Category: Family

Civic Duty Time Again

My jury summons has showed up for early next month. While I don’t have a problem with going for the jury pool, I also realize that I’m not really the ideal candidate for any attorney. Which is probably why I’ve never been selected to serve on the few times I’ve had to go previously. However, this is my first time in my new county. I don’t know if the dynamics are any different.

My other issue with having to go to do jury duty is the same as when I go to the airport. Too much of my normal EDC has to be left at home. Which means going through my bag and other things to remove prohibited items and switch out for things that aren’t as objectionable.

That Was A Lot of Charcoal

When I started smoking meat, I had a big tub full of charcoal. I left that with my old grill back in Tampa when I moved down to Parrish. When we moved into Ward Manor, I bought a new tub and proceeded to fill it up. Part of it was the belief that if I had a full “coal bunker” I could always have fire to cook and/or heat the house if we had a significant disruption.

I think the damage started with Ian. Sometime over the past few months, the tub warped, and the coal was soaked. As in crumbling from water impregnation. I thought it was just the top layer. Nope. The Wife, MIL, and I methodically parceled out the ruined charcoal into reasonable weight trash bags. Garbage day is going to be oh-so-fun.

Anyways, we bought a couple of new deck boxes for outside. I’m not going to go as hog wild with the charcoal. Probably try to keep it to a couple of bags.

I’m Not Much Of a Wine Guy

Last weekend, The Wife and I took my mom to a local winery for a tasting. As the post title states, I generally don’t do wine, but I figured I could at least try some and enjoy the food.

We went to the Bunker Hill Vineyard. We each got six samples of wines we chose from their menu. I know I’m not big on dry wines, so I chose mine from their medium dry wines. Mom chose hers. The Wife chose hers. We traded. Some we liked. Some we didn’t like as much. Here’s what came home with us: Black Tea Wine, Black Coffee Wine, Strawberry Wine, Spiced Apple Wine, Sparkling Cucumber Wine.

What also came home with us was a jar of Apple Butter and Key Lime Marmalade.

If you happen to be in the West Central Florida area, I highly recommend you swing by. It’s good stuff and a fun time was had by all.

Ward Manor Happenings

There are a couple of graduations happening in these parts of the world that are impacting Ward Manor. This resulted in The Wife making her Cricut machine go BRRR on Saturday morning to make cards and other supplies for the celebrations.

While she was working furiously on that, I was busy working on my fantasy novel. The good news is that I have finished most of the major action. It’s really down to the denouement. Upon relating this to The Wife, she said “Did you kill anyone else off?” I’ll take the Fifth on that.

Mom and The Brother came down for dinner and board games. Well, one board game. I highly recommend the Quacks of Quedlinburg. Plus both Mom and The Brother enjoy playing with the newest member of the Gubler clowder.

On Sunday, we remedied an issue with the dining room and put down a rug. That wouldn’t normally incite a comment on the blog. However, the room occasioned a larger than normal rug. Which was kind of fun toting down in the Ward Wagon. Then all the fun getting it appropriately aligned.

A relatively regular weekend, including the resulting back and shoulder pains.

Another Worker in Ward Manor

About a month ago, The Wife’s niece got a new gig that was work from home. This will be the first time that her niece had done a work-from-home job. So, we offered her a chance to come over and work from Ward Manor. After all, we have better internet, can provide a better setup, and the MIL can help watch our toddler great niece.

Niece came over last weekend to set up. There was great shuffling of furniture and other things to get her workstation in the upstairs living room. We were hampered on where we could place her workstation because her new job required a hardwired internet connection. Um, what? Yep, no wifi. Must be connected directly to the router.

I dug through my box’o’cables and came up with one long enough. Which is why I have a box’o’cables.

Not sure how long this arrangement will last. But it will be interesting.

Bad News, Good News – Upgrade Edition

A while back I mentioned that The Wife and I purchased new robots to replace the current robot vacuums and a new double oven range. There were issues with setting everything up over the weekend.

First, the robots. I opened the first box and started unpacking. What’s this slip of paper? Certified refurbished? I don’t remember that being on the listing. Continue unpacking. Robot is missing one of the spinners. And no instructions. At this point, I’m annoyed heading towards angry. I go back and re-read the listing. Nope. Nowhere does it say that I’m buying a refurb. Well, fuck that. Start the return process. I box up the opened robot. While The Wife is busy handling the labels, I look on Amazon. Huh. The same robots are on sale for about 80 bucks less than when I bought them. And they would be here the next day – as opposed to the better part of a fortnight for the others. I buy those while The Wife and I lug the other ones to the UPS store. Where we find out we need to pay for shipping. The clerk at the store says that sometimes Amazon will refund the shipping charges. I’m going to let The Wife fight that one. She is much better at it than me.

Then, the oven. It was going great until we saw that it was sticking out a couple of inches. WTF? The culprit was the cord. With the double oven, there was no place to tuck the cord, so we had a gap. The install guys tried a couple of things, but no joy. Well, it gave The Wife to add a shelf thing to the top. Except the magnets didn’t want to stick to the top of the range. So, adhesive. The Wife and MIL did a couple batches of cookies to christen the new oven. They were suitably impressed, but they made it clear they’ve got some learning to do.

Ward Manor has been upgraded.

Weekend Fun At Ward Manor

Last weekend we were invaded by a toddler for both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the Ward Manor’s subdivision was holding an Easter shindig up at the clubhouse. The Wife, The Niece, and MIL watched The Great Niece join the other toddlers in grabbing eggs. It was stated multiple times how quickly a field liberally seeded with Easter eggs was picked clean. I was also told not to liken the mass of children to locusts. Then the adults took turns escorting The Great Niece around the various playground offerings. Back at the house, The Great Niece continued her favorite game of getting Uncle Derek to take her up and down the stairs.

Sunday was Easter dinner, and it was a big dinner with all of the local folks. There was another Easter Egg hunt, as well as general shower of toys for The Great Niece. The original plan was for me to smoke a brisket. Unfortunately, when I was setting up, the heavens opened up. Grumble, grumble, grumble. We ended up cooking it in the oven. Of course, by dinner time, the weather was nice and shiny. Lots of food, lots of talk, lots of listening to The Great Niece’s beginning speech. She’s a lot more vocal these days.

This weekend was also saw the purchasing of some upgrades to Ward Manor. After going back and forth, a new double oven was purchased for later delivery. That would have been very helpful to have on Easter Sunday, and it will be very helpful for later holidays. We also decided to upgrade the robots. Our two Eufy’s are showing their age – and I still recommend them for “dumb” robot vacs. However, we said when it was time to replace Darth and DeeDee, that we would upgrade to smarter ones that had the self-evacuating towers. Those will be easier on us, but the clowder will probably be annoyed at us. Oh well, they’re lazy ingrates anyway.

There was another purchase last weekend, but that will get it’s own post tomorrow.

Happenings Around Ward Manor

There was no Monday Links post this week because The Wife and I celebrated our fourth anniversary by heading up to St. Augustine for the weekend. It’s a special place for us, and we enjoy seeing familiar sights. We spent more time around the fort than normal (not just because of the cannon demonstration). I needed to examine the grounds. I have a story idea worming around my head that involves the fort, necromancy, and other fabulous concepts. There was also the purchase of a new hat for me. It’s much more in the “Justified” vein.

During the time, I asked The Wife if she wanted to go see the new John Wick film. Her response was “I am not mentally prepared to handle that today.” There was further hilarity when MIL’s phone unexpectedly ran dry and then we couldn’t get a hold of her. Until we used the Echo in her room. Which she was unprepared to hear my voice coming out of it.

In a more serious vein, while we were gone, some thugs decided that the intersection at the front of our subdivision was a good place to do a street show. Let’s just say I was a bit concerned.

This week was also the “week of doors”. We replaced the original door on the master shower with a very nice sliding glass job. The one that came with shower stall was being difficult. And I didn’t like that the door opened out into the bathroom due to water going all over the floor. Of course, nothing goes smoothly, but the one small hiccup was just a small one that will have no real impact.

We also had a retractable screen door installed on the front door. Because the HOA will not let us screen in the front porch. Feckers. The installer also helpfully informed us that Ward Manor’s front door is crooked. Yay. Feckers. It made us glad we paid for install, because if we had to deal with that on our own? Let’s just say there would have been nasty words, frustration, tears, and probably blood. One thing we didn’t realize is that the screen door isn’t connected on the bottom. So, now it’s off to find a cat blocker of some type.

I wonder if they make plexiglass grates.

Now back to introducing MIL to Justified.

I Haz New Desk Ornament

As I’ve said before, The Wife has furiously taken up crocheting. Particularly – as she calls them – stuffies. Some Woobles kits, but some that she’s done from patterns. I joked a while back that she should do Baby Cthulhu.

The joke turned out to be not a joke. And I have a Baby Cthulhu sitting on my desk now.

Crocheted Baby Cthulhu

One of my co-workers thinks is really cool. The rest? They’re muggles when it comes to Lovecraft.

Now to convince her to make one for the Grand Niece. Maybe if I suggest it be pink?

End Of An Era – Family Edition

Last Thursday’s post was not supposed to be about the 40th anniversary of Quiet Riot’s Metal Health. Last Thursday’s post should have been a video of me giving a speech to my Toastmasters club. Except, I didn’t get to make that speech.

Tuesday afternoon, The Wife’s father was taken from his memory-care facility to the nearby hospital because he kept vomiting and they couldn’t get it stopped. Okay, not the first time the MCF sent him over there. He’d been over there for falls and COVID and other issues.

On our way to Toastmasters, the attending doc called The Wife. Bloodwork is good, but there are some troubling signs with some of the indicators. Possible organ failure. We let the club know we weren’t coming and went to go meet up with the family. We ended up at Brother-In-Law’s house with BIL, SIL, MIL, and The Wife. Another call with another doctor. Maybe not as bad. Possibly dehydration may be the reason for the oddness. They’ll keep him overnight and monitor. The Wife, MIL, and me go home.

0130 Wednesday morning – MIL wakes up The Wife and me. Hospital called and things are not looking good. Better get the family to the hospital. Not immediate, but pretty soon. The Wife and I logged into our work to knock out a few things until BIL and SIL woke up around three (we’re all early risers in this family). BIL and SIL pick us up and we head down to the hospital.

The Wife’s Father passed away at a quarter to seven on Wednesday morning.

The family is doing okay. He’d been in the memory-care facility for the last 18 months. They’d been down this road before with other family members. He’d been gone for them for awhile. Tears were shed. Words were spoken. The process began.

Life goes on. There’s no other choice.