Category: Family

A couple of weeks ago, The Brother and I were looking out upon the expanse of Ward Manor and saw this bird alight on our arbor.

I snapped this pic and decided to go back and see if I could figure out what it was after dinner. Then, I forgot. I was reminded about this bird the next day when another one showed up at the day job.

When I came home, The Wife suggested an image search because I couldn’t find it in my books. That’s when I found out that there’s a built-in image search on my photo app.

It’s a tri-colored heron.

Like a lot of the more unusual birds we’ve had at Ward Manor, it hung around for a few days and then vanished.

Wedding Happenings – This past weekend, BIL and SIL got officially married and all. It was a simple service with The Wife officiating. We’re all so very happy for the both of them. I had no official role, other than to walk The Wife down the aisle to take her place. This turned out to be fortuitous when her the shoes she was wearing spontaneously decided to strike their wedges and become sandals. Still, great joy and merriment was had by all. Particularly the grandniece who got to play herself to exhaustion.

North Carolina Happenings – Of course, the next day, The Wife and I drove up to Charlotte, North Carolina so she could do some face to face time with her team. My work is being “finicky” about folks working remotely, so I took personal time. However, I still ended up bringing my work stuff with me because of a large project going on and a short turnaround for one of my parts. So, while The Wife walked across the street to the office building, I logged into work. The nice thing about working while technically on leave meant I didn’t feel particularly guilty about switching from work to goofing off. I still managed to get my work done.

The drive up was mostly uneventful. No real traffic or weather issues. There were a couple of items of note. The Wife’s flip-flops broke, making her two for two on shoe destruction that weekend. The nice thing about living in the future is that she ordered another pair of her casual shoes for delivery to the hotel. The other weird thing was Siri randomly deciding it needed to give me directions at 2X speed.

Sunday night’s dinner was raiding a nearby grocery for a few items that we missed in the whirlwind of packing and wedding stuff. The Wife was fascinated that this grocery store had a wine bar in the middle of the store. Monday night’s dinner was at a Cuban place that was pretty good. It was as good as anything I would get in Tampa (which is high praise for you outside of Tampa). If we have to do this trip again, it will certainly be on our list. The one thing Monday’s dinner showed was gaps in The Wife’s knowledge of Spanish/Cuban fare. Since I grew up in Tampa and was briefly married into a Cuban/Puerto Rican family, I’ve absorbed a lot of food knowledge over the years. Enough that I take it for granted that anyone who’s spent enough time on the central Gulf Coast would know. Let’s just say there were some food items that I was very surprised The Wife was unaware of. This means some trips up to certain Tampa restaurants are required.

Wednesday we got up at oh-dark-early to make the trek south. Tuesday was rainy in North Carolina to the point there were flash flood warnings. We figured leaving early enough we would miss the weather. Yeah, not so much. We did get hit with some pretty heavy rain on the way down. Once that cleared out, it wasn’t a bad ride down. Until we hit the major road leading to Ward Manor. I swear we spent more time in traffic there then we did on any of the highways. At least we got home and unpacked before 2pm.

Kickstarter Happenings – Several months ago, The Wife convinced me to pick up an Olight Ostation to recharge my AA batteries. I really liked it and wished it also came in a version that would recharge my AAA batteries. Then I get an email that Olight has a new version on Kickstarter. After talking with The Wife, we decided to back the project to get the Pro version. If there’s one thing we learned last hurricane season, we need to make sure all of our batteries are charged quickly. Plus, I’ve moved household electronics to use AA and AAA instead of CR123’s.

Color Coordination Happenings – One of my quirks that The Wife doesn’t really understand is my shirt rotation. My “work uniform” is a polo and cargo slacks – except for Fridays when the slacks are replaced with a kilt. I have a line of different polo shirts that I’ve accumulated over the years. I grab the next one in the line, find the appropriately matching slacks/kilt and accoutrements and prepare for the day. I recently purchased two new kilts. The Wife was enamored with one that had greens and browns. She asked if I was going to be wearing that last Friday. I told her that depended on the rotation. She gave me that look she always gives me when I say something that just does not compute in her worldview. Later on, she asks which end of the row I pull my polos. You can see where this went.

Me: It’s as if a ghost put a shirt in the front of the rotation that would match the kilt you asked about.

The Wife: Well, if it was a ghost, at least it’s a color coordinated ghost.

I wore the new kilt last Friday.

Upstairs Happenings – The shuffling to decompress The Wife’s home office and turn the loft area into a shared craft room continued with some major moves. It was a lot of “if we want to move this here, then we need to move that there.” For example, we moved what is essentially a mobile kitchen prep table from her office into mine. Which involved me moving a corner cabinet. Which meant I had to move my rack I use for my airsoft rifles. Not to mention taking down all of my various toys and such.

My original idea of making it into an aircraft carrier for my mecha will have to wait due to space issues. But version 1.0 of toy display seems to be okay.

It will be interesting when I am able to assemble Superion.

Amazon is so helpful scheduling Prime Days right around The Wife’s and mine birthdays. We get to spend all of those helpful gift cards on sale items.

This year was the DVD year. After Milton and some other outages, The Wife and I decided that we needed a small collection of DVD/BluRays for the times streaming was unavailable. We already picked up a few series that we both liked, so I expanded the collection with “Downton Abbey” and “Lower Decks” as well as “How the Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.” That last one is an anime I really liked.

I also picked up a new twelve bay charger for AA and AAA batteries.

I did pick up a flashlight – an Olight clip on. I haven’t used much of Olights, so I figured I would give one a try. I do love their big AA battery charger.

There were some household goods we needed that got purchased, but the last personal purchase were some toys. Hasbro is releasing a new version of the Aerialbots, and Walmart had Silverbolt on sale. Plus I picked up Air Raid from Amazon. I figure by the end of the year, I will have the new and awesome Superion built and in my home office.

Vehicle Happenings – With me now having to go into the office five days a week, The Wife and I knew that we needed to get another vehicle. We were holding out to see what future plans my day job was going to unfurl, but leadership is being cagey as hell. I don’t even know when they will reveal our new re-org. Anywhoo, there’s been a couple of close calls with The Wife not having a vehicle at her disposal while I’m an hour away.

So, last weekend, The Wife and I moseyed up to the dealership where we bought the Ward Wagon. We told the salesfolks we were interested in this Kia Carnival, a Subaru Ascent, and a Nissan Pathfinder. So, what did we end up coming home with? None of those!

Ward Wagon 2.0 is a 2024 Outback. It was the one that was in the right price range with the right features.

And an action shot.

Retirement Happenings – This week, The Brother “retired” from his day job at the same .gov where I work. He’s been there for nearly 30 years, and took advantage of the early retirement. He has a plan to start up some projects and do some retraining. It’s just weird that he and I are not going to be working at the same “company” like we have for the past sixteen years. I’m sure it’s even stranger for him not going to the place he’s worked for pretty much all of his adult life.

Grill Happenings – Late last year, I got rid of my Weber grill because we were looking at upgrading, and someone said they might have a line on some good deals. There were good deals, but nothing that made me want to put more money down. Plus, I hadn’t been smoking much, so it didn’t seem to be worth laying out cash.

Well, now we have some events coming up where I have been asked to smoke some ribs and other meats. After discussion with The Wife, we ended up picking up essentially my old grill, but this one was built into a little cart with a folding table. After doing some comparisons, we bought it on Home Depot for delivery to Ward Manor.

Monday morning comes and Home Depot says they delivered to my house. Great, but the cameras didn’t pick up anyone delivering anything. I go check their tracking and look at the helpful pictures. It was not my house. It was not my subdivision. It wasn’t even close to my street number. Jump on customer service chat – because Derek hates talking on the phone. The chat associate was helpful to a point. They offered a refund, and I asked if they could refund and reorder. After alll, I still needed my grill. No problem. Except it was kind of like I got disconnected in the middle of the chat. Essentially, I had to restart the ticket again. Second associate joins the chat. Nope, refund not processed, reorder not placed. Hey, do you mind if I contact the warehouse and see if they can arrange for a redelivery? Sure. After all, I still need my grill. While the associate was talking with the warehouse, they must have realized their mistake because, magically, my order appeared on my driveway.

Tuesday night, The Wife, MIL, and I put the grill together. It wasn’t as bad as some of the assemblies we’ve done, but still not the most helpful. I also sacrificed to the Assembly Gods when tightening a nut, and the drill spun the little piece of metal. A nice little chunk of my thumb was removed near the knuckle. It was one of those, “oh I guess it wasn’t that bad” until The Wife mentioned I was bleeding. Then the pain hit. Not enough to go to urgent care, but enough to be annoying. And bloody.

But I have a functioning grill that will get consecrated this weekend for Father’s Day.

Visit Happenings – Last weekend, The Wife, The Brother, Mom, and me trekked down south to visit with my great aunt. It was a nice visit and we went to our favorite little restaurant down there. My great aunt also gave us a blanket my maternal grandmother knit for her many years ago. It now resides at Ward Manor.

I drove back and forth, which is selling more on a Kia Carnival for the next car to join Ward Manor. We will see when/if we make that decision. Of course, they had to listen my playlist of eighties tunes while I was driving because…

Writing Happenings – I’ve outlined and started working on a new isekai story series. I’ve got the MC, the world, and the first story somewhat outlined. One of the quirks of the MC is his fascination with eighties music. Hence, my submerging myself in it.

Day Job Happenings – We’re getting no news from national about the RIF. My team is gaining some new team members via transfers. Which I would normally take as a good sign. They wouldn’t be adding to the team just to cut it, would they? The small fact that’s throwing a spanner in the works is that the decision to expand the team is local and the RIF decisions are being done nationally. And I don’t trust national.

Graduation Happenings – Last weekend, The Wife, The Brother, Mom, and me traveled across the state to watch my niece graduate high school.

Like her brother, The Niece’s ceremony would be held at their stadium. Outside. In the Florida sun and heat. We bought a couple of those seat cushions with backs instead of sitting directly on metal bleachers for hours. What we didn’t anticipate going over was where we would be sitting was in the direct path of the setting sun. This meant a quick trip to the Walgreens for some umbrellas to act as parasols.

Still, for all the heat and discomfort, it was great to see my niece walk across and get her diploma. And I got a nice compliment on my kilt.

Mother’s Day Happenings – For Mother’s Day this year, we had a pair of celebratory meals. Saturday was more adults-only dinner at our favorite restaurant in Sarasota. There was also another celebration at that time, but I going to keep that one a bit more vague. Sunday was a breakfast that included those who couldn’t make it, plus the grandniece. We love the little tyke, but she is a whirlwind of energy.

Clowder Happenings – Due to some shoulder issues, it’s not unusual for me to spend some of the night in a recliner that we keep in our bedroom. It’s also not unusual for me to come back to bed to find our youngest cat, Freya, sleeping in my spot. Normally, I just pick her up – which she hates – and then she scampers off. This time she decided she didn’t really want to leave the bed. Why? Because she found The Wife’s phone and decided it was a new toy. Which would be fine, except when Freya managed to call my phone. Yeah, time to take away kitty toy. At that point, Freya was no longer interested in staying around and scampered off.

Home Office Happenings – So, after I bought a new desk for the home office, I realized on a drive home that I was wasting a great wide desk and an excellent dual monitor because I had it still set for telework. That isn’t happening anytime soon. So, I moved my big wide monitor and laptop over. Still in process, but clearing the new desk gave me a good “landing pad” for my office bags. Unfortunately, there was a casualty. My remaining Exo Squad toy fell and broke. I’m gonna have to go on Ebay and see if I can find a replacement.

Day Job Happenings – The exodus continues as two more folks that I’ve known for most of my career have decided to exit the day job. I am now the longest tenured in two areas. It’s weird being the old man.

Last night, our sweet Bella cat went in for her last vet visit. It was a rough decision, but we believe it was the right one.

Bella came to The Wife ten years ago as half of a bonded pair from Cat Depot. The Wife saw the pair when she was just visiting. She wanted to take them home, but she had a trip planned, and didn’t want to bring them home just to leave them. When she returned and found they were still there, she asked about adoption. Cat Depot decided to be a little bit outrageous in asking for $500 each. The Wife then wrote a letter and said she could not afford that amount, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t provide them with a loving home, and offered to take the pair for that amount. The shelter agreed, and Bella came into her life.

I met Bella as a sweet lovable cat when I started staying over at The Wife’s – The Girlfriend at the time. Bella loved people, and wanted to let you know that in no uncertain terms. She was a big Siamese who just wanted you to pay attention and give her love – and treats. The only time her sweetness evaporated was when we took her to the vet. Then she became enough of a ball of hiss and fury that we were encouraged to chemically sweeten her disposition.

When we moved to Ward Manor, Bella didn’t adapt well at first. She would get lost in the new house and start wailing that Siamese wail. Even more than four years later, she would do that if she lost her humans.

The last couple of years Bella developed diabetes and had to go on insulin. She took it like a champ. Hell, she took the days were The Wife had to test her blood hourly as if it was no big deal. Unfortunately, this weekend, that disease caught up with her and we were forced to make that hard decision.

Good night Bella, and thank you for being such a sweet cat.