During my first meeting with Craig on July 16th, he told me that his best friend from Vietnam would be visiting for several days in October and that there was several things he wanted to get done before the visit. “Oly” Olson lives in Coeur d’Alene, ID. They last saw each other in 2008 in Washington. At the top of the list was getting The Garden in good shape – reclaiming the land that had been lost to branches and getting his shop cleaned up and the hydraulic car lift installed. By the end of August, it seemed clear that our relationship was solid and we set about getting ready for Oly’s visit.
Oly and his son Erick arrived Friday night at midnight. We left for the airport at 1115PM. Craig came in from the shop at 1045 PM satisfied it was ready. Not a minute to spare. The lift was built. We tore down scaffolding and remade it into a lumber rack, removed all the lumber from the existing lumber rack, sorted it and put it in the new very custom lumber rack. Craig created a work bench for me. I cleaned 10 years of sawdust and grime off of the 46 Chevy panel truck that Craig started driving and modifying at age 17. The shop was organized and cleaned up. In the meantime the house had a deep cleaning, the land was mowed and we were ready for Oly.
Oh, by the way, Craig turned 75 last Wednesday, bought a 2000 Chevy truck with 54,000 miles with insurance settlement for his 2014 Nissan that was totaled after running into a ditch culvert avoiding a dog. He was also able to buy back the totaled Nissan with the settlement money as well which he can repair with he assistance of the new lift.
We celebrated with cake about 10 PM when we finally had the lumber rack “mostly” assembled. Neither of us felt the 75 seemed real so the problem was quickly solved.
The new lumber rack with wood organized. With this done the last day before Oly’s arrival was spent further organizing and cleaning the shop which included constucting a work bench for me.
We picked Oly and Erick up at the airport at midnight and drove back to The Garden. After snacks, the shop was inspected. Here they are looking under the hood of the 46 Chevy panel truck.
We have been so busy it has been hard to find time to catch up on the blog. All of the work to get things in shape for Oly’s visit was so worth it.
The picture below says it all.
Tamara Unleashed 