Derek Ward

Ward Manor upgrade happenings – We’re remodeling the downstairs bathroom to take out the tub and replace it with a walk-in shower. However, we’re getting close to start time, so we ordered all the tile needed. Yeah, that was a lot of money. The first bit was delivered, but it was by – I guess – a freelancer. We were taking packages of tile out of someone’s car. Well, we got to use the collapsible wagon we picked up with the ambitious goal of using it to walk to the grocery store across the street.

We also took advantage of the Black Friday deals to do some upgrades on televisions. Both MIL’s and our bedroom televisions have been showing their age. It was interesting to see how much thinner current televisions were compared to some most of a decade older. Plus it was nice watching “Dune Part 2” on a new OLED.

Less upgrade and more shuffling was moving a couch from upstairs to downstairs. Fortunately, it kind of slid down the stairs. But it did require quite a bit of shuffling to get it into place. Now to figure out how we’re redoing the upstairs. I mean, we kinda have a plan. Sort of.

Thanksgiving happenings – This year Thanksgiving was being held at BIL and SIL’s house. Since Mom is back out west for a bit, The Wife stepped up to make some of the common dishes. Namely, the stuffing, the apple crisp, and the sweet potato souffle. The stuffing is a family recipe from my paternal grandmother, and it was the first year someone other than Mom or The Brother made it. This was one of the holidays The Wife was very grateful to have the double oven. My contribution was limited to helping reach high or heavy items.

There was a lot of food. SIL went all-out. The Wife’s food was awesome. SIL’s food was awesome. I overindulged in said awesome food. It’s a good thing I took Black Friday off. Food hangovers can be just as bad as alcohol hangovers.

Story Happenings – I finally finished the third Irregulars story. Well, I got the ending finished. Now it’s set it down for a bit and then do an edit. My goal was around 15K words, and it’s sitting at 16K words.

Decorating Happenings – This is The Wife’s favorite time of year. She can let her decorating instincts run wild. To her credit, she’s been keeping the volume of decorations down to what can be easily moved in four to five large plastic tubs. Still, it’s surprising/amazing how the house changes as it is festooned with holiday cheer.

Monday evening my Uncle Calvin passed away. Fuck cancer. Fuck cancer with a syphilitic donkey cock.

Calvin and I were very different people. He was this gregarious man who was happiest outdoors with his horses. I am an introvert who is quite happy keeping his excursions outside Ward Manor to a minimum. We didn’t see much of each other due to living on other sides of the country. Still, the man put in indelible mark on my life.

The summer before junior year of high school, I was sent to work on Uncle Calvin’s farm. Tending to fields, helping with cattle, learning how to irrigate, and so much more. At the time, I didn’t realize how much growing up I was doing. I wouldn’t really figure that out for years.

I have many happy – or at least funny with the passage of time – memories of Uncle Calvin. I am very glad that The Wife got to spend time with him.

I will miss you Calvin.

MIL has been tooling around in an eleven-year-old Hyundai that she bought new. Over the last six months or so, she’s been toying with the idea of getting a new vehicle since hers doesn’t have a backup camera or some of the other modern features. Plus, MIL wanted to go from a sedan to a small SUV or crossover. Well, riding around in her friend’s new car seemed to have been what was needed to push MIL over to actually going car shopping.

We really were just going to go to test drive a car. We narrowed down a Nissan Kicks as a likely possibility, and were going to let MIL test drive one to make sure. We really didn’t plan on coming home with a new car. But MIL really liked the Kicks.

I hate car buying, even when I’m not the one buying the car. It takes so damn long. The plus side was that neither the salesperson nor the finance person did any “hard selling”. It still took hours before MIL and The Wife drove the new car off the lot.

Still some admin stuff to finish up in handing down her old car to family, getting plates transferred, and other items. But as of now, the driveway has both the Ward Wagon and new MIL-Mobile.