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.
August 7, 2025 at 8:30 am
With CR123’s pretty widely available, you went back to AA and AAA batteries? I’ve a mix of both tbh and went with 123’s for a couple of flashlights that I couldn’t find with any other battery in the size I wanted.
August 7, 2025 at 11:15 am
For the household flashlights, radios, etc, we’ve moved to AA and AAA. Both because getting good rechargeables for those sizes are easier and less expensive. My carry flashlights, on the other hand, are pretty much CR123’s or Streamlight’s big rechargeables.