Category Archives: home improvements

Wash Time is A-coming – –

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Jack gets over the line – just – –

Yesterday was Wendy’s birthday and her present took a fair bit of work and preparation. When she just missed out in a job interview recently she decided her consolation prize should be the bathroom of her dreams. So I set to work – –

The bathroom we inherited was functional but drab, with an ancient tub we couldn’t keep clean and uneven yellow tiles that leaked!

We sent out a request locally for recommendations of competent folk to carry out the job. In a previous post I mentioned the arrival of Tom and how we weren’t too sure.

He turned to be much more than competent in every way.

A plumber, carpenter, tiler and designer – all in one person. But more than that, anything we needed done while he was here he also did and without us asking!

He also made sure our cats didn’t end up trapped under the floor and got to know them well.

What he didn’t know was that Wendy’s birthday was approaching, but he worked until late on Monday so everything would be finished and ready.

Of course I had to add something so I painted the ceiling and untiled sections of walls before Tom arrived. The pale blue wall color was her choice but she allowed me a small hidden area of orange to make me feel better!

A&A Home Improvements are hereby thoroughly recommended!

A lovely bowl of roses arrived today for Wendy with a card from Tom – – –

Retirement – Bah, Humbug – –

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Jack gets over the line in time again – –

There’s an old saying that you die three times – if you’re interested you can search on-line.

It’s the same with retirement!

I retired from my college job in Scotland when I was sixty in 2002, but not really as I was immediately head-hunted as a training consultant by three different organizations and continued to do that until I moved here to the US.

For a couple of years I really did retire, but then we moved to Big Stone Gap and opened a bookstore. While Wendy was out establishing her health support non-profit and fighting the dragons of the US for-profit health industry, I worked the bookstore. It was a big old building, so I had a fair amount of maintenance to handle, but I had also been invited to start a weekly Celtic music radio show by the local NPR station. Because we lived in the bookstore building we ran regular evening events and had a café run by a friend. So not much retirement – –

We moved to Wytheville five years ago to a house that’s even older and has had many ‘interesting’ additions over the years and has a much bigger backyard. Meanwhile Wendy is at least five years away from retirement and still busy with at least three different jobs!

So I may actually be retired now but I’m still producing and presenting my radio show, still trying to keep the house maintained, still organizing small group tours of Scotland and finding my feet as a house-husband.

As I often say to friends who say they’re looking forward to retiring – “there ain’t no such thing – it don’t exist – it’s all a hoax!

I better bring the washing in from the line now – – –