Life AshoreMisc stuff

Always fun to visit the parents

By October 21, 2020 No Comments

Whenever I visit my mom & dad one of the very first questions I ask is “where is the list of projects you want me to do while I am here?” Do any of you have parents that put you to work when you are home to visit? I am never really sure if they are happier to see me or stuff get knocked off their list so they don’t have to do it. Haha

This year I spent over a month with my parents, because I could not travel to any country due to Covid. As soon as we walked in the door I found my list. Some of it was fairly simple. Others my dad needed a second hand. Still others were outside my wheelhouse, but I did what I could…….contract it out. Haha.

One that my dad needed a second hand with involved trimming trees. Sounds easy enough, right? Not so when we are involved. There were more than a dozen time he told me to get into the bucket of his tractor and he lifted me as high as the tractor bucket could go and then said I want you to cut that branch 10 feet above your head…..Ok it was reachable (barely), but still not the safest way to go about it. Mom took some pictures the first time and said she had 911 already dialed and ready to go, because she was sure there was going to be an accident. It wasn’t the height I minded. It was the fast pace, jerky process of my dad bringing the bucket down. After the first time when I thought I was going to be dumped right out of the bucket, I laid down low in the bucket and still had arms and legs flying everywhere. I have never been one to kiss the dirt when I made it back to solid ground, but there is a first time for everything. Haha.

Another project I had to do is seal 15 display cases for my dad to use for his date nails, which is railroad thing. They are nails with the year on them that the railroad companies put in ties to see how the different treatments worked out. You might think this is fine and dandy, but these 15 I sealed this year go along with the 45 others ones he already has done. Now the is a LOT of nails!!!!

The last project I want to mention is one that I kind of created myself. My parents have a solid wood dining room set from the 70’s. It is a really well constructed and nice looking set of furniture….but it is definitely dated back to the 70’s. One of the issues is the brass wires on the glass of the china cabinet. They did not serve a purpose except to make the glass look like it was many diamond pieces put together. I simply flexed the wire structure and pulled it out. Then I had to take pieces of the wire and put around the rim of the glass to fill in the missing gap. Take a look at he before and after photos. What do you think? I think it updated the set…..now we just need to get them to do something about those velvet gold chair cushions. HAHA.

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