Old Friend Happenings – Last week, my primary alpha reader and very old friend got a hold of me that he was in town. After some messaging back and forth, we arranged to meet in between for dinner. The Wife came along because she had not met Alpha Reader. Heck, I hadn’t seen Alpha Reader in person for at least a decade. I warned The Wife that when the two of us got together, she may not get a whole lot of words in, and that bore out. Alpha Reader and I had a nice two-hour chat on a variety of subjects and memories. Politics, personal finance, and of course, writing, were among the subjects. It was a damned good night.
Tree Happenings – The old house where BIL and SIL live was having troubles with the big oak tree in the front yard. It was threatening sidewalks, driveway, and pipes. So, we decided it was time for the tree to come down. Manatee County requires us to replace it with something else, which is another decision. The Wife was a little sad to see the tree go, as it was part of her life for twenty years. I didn’t quite have the attachment, but I did my best to provide comfort.
On a side note, the removal caused a small kerfuffle on the neighborhood FB page. Apparently, one of the neighbors decided to complain, and there were a few others decided to chime in on how it was such a bad decision and a detriment to the neighborhood. The Wife wanted a response, so I helped craft the response.
The admins decided to remove the post since it was getting a bit spicy.
St. Augustine Happenings – Last weekend was The Wife’s and my annual pilgrimage to St. Augustine to celebrate our anniversary.
Of course, the fun started last Wednesday night when we came back from running some errands to find the HVAC wasn’t working. That was the bad news. The good news was that it seemed to be just a clog in the drain line. Annoying, but it’s life in Florida.
Thursday started with The Wife and I getting our annual eye exams. This wouldn’t be worth mentioning except both of us got our eyes dilated. Let’s just say, driving up with dilated eyes, even under my nice sunglasses, was interesting. There were a couple of things we tried out this year. One was bringing our collapsible wagon to help haul our stuff from the parking lot which is about a block or so from the B&B. The second is what we dubbed the “apartment bag.” In our travels, we often found ourselves without some basic necessities. Paper towels, wipes, other types of paper product. Both of these came in quite handy. The B&B we’ve stayed in for the last few years must have changed hands because there were some updates, including the change to keypads for all the rooms. Good, we didn’t have to keep track of a key. We were also in a new room. It was good in that it was on the first floor, but a lot of noise as it was off the main hall. The Wife was impressed with the bathroom faucet because it was one of those that looked like an old water pump. After the trip up, we just walked around near the fort before going to our favorite barbecue place for dinner.
Friday started off with our regular trip to the fort. We always go to the fort, and we got there pretty close to when they opened. They’ve done some updating of their exhibits in the last couple of years. I always recommend it. From there, we went to the “hat store” where I’ve been getting my hats for the last several years. This year, i wanted to get an actual “cowboy hat” instead of the more “fedora-ish” ones I’ve been wearing. I’ve also realized that I’m a Stetson brand-whore. I just prefer them. Fortunately, we found a couple of hats that fit my needs – one sandy-colored felt, and one white-colored straw. I ended up wearing the straw one for most of the trip. I did make the joke that it made me look more like a Texas Ranger.
From there, we walked around and visited our normal shops. Perhaps the most interesting interaction of the morning was when we went to this geek collectible shop. I’ve picked up some figures over the years, but this year, I was being very selective. I’m running out of space in my home office for the various figures I have already. Anywhoo, The Wife has this thing for Loungefly backpacks – particularly those of Hello Kitty, Disney, and most of all, Strawberry Shortcake. She found a Strawberry Shortcake backpack that interested her, and since I wasn’t getting anything, I encouraged her to buy it. It took a lot of encouragement for her to agree. Then when we got to the counter, the clerk helpfully showed off the “mini-backpacks” of the various Strawberry Shortcake characters. Well, damn it. Of course they needed to come home with us. Now The Wife and I have similar problems. She’s not sure where to put all of her backpacks, and I’m not sure where to put all my hats. The other fun anecdote was when we were in this shop that sells reproductions of 17th and 18th century items. We’ve picked up things from there over the years. This year, we were looking for a vase for The Wife. Anywhoo, somehow the clerk and I got into a discussion on the geography of southern accents. After a lunch of fish and chips, The Wife and I decided to have “creative time.” Our original plan was to set up near the fort, but there weren’t any good seating options. Fortunately, the B&B had some Adirondack chairs out front. The Wife crocheted while I worked on Part 2 of my isekai. Next year the plan is to bring this camp couch so we can do the same thing near the fort.
After creative time, we went to a new place for dinner. Okay, not really impressed – except for the PBJ shot that The Wife ordered. Both because she reported that it tasted exactly like a PBJ sandwich and it came in a tiny red solo cup. After dinner, we walked into a Prehistoric shop and came out with a couple of pretty rocks – and a brand-new Cobratech Out-The-Front pocketknife. Which, when I use the “OTF” acronym, The Wife commented it sounded like something that had its own OnlyFans account.
Saturday we decided to go to the Fountain of Youth since we hadn’t been in several years. Since it was less than a mile from the B&B, we decided to walk. It was a pleasant day which made the decision easier. Of course, what we were unaware of was that the local “No Kings” was holding their rally at the fort. As we were walking to the fountain, we were passed by protesters walking to the rally. I swear, most of them looked like AARP sent out a rallying cry. Eh, people have a right to protest.
The trip took a bit longer than expected and reinforced that we needed to get our treadmills and get back to the exercise routine. By the time we got there, the beginnings of a front were coming in. We walked around the grounds, I had to keep a hold of my hat so it wouldn’t blow off into the marshlands. We did get to see the matchlock display as well as explore the efficiencies of block and tackle. And peacocks. Lots of peacocks. Which I’m sure most of the tourists love, but I’ve lived near wild peacocks. Let’s just say that destroyed any illusions about them.
On the way back, we sort of ran into the No Kings protest. Okay, it wasn’t completely old people, but it was at least two-to-one. It was also a rowdy group that neither The Wife nor I wanted to be near. Protests can go sideways way too fast, so we did our best to GTFO. By this time, the front was definitely coming through. We knew it was going to be in the mid-sixties when we were packing. We didn’t expect a ten-degree wind chill as well. Let’s just say what was a pleasant day became uncomfortable. We had lunch at this little pizza / Italian place, and then walked to a nearby Starbucks so The Wife could try out one of their new drinks. We hit one of the chocolate places and went back to the B&B. We were planning on more creative time, but it was just too damn cold out.
As we were sitting in our room, we realized we’d done everything we wanted to do on this trip. We also realized we would rather sleep in our own beds. So, we packed up and headed back home. This gave us Sunday to relax, recoup, and do our various chores.
Grandniece Happenings – Last Friday, The Wife and I played hooky from work and grabbed the grandniece for a sleepover. Our initial plans fell through, so we took her to Hobby Lobby (see below section) and then over to the big park they built in our neighborhood a year or so back. It was the first time I’d been, and I was impressed with the playground area. The girl ran herself ragged. Of course, kindergartner batteries recharge fast, because it wasn’t too long after we got back to Ward Manor, she was running around like a madcat.
The next morning, we took The Grandniece to Cracker Barrel, because it’s her favorite restaurant. Not because she likes the food, but because it has toys. We did some errands with The Grandniece and her mom before heading back to the Manor for some well deserved rest.
Hobby Lobby Happenings – As stated above, we took The Grandniece to Hobby Lobby. At which point the following conversation occurred:
Grandniece: Where are we going?
The Wife: To Hobby Lobby.
Me: This family’s version of a church
The Wife: It can’t be a church, it’s closed on Sundays.
Me: This family’s version of a synagogue then.
Skin Happenings – I’ve wanted to put something on the lid of my laptop for a while. Protection and just some “personal flair.” Finally decided on the iconic “Wave” painting. Not sure that the picture picks it up, but it has a “carbon fiber” texture that I really like. The Wife was nice enough to put it on because she is far more detail oriented than I am. It’s what makes her so great at her crafting.
Gestalt Completion Happenings – I finally got the last two Aerialbots and now have a completed Superion. I really need to reorganize my “toy table” as it’s been kind of a “crashpad” for a lot of stuff.
Spike Strip Happenings – Our hairless cat has a nasty habit of getting up on the bar counter. Sometimes he’s hunting food, but others just for attention. Over the last week, he’s been really bad about it. We have a shock mat that we used with a couple of the other cats, but Boo is our special cardio kitty. Shock mats are out. So, after some quick research, we found a relatively low-cost set of mats with spikes. These may work, or he may just route around them. We shall see.
Day Job Happenings – I got some semi-sad news this week as one of my longtime mentors announced he was taking a promotion to another facility. This is a man who I’ve worked with for the better part of fifteen years, and who has helped me improve my career. Probably also saved it from prematurely exploding. He was the one who orchestrated my return when I took the ill-conceived promotion. I am happy that he’s going to be taking on new challenges and doing more of what he loves doing. It will be very strange not to have him around.
Tea Happenings – The Wife and I have decided to get into the loose tea game. We each have our own infusing mugs and I have one to go to the office. We also have a bunch of tea we picked up – mostly Earl Greys and Chais. I don’t think I’ll use them for the sweetened ice tea I take to the office. That’s just stuff Derek drinks to cut down on his soda consumption, and it’s just too expensive to use the “good” tea. So, now I’m getting used to having hot tea every morning and on the look out
Bird Feeder Happenings – For the last couple of years, we’ve had essentially three bird feeding “stations” or “areas.” We have a couple of small transparent bird feeders attached to a window on the side of the house, a small bird feeder right outside the back door, and usually two feeders on poles – and later the trellis – in the backyard. Since I went back to the office, the ones in the back yard have been neglected. Part of it was The Wife was quickly putting food into the feeders, and the ones in the back took a lot more time (unhooking, opening, clearing, filling). I finally saw a new feeder that looked easy to fill. Which is good because the ones at the windows mainly draw doves and grackles – and are essentially cat entertainment. The one in the backyard draws different birds and more for my watching entertainment.
Board Game Happenings – While The Wife, MIL, and Mom went out for pedicures, The Brother and I sat down to try out a board game. Skara Brae is a game where you are managing the ancient village and trying to make sure that your settlers are fed as well as trying to make their life a little better. It is a “resource management” game. Essentially, you’re gaining resources from cards and spending those resources. A lot of different types of resources, including “bad resources” that do nothing but clutter up your inventory. I found it to be very entertaining.
Hospital Happenings – Okay, the TLDR is everyone is okay. Last Thursday, The Wife sent a text of “I feel weird.” Okay, that piqued my interest. Especially after her TIA scare a couple of years ago. I went into our room and started asking. Chest pain, but not sharp. Shortness of breath. Okay, that could be residuals from Disney trip. But it also could be something worse. After some discussion, we hopped in the car and ran down to the freestanding ER. They did some tests and such, but couldn’t find anything. However, the doc there recommended The Wife be admitted to the hospital linked to the ER. A moment of lightness while that process was going on was the housekeeping person said my hat looked “very Indiana Jones.” Okay, not the usual response that I get, but it amused The Wife and me. The paramedic took a look at the file and told The Wife “I’m not seeing anything here of concern, but you said the magic words – chest pain. No way you’re getting out quickly with that.” Apparently The Wife and the paramedic chatted about meeting their respective spouses online. He was definitely the gregarious sort. We got her ensconced in a room about 90 minutes before visiting hours ended.
We don’t sleep well apart. It was a rough night for both of us. I showed back up as soon as visiting hours started. They said that they couldn’t see anything wrong, but they wanted an ultrasound to make sure the heart was working properly. As you can imagine, it was a lot of hurry up and wait. Although it was funny explaining to the ultrasound tech that our hairless cat got the same procedure every six months. By mid-afternoon, we were both ready to get out of there. I mean, about to tell the nurse to get the AMA papers ready. We got the final clearance. Essentially, it wasn’t anything cardio, but no good answers from that. So, we packed up The Wife into the Ward Wagon and got her back home. Needless to say, we weren’t really good about diet when we got back home.
No Concert Happenings – At the end of last year, Sabaton announced they were going to be doing a North America tour – including a Tampa stop. After talking with The Wife, we decided to do a work-cation in which we would go up and stay at a hotel, work from the hotel room, then I would go to the concert and we would go home. January came, and word came down that Sabaton was postponing due to one of their members having a medical issue. Shit happens, but we ended up having to eat the hotel costs. We decided to wait and see when the concert would be rescheduled. Then we got word last week that the Tampa show was cancelled. My guess is that they couldn’t get a place in the time frame. They added an Orlando show, but I’m thinking over if I want to do that. And my refund is going to probably take 14 to 21 days. Yay Ticketmaster.
One of the less talked about features about living in Central Florida is the impact of the space program. Sure, you can see it on the Space Coast around the Kennedy Center, but even on the other side of the state, the space program has added some unique color to my life. Case in point. Last week Space X sent up one of their rockets in the early morning, and due to atmospherics we got an amazing sight.
Orlando Happenings – Last weekend was the annual Disney trip. Some of The Wife’s coworkers do this marathon at Disney, and for the last few years, we have gone over to give her time to hang out with folks she normally only sees virtually. It’s also time for us to hit some of the Disney parks. This year, her boss, who is a dear friend to The Wife, was going to be flying in to Orlando from a conference out west. So, we offered to pick him up so he didn’t have to get a rideshare to the resort. At least that was the plan.
Thursday, The Wife and I packed up, ran a couple of errands, and went to Disney Springs to kill some time before Boss Of Wife (BOW) arrived. The Wife has been going back and forth on getting Magic Bands, so she wanted to see the selection there. I wanted to go to the Star Wars store to see if they had the Vader lightsaber because it wasn’t showing up on their online store. I was happy to find one in the case – and they had the pack with the blade and the stand. We had a pleasant walk around the complex and decided to head over to the airport early to beat commute traffic. That’s when the fun started. Anytime I have to go to an airport other than Tampa, it shows me how spoiled I am. Trying to find Orlando’s cell lot ended up with us in the economy lot. Then, BOW’s plane was delayed 90 minutes and there was even more uncertainty as to when he would actually get in. After going back and forth for a bit, he finally convinced us just to go to the hotel, and he would grab a rideshare to the resort. That going back and forth put us three minutes over the 10 minute grace period, and we had to hand over five bucks. Annoying, but that was on us. The transit back wasn’t bad traffic wise, but the GPS just wouldn’t find our resort. It would find the one next to it, but then default back to just finding Walt Disney World. Then, we had multiple instances of “take the next exit to your right” which would involve having the ability to swing across multiple lanes of solid traffic. Stress level increased. Then finding parking. Yeah, I was annoyed, tired, and stressed by the time we entered the hotel. We did end up meeting with BOW later that night to hash out plans and to hand over the shirts that The Wife made for him. She was pleasantly surprised when he showed up with a stuffed animal he picked up for her at the conference he’d attended. We finally crashed into bed much later than normal.
Friday’s events started with the adrenaline inducing sound of the smoke alarm going off. We learned that Derek cannot enjoy his normal scalding long showers without the steam causing issues. We managed to get things settled down, get dressed, grab a bite to eat before meeting up with BOW. From there, we hailed an Uber. Slight hilarity when we saw the same make, model, and color before we found our actual driver. Apparently, silver Toyota Siennas are popular. We were dropped off at Universal’s new Epic park. I was kind of meh when they asked if I wanted to go a few months ago. It was more, I’ll go if everyone else goes. We meet up with another Co-Worker of The Wife (CWW). At this point, we go through security. And of course, Derek takes forever because security gets antsy about my trauma shears. They take them and say I can pick them up after I leave. Then their sergeant proceeds to tell me that they have trained medical staff and paramedics, and yada yada yada. It was clearly his opinion that I didn’t need to have an IFAK while I was in his park. I kept polite and semi-obsiquious because I didn’t want to cause a scene, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking Dude, if I need a tourniquet, I’m not fucking waiting for your myriad of medical people. I need one RTFN. Which is why I keep that red bag in my backpack.
We made our way to the Harry Potter section, and I was very disappointed when we walked onto a facsimile of a Parisian street instead of Diagon Alley or something else. Before I could really get annoyed, we get herded into a hallway, which turned out to be a line for a ride. Of course, we didn’t realize it was a ride until we were well into it. It was just having to follow a mass of people that I originally thought was going deeper into the world. Anywhoo, we ended up on the Harry Potter and the Battle At The Ministry of Magic ride. Okay, it was neat seeing a bunch of stuff I’d seen in the movies, and the ride itself wasn’t bad. The storyline they were pushing made no fucking sense in canon, but the group enjoyed it well enough. From there we decided to go to the Super Mario world. Holy hell that was a very crowded and loud area. We did a look around, and then went to the “Dark World” section, which was based on old monster movies. BOW went on another ride while we rested. At that point, I was kinda done. Honestly, I wouldn’t go back to Epic unless there were strong extenuating circumstances.
Saturday we went to Magic Kingdom. What I knew is that The Wife had booked a breakfast buffet. What I didn’t know was that it was a Winnie the Pooh themed breakfast buffet. The food was excellent, and we got pictures with some of the characters. From there, we walked around the park. We did the Monsters Inc show in Tomorrowland and rode It’s a Small World. The Wife and her coworkers split the cost of a photo package where we could get photos taken at several areas. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend it. We got lots of really good photos, and the photographers are really good at making things amusing. We also got a lot of compliments on our shirts that The Wife made for the team.
We met up with another co-worker of The Wife who was running in the marathons (aka Running Co-Worker, RCW) and RCW’s husband. The plan was to go to Hollywood Studios. Since this blog post is already going to be long, suffice to say that RCW insisted that we needed to go one way to Hollywood Studios, and we all followed because she was the Disney veteran. It turned out not to be the case and we spent an extra half-hour getting to Hollywood Studios and required me going through security twice more. As we walked into Hollywood Studios, I was tired and my feet hurt. I just wanted to get to Galaxy’s Edge, see some neat stuff, and go back to the hotel. RCW sort of made up for the inconvenience by getting me on the Millennium Falcon ride. That was truly awesome. And we got some decent photos. Not as many as I would have liked, but a few.
Sunday was our EPCOT day. The Wife and I love walking through the World Showcase. We met up with the rest of our party at Space 220, which is a restaurant with the conceit that you are eating at a space station. The food was good, the atmospherics were interesting, and the conversation was excellent. The Wife and I had a plan to “eat around the world” instead of drink around the world, but lunch was good enough that we sort of, didn’t.
I did find a ceramic parrot in Mexico, which was cool because I couldn’t find one last year and thought they’d been discontinued. So, I now have a pair hanging in the home office. We skipped Norway because it’s less Norway and now Frozen with a taste of Norway. We introduced BOW and CWW to the China film that Disney’s been using for at least the last 40 years. BOW got a grapefruit beer in Germany that he said was surprisingly good. I’m not a big drinker, so I’m taking his word for it. Japan was the normal “go through the big store and get my supply of Kit Kats.” This year they had orange, a cinnamon roll, and I think a dark chocolate (haven’t opened it yet). They also had macha, but I hate macha. BOW also got a purple sake drink he said was good, but too sweet. The Wife and I also took CWW through the Kawaii display, and she really enjoyed that. By that time, we were all flagging, so we agreed to go through England/Britain before heading back to the hotel.
Monday morning, we agreed to take BOW to the airport so he wouldn’t have to spend money on an Uber. It wasn’t a bad drive over, but again, reminded me how much I prefer TIA’s layout. Anywhoo, then it was make the trip across the state. We’ve had worse traffic coming back, but it was still annoying. What was more annoying was coming back to find the home offices without power. First thought was a breaker decided to die since we had one flipped. Electricians came out. Not the breaker. They went into the home offices and unplugged everything and then went one-by-one to find out which one was causing the breaker to flip. Turned out to be an old power adapter to a dock we haven’t used in a while. It looked like there was some melting and was drawing enough power to flip the breaker. So, a quick fix.
TLDR – We had fun, but some of our planning did not stand up to the rigors of the real world. We need to have better checklists and planning for our trips. We still had a lot fun. I also much prefer dealing with Disney security instead of Universal. The Disney folks always seem either appreciative or understanding of why I have an IFAK, while the vibe I got from Universal Security was “only ones.”
We had a flock, um flight, um maybe a half-dozen of a new bird floating in the pond. At first I thought they were the hooded mercasers from an earlier post. Yet, the more I looked, that didn’t sit right. So, I pulled out my handy-dandy guide and found them. Ring necked ducks.
Image from Wikipedia
One of the nice things about the pond in the back is the variety of birds, including those that come and go.
Night Startles Happenings – There is nothing like waking up in the middle of the night from a weird dream that you can’t remember but elevated your adrenaline, walking into the bathroom, hitting the tap light next to the toilet, and seeing this large gray blob in the middle of the toilet. Adrenaline spiked before I realized it was the ass-end of our hairless cat who was drinking out of the toilet. I may have woken The Wife with my yelling at the cat.
Bag Happenings – We were coming back from someplace and I noticed the strap on my sling bag was starting to fray. I’ve been thinking I should really switch from a sling to a straight backpack. Not to carry more stuff, but to help with my back and shoulders. On Valentines Day, we went down to 5.11 and found two backpacks that I liked. I really couldn’t decide, but with them both on sale, we ended up bringing them both home. One is replacing the sling bag. The issue is that with the sling bag, all of my stuff was right there without having to dig down. With a backpack, somethings are going to have to be at the bottom. Thankfully, the new pack uses a bunch of “hook and loop” (i.e., velcro). So, I’m arranging my stuff into velcro-backed pouches. So, this one is going to be kind of a bag of bags. The trick is to make things I need frequently easily accessible.The other bag is replacing my work backpack. I love my Maxpedition backpacks, but they are clearly tactical. This one looks more like a regular backpack.
Cold Happenings Cont’d – Apparently Derek has a hard time with the cold, and I felt kind of crappy all last week. The Wife and I had a long talk with our budget, and I did end up getting my new coat. Which performed really well on its test run from the house to the mail kiosk. Particularly against the biting wind. I’ve also noticed when I’m feeling cold and not well, my willpower plummets. I didn’t even bother getting on the scale this week.
Cat Injury Happenings – Early last week, The Wife and MIL noticed Freya, our youngest cat, was favoring her eye. A trip to the vet revealed she somehow managed to get a cut on her eye. This resulted in us having to give the cat eye treatments – which she didn’t like one bit. There was much chasing and trapping to give her treatments. It was somewhat ameliorated with offerings of her favorite treats, but Freya still was none too pleased with us.
Board Game Happenings – Mom and The Brother came down over the weekend. Mom, The Wife, and MIL went over to a nearby place for pedicures. While they were doing that, The Brother and I did some work on the NAS and then played a couple of board games. The one that was interesting was Sky Team, at least in terms of concept.
Book Happenings – I decided that it was a good idea for me to keep some physical entertainment media on hand. The Wife needed to pick up some things on Amazon, and needed something to close the same-day gap. Huh, Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy is in the same day store.
