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Thursday at noon BJ stopped by. He is finally ready to take possession of the roll top desk he bought from me nearly four years ago. Here is an excerpt from my diary from December 13, 2006:
“I can’t believe I’m actually in a Christmas mood! The roll top desk I sold to my friend BJ has been cluttering up the front parlor for nearly three months. It was an easy job to move and arrange the pieces into the back workshop. BJ has paid me for it already. I needed more room: that was the main reason I sold the thing. I wish he had not seen it that night he dropped by and I could have just taken it to the consignment shop. I’m regressing! I have it all covered up so it should be all right. I just hate keeping a piece of furniture in an unheated space like that.”
I had been after BJ for YEARS to take possession of that desk. This past March I needed to clean out space in my workshop where that desk had been stored. I contacted BJ and told him I was going to move the desk to my basement where it would be out of the way. “That is the worst place to store anything, but it can stay there till Hell freezes over” I told him.
Six months stored in a damp, musty basement took a toll on that once beautiful piece of furniture. The veneer panels have all lifted, the animal hide glue has let go. The thing is basically destroyed. It is not my concern. I restored that desk back in 1979. I used it a lot of years. I just hate the fact it is now worthless. I moved it in my truck to its new home: a garage full of crap to see if it will dry out some and lose the impregnated musty smell.
Happier times for the desk: Fuzzy and Chloe at home in my Lockport, NY study in the fall of 1996.
The mornings are nice and cool as fall approaches. The project for the immediate future is to get the south side of the house repainted. This was the first painting project I undertook back in 1999. I’ve since changed out the green trim colour, and the single coat of paint done way back then has accumulated quite a bit of dirt and a bit of mildew in the shaded places.
Friday afternoon was spent washing under the eves with a solution of TSP and bleach. This morning I applied Peel Stop Primer to the peeling paint on the verge board. Soon as I finish this entry I’ll get back to painting under the eves with the dark green.
The early mornings are now sweatshirt weather. Since I’m painting I dug out my oldest rattiest sweat shirt. I bought this back in 1972 to wear on the loading docks of UPS when I loaded trucks on the morning sort. It has seen me through more projects! One nice thing is; Stumpy can climb all over my shoulders and chest and not break my skin with his sharp claws. The heavy cotton gives him lots to dig into! He luxuriates climbing on me drooling and giving me head butts. He was one contented cat giving me loves this morning!
Back to my road trip:
Thursday evening: September 23rd.
I was hungry. You can’t go to Lockport and not get chicken wings from Wagners. Way back in the day we would get plates of killer hot wings washed down with pitchers of Genesee Crème Ale. We used to call that beer “Green Death!!” The cook Bev used to come out of the kitchen and laugh at us tearing into those wings!
Wagner’s has undergone two interior transformations since those days. I miss that old tacky dining room of old with the paneling applied so the lines went horizontal instead of vertical. There was a cast iron radiator we used to sit by in the winter after freezing at Larry and Bob’s unheated auction house to warm our numb feet.
Medium is the only way I can enjoy wings now. A small order of 10 wings and two draft beers made for a great supper.
From here I went to visit my sister and family. She was scandalized in that I was wearing my Utilikilt! We had a wonderful visit getting caught up.
It was so good to get back to Joe’s house. When I think of home now it is not the house I grew up in, or even the house I lived in and spent 20 years restoring. It is Joe’s house I now consider my Lockport home. It was my refuge for the 16 months between the time I sold my house and when the transfer south to Tuscaloosa finally came through.
It was a warm evening. We had beers on the front porch and "dished the dirt." It was like I never left and the clock had been turned back to 1997.
First thing I did Friday was to do a quick laundry. My Utilikilt needed a good cleaning. I laid it out to dry on Joe’s patio and left to see my sister Patty in Newfane. I first stopped to pick up a mess of cat litter for her. She can’t carry the 40 pound bags, so I got her a good supply. We had a good visit. As I was leaving she hinted to her neighbor her boyfriend was leaving!!
I had a noon appointment with Joe for a haircut. I need to look as "P-R-E-T-T-Y as humanly possible" for my class reunion. That line is from the john Waters movie Female Trouble. Joe and I know that lines from that film ver-batum. It is scary.....
Joe gave me a wonderful haircut. I was very happy with the results. His coffee machine was plugged up, so after my "do" I went to Niagara County Produce across the parking to to get us a couple cups of coffee. Just as I was checking out Betty walked in the door! We worked together back at HRD. We hugged and I got out of the check out line so we could get caught up. She has never forgotten the time she, Ada, Gary (aka Judy) and I went into Buffalo to see Psyco Beach Party in an old run down unheated theater on the west side of Buffalo. It is magic when you can run into old friends like this. I was hoping her husband who works for the city could turn up an old style manhole cover with raised letters; City of Lockport, NY on the edge. The city uses generic covers now. No such luck....I'll keep trying!
I got the pruning shears and took off for the cemetery. The bushes on either side of my parent’s grave needed to be trimmed way back. Those shrubs have been in the ground since 1985 and are a bear to cut back now. Ron trimmed those shrubs back in 1989. Mom was so impressed on the great job he did. I was never able to equal that trimming. Mom would say, “They look good, but not as good as when Ron did them!” whenever I cut them back.
to be continued
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