house like their asses are on fire and gobble it up, and even licking up any essence left. Dhama still pushed her bowl around the house in her desperation to engulf the food. I can relate to that, although I could not eat baked beans on toast everyday for twelve years. I tend to eat fast, I don’t know where that came from. I look at Kelli’s plate and things slowly disappear, it’s so frustrating, many times I’ve offered to help he finish it. Of course the dogs circle hoping to grab any morsel that drops on the floor. I keep telling them that there is no point in hanging around me, I drop nothing on the floor, my clothes, maybe, but they would starve to death waiting for my morsels.

We had another unsuccessful bike ride searching for eggs, nothing in the two places we know, we may have to spread our area wider.

We finished another small dresser, joining the other unsold pieces. We are not sure what is happening, even John and Patty were experiencing slow sales, and they never admit this, so things must be bad.

14th September 2023

My poor brain is being fried with everything that is going on.

You have the Democrats going after Trump, the Republican going after Biden, you have his son who is being indicted for tax avoidance, and I haven’t touched on Covid yet.

So this divided country is driving itself to the bottomed an enormous cess pool of corruption.

With Covid there is constant arguments about where it originated, a wet market or a viral research laboratory in China. As one of the first victims worked in the viral laboratory, I don’t think there is any argument, but they do.

Now there’s the thing, the main stream media here do not mention anything that is detrimental to the “story”, but I also watch other networks who go into much detail about what appear to make a lot of sense.

The truth about the vaccine will eventually come out, it may not be in my lifetime but it will.

It’s the same about the assassination of JFK, more facts are coming out that question the results of the Warren commission. So many suspected that the CIA were behind it, and soon this will be confirmed.

So all this is going on. And my small grey sponge is trying to deal with it.

On a much more simple level, I had to get materials from Menards that meant a short trip out, well it took longer because Kelli came along and added more stuff to the cart.

We had a lady call round to look at a small hinged chest we had for sale. “ It is smaller than what I thought” she said. Warning! Time waster.

We made our second batch of elderberry syrup, the aroma of the berries, cinnamon and cloves filled the house, I could even smell it in the garage.

13th September 2023

We got our eggs this morning whilst we were on our bike ride. It was definitely an autumn morning, even though we had our breakfast outside I certainly felt the cold. My hands were gripped tightly around my coffee mug, I needed the warmth.

We had to return a Pyrex dish to Kelli’s mum, and next door there was a dresser that looked to be ready to throw out. We knew the neighbour so when we got home Kelli messaged him to see if we could take it.

While we were waiting I made a start of pumping the water out of the pool. It was sad but there were no more warm days forecast.

It took a while to empty. I ran a hose to the street and let it flow down the side of the road.

When we got a response on the dresser, we shot off to collect it.

There had been overnight rain so it was a little damp, not good as the material used was chipboard, but it seemed to have survived.

Of course the drawers were full of crap that had to be emptied many of them had bird seed in them meaning they had been home to squirrels, but there was no damage to the wood parts.

It was heavy, even taking the drawers out made little difference, but we persevered even if we had to bungee the back hatch down.

Once we got home I cleaned out all the debris and had a chance to check it out throughly.

The top would need some love, replacing the edge band and removing the old finish, and a bit of work on the drawers but that’s all. It not a work of art, but should be good for someone.

I had laid out the pool to dry out before we attempt to fold it. From the time we got it I have never understood how it was folded to fit in such a small box, it was pure sorcery. We only just get it inside a large plastic crate.

12th September 2023

At least it wasn’t raining. The bike ride was brisk as a cool breeze was blowing from the lake. Luckily I was wearing a hoodie so I was protected. We did the usual circuit passed the house with the eggs, of which there was some, but neither of us had any money, so we sped on.

We had several dressers in process, and a buyer for the small green one, this was being delivered later on.

We had a treat in store this evening, we had arranged to meet John and Patty, our furniture restoring friends for dinner. We went to the Curragh, an Irish pub in downtown Holland.

But first we had to deliver the dresser to an apartment block on the south side. These can be dodgy places, and yes this was the one.

We found the correct block, and rang the doorbell, at the same time a big black guy burst out of the door, the strong smell of cigarette smoke hit us. Then the lady came forward holding a small dog. She followed us out and we showed her the dresser. She tried all the drawers and asked us if we would take less. I signalled to Kelli “no” and she explained that we had another person interested, and we did deliver it. Anyway she agree to pay the full price.

We carried the dresser into the lady’s small apartment, it was just large enough to swing her dog but that was all. Then it got a bit weird. She started talking about her kitchen, and what suggestions could I make to give her more storage space. As she was speaking, her little dog was chewing at my leg, it’s sharp teeth piercing my denims, I would flick it away when the lady wasn’t watching, I was poised to give it a swift kick aimed at the window.

Once it got bored it went over to Kelli and started chewing on her legs.

Also running about was a long haired rabbit, at first glance it looked like a toupee on legs.

All the animals, and a collection of carrying crates there wasn’t much space left.

Everything about the room was wrong, and I remarked that the whole room should be torn down and replanned. That was unlikely to happen as it was a rental, by then we had to excuse ourselves because we were meeting friends for dinner, and left.

11th September 2023

What a miserable day, rain was forecast all day, and rain it did.

When it rains here, it really pours, and it lasts for ever. In England it can pour, but only for a short time, then it’s like it gets tired after ten minutes and then resorts to drizzle for the rest of the time. American rain is tough, it can last for hours, it fills up the uneven road surface causing huge puddles, and when cars race though it, the water splashes into the air and joins the water coming down, making a god almighty deluge.

We had to go out to collect a table, I’m sure if we waited the bloody thing would have flouted to us. Anyway it was raining so Kelli looked around for an umbrella, it’s all of five feet to the truck, but she had to find the umbrella.

Once we got to the vehicle, the passenger side door was locked, so I enjoyed the droplets as I waited for her to unlock the truck. I watched as she tried to slide in whilst still holding the umbrella over her head . Now there comes a time when you have to make the decision to close it and bring it inside. That is when a drop fell on her wrist. You would have thought it was acid by the shriek she made.

Once she calmed down we set off to collect the table. On and on we drove through the driving rain, “is this still Holland?” I asked

“Not far now” was the reply. The GPS croaked into action, “ Take the next right” then more instructions followed, finally there it was sitting outside the garage with a plastic bag over the top. I was delegated to go out into the storm to collect the piece, not only did I get wet from the rain the water that had settled on the top ran down my arm and under my sleeve, oh I love that feeling.

Because of the weather it curtailed our work in the garage, although with clever movement of things kelli did manage to spray. I sat on a stool stripping another of its nasty paint.

10th September 2023

We went on the hunt for egg this morning. In our house there is high consumption of the little oval things. We have two places that we can get them, so we headed towards the first one on south shore. As we approached I looked if I could see the outline of the cool box that they are stored in. Was it or wasn’t it there? my eyes were playing tricks,” it’s there, damn it, it isn’t”.

We cycled on to the next one, a bit more expensive, but we’re prepared to pay the extra, even though we have further to travel.

The small stand at the side of the road loomed . Is there or isn’t there? No! Damn it. Aren’t the feathered bastards laying today? Will we have to go to the shop and buy them?

We felt defeated, we had doubled our ride and got nothing.

Kelli had arranged another dresser pick up, there seems to be a glut of them but no one is buying ours at the moment.

We got to the address and waited for the people to arrive. The garage door opened and there were a few pieces left. The chap carried out the dresser that we bought. They wanted 10 dollars for it, and nether of us had the cash except for a few notes, that meant we had to raid the coin jar. This is where I deposit all the small change I am given. Over the weeks it builds up to quite a stash. Kelli counted out all the small coins, and over here the size of the coin bares no resemblance to its value. We ended up with a large pile of small change that she place into an envelope. I was the lucky one who had to hold it as we drove to the place. The weight was cutting off the circulation to my legs so I was glad it was only a short trip.

Well we took the dresser, and Kelli handed over the envelope. I could tell the lady wasn’t expecting the weighty present.

Just as we were leaving other things caught Kelli’s eye, and they were free, alway guaranteed to get her interest and save things from the land fill. She picked out bird feeders, a seed dispenser and if I let her a statue of a child holding an urn, fortunately it was broken, so we left that.

Just as we were leaving she saw a sprinkler that fitted on a hose “we’ll have that” she said.

Now with all our treasures, we headed home.

“I’m really excited with all the free things we got”

I indicated that it was way down on my level of interest.

9th September 2023

We finished one of the small dressers that we picked up last week. Kelli did the finishing touches to the paint job, whilst I worked on making a floor and inside back panel for a hutch that we got from the organ man.

I removed the drawers runners, because one of the drawers had been destroyed I decided to make doors instead. I have already made the frames and cut the metal mesh to fit inside.

The general paint finish of the hutch was crap, so in between helping Kelli with painting the doors I started sanding back the rough paint.

During the afternoon the couple that we painted chairs for returned to bring back two that had got scratched. It is alway a risk that it can happen with painted pieces, but in general they still looked good. Usually it’s the legs that get beaten up, but there was barely a mark on them.

Later Kelli went off on her own to Plato’s closet with more stuff to sell whilst I started thinking about a repair to a guitar that her brother Matt had thrown into the dustbin ages ago.

I rescued it and set it aside as a side job.

The guitar had fallen and snapped the headstock right where it had joined the neck. He attempted to repair it with Gorilla glue, but was not confident that it would hold up to having strings fully tensioned.

I have watched a number of videos on this type of repair, so I thought I would have a go myself, what possibly go wrong?