Derek Ward

Birthday Happenings – The Wife and I couldn’t celebrate our birthdays on our birthdays because of work and appointments. So, last weekend we planned to go out to this anime store up in St. Pete, then hit another one on the way back in Ellenton, and then maybe go out to dinner and ice cream. Yeah… plans kind of went sideways.

The first thing was The Wife and MIL had pedicure appointments that we forgot about. Okay, well, I can just go get my hair cut while they did that. I’ve been needing one for a while anyways. Then we get on the road to St. Pete. Travel time went from 40 minutes to 90 minutes. Um, what? Oh, there’s a really bad accident. If Pinellas traffic is going whompy, then I really don’t want to chance getting stuck in it up there. So, we’ll go to the shop in Ellenton. Yeah, we’re getting a little hungry. So, we stop in at the ramen shop first. It’s a good lunch place. The shop in Ellenton is more pop gothic (IYKYK) than anime shop, but it was interesting. By that time, we were getting a little tired. So, we ended up just getting ice cream at our favorite shop and headed home. Honestly, just being home is probably my favorite.

Lightsaber Happenings – During our last trip to Disney back in February, I picked up a Darth Vader lightsaber for my collection. My original idea for where to place it would have narrowed the entryway into part of the house where the home offices are at to just the other side of reasonable. So, The Wife suggested hanging it above the closet door where I mounted the two Luke Skywalker lightsabers. Finally got around to it. When we hung it, I didn’t consider the RGB color scheme, but it kind of turned out interesting.

Writing Happenings – Finally finished the fourth installment of the Irregulars Universe. It will be on an upcoming Monday Fiction. Now, I need to get back to the second volume of I Want To Serve. That one’s going to need a rewrite as my original plan kind of fell apart. Trying to figure out how much of the backstory and world building to put in without info dumping. And figure out how to write decent endings.

All of my series now have pages with illustrations. As well as categories to search. I’m still debating to do with my Avalon series. As well as the other half-dozen ideas in the hopper.

Fourth of July Happenings – Yeah, we celebrated by not celebrating. The Wife’s recovery is going well, but it does leave her tired. And I didn’t want to do much over the long weekend. Yeah, we’re homebodies who prefer our own company. I half-expected the locals to tamp down their private shows because of the local burn-bans due to drought. Apparently not. Though, they didn’t seem to go on into the night like they have in the past.

Keyboard Happenings – So, when we relax, it’s usually MIL and The Wife crocheting while I play/work on my laptop. I kept my laptop on a large lap desk, but there were some drawbacks. The biggest was having to lift and move my, admittedly, heavy laptop. After a day of “resting,” my lower back let me know it didn’t like how often I had to do that. So, when we got this rolling, adjustable table for The Wife to work while sitting on the couch, I figured I could use it on the weekends for my laptop. And it works – sort of. The problem is that I essentially have to either stretch out my arms to use the keyboard, or sort of balance my laptop on the edge of the table. I essentially traded a sore back for sore shoulders. Then I remembered I had an old Logitech Pebble Bluetooth keyboard I used for my work laptop until I swapped it out for something lighter. Problem solved!

Duckling Happenings – Now that the first batch of ducklings are looking more like full grown ducks, we find another mama mallard bringing around another eight small ducklings. Haven’t seen any from the whistling ducks or the other birds, but it’s been a treat to see them this season. I really need to do some more Birds of Ward Manor posts.

Masterpiece Happenings – I was successfully targeted by some ads for the Masterpiece streaming service add-on for Prime. TBH, I tend to like British dramas. A recent question at work was “If you had only one show to watch for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Much to my teammates’ surprise, my answer was Downton Abbey. Anywhoo, one of the reasons I wanted to get the add-on was a new-ish series of the Count of Monte Cristo. The Wife was completely unaware of this story, and she has enjoyed it quite a bit.

Doctor Firing Happenings – I’m now looking for a new primary care doc. It’s one thing when I’m waiting a half-hour or so for the doc to come into the room. It’s a small practice, I can understand getting backed up depending on the patients’ needs. The frequency was enough that it was already pegging my “maybe-I-should-take-my-business-elsewhere” feelings. Then they left me in the waiting room for an hour and called everyone else – including people who had appointments after me. When I hit the hour mark and they called another patient, I got up and walked out. I fired my doctor. Fortunately, I don’t have any major chronic conditions that need constant monitoring, so I can take a month or so and do my research.

That Lasted A While Happenings – I’ve used these Zojirushi water boilers for years. Originally to make hot tea, then as I moved in with The Wife, we’ve found a myarid of uses. When I first got them, they recommended these little packets to do monthly cleaning. Where I live has very hard water – and I use the boiler a lot. So, I was cleaning the boilers monthly like clockwork. Except those packets were approximately a buck a piece. Then I read that it was essentially citric acid. Really? I bought a huge bag when I first moved down around eight years ago. It was maybe $25. This week I finally had to buy another bag. Lesson learned.