Category: Family

Since The Wife and I are both teleworkers, we’ve been discussing going down to one vehicle. Mostly, that has been discussing of if we should sell/give my Xterra and just keep her CRV. Part of the issue is that I really didn’t want to give up the Xterra. Yet, we kept asking ourselves the question of why we were still holding on to it.

A couple of weekends ago, just out of curiosity, I looked up the values of both cars. That changed the conversation. Her Honda was worth almost as much as we paid for it. We discussed it more over dinner. Could we just sell both cars and get one we both really wanted?

We looked at a bunch of cars in our new “price range” and tentatively agreed on a Subaru Forester. The Wife started calling around. No one around us had new ones, and used ones were sparse on the ground. We did test drive one just to make sure that the Forester was at least comfortable to drive. The salesperson was clear that if we wanted one in the pipeline, it would be a month – maybe six weeks. Two to three months minimum if we wanted to order one. We looked at the used ones on the lot. The price difference was about two grand between the new ones in the pipeline and the used ones on the lot. And the used ones were 2019’s. Plus, the salesperson was kind of a dick.

We left talking about what should we do. Then we found a dealership with new ones in stock. There was just one small issue. It was about an hour and a half north of us. Still, they had the ones we wanted in stock. After work, we convoyed up.

We really liked the Forester we saw. Test drive confirmed we really liked it. The price was really at the top end of what we were willing to pay. The salesperson showed us a model that had just come in. I liked the green color, the fact that it had almost all of the same features, and was less expensive. We started running the numbers. Then it seemed to take a while. A lot longer than it should have. Finally, the salesperson comes over with a sheepish look on his face. It seems the green one was supposed to be in the loaner program and wasn’t even supposed to be on the floor. So, we were back to original car. Still doable.

After a long wait and some initial paperwork, we’re off to the Financing Lady. She explains that some of the long wait was due to The Wife missing a word on the address on her license (something we get to correct) and they can’t seem to spell my first name correctly. Then, she proceeds to inform us of a couple of items she discovered when going through our files. Since we were buying from the same chain that sold us The Wife’s Honda, the Financing Lady found out we were due money back from a maintenance contract and other items. Did we mind that she put all of that towards the down payment? Um, no. That was very helpful. We start signing. I comment on the picture of her cats on her file cabinet. This led to an ongoing conversation between The Wife and the Financing Lady about how to take care of kitties. As we were nearing completion, the Financing Lady asked if we brought in the Xterra. Yes, we did. How does it run? Pretty good, why? It seems the Financing Lady is looking for something like that. I’m pretty sure that my old Xterra won’t even hit the market.

By the end, it was nearing 11 at night, and we still had better than an hour drive home. We were all smiles as we drove it back home.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now a single car family. And that car is hereby designated the Ward Wagon!

Five years ago, I was messaged on eHarmony. The latest date I’d gone on the week before ended with the lady messaging me saying we weren’t compatible. I was seriously thinking about putting a halt on my searching, but I decided I’d give it at least one more try. It wasn’t like I couldn’t go be a hermit if this one went down in flames as well.

Except that didn’t happen. We exchanged messages for more than a month. I think those were important. We really got to know each other before we actually met.

Then our first date. I had fun, but was nervous as hell. Honestly, I couldn’t tell if she thought it went well or not until she texted me the next morning. Then both of us were getting ready for Irma, which was scheduled to hit a few days later. During said preps, I discovered I’d left my debit card at the restaurant. I guess I was having a good time. The night of the hurricane, we were texting back and forth. The. Entire. Night.

More dates, which was difficult because we lived fifty miles away. Which felt longer because the main highway linking us liked to clog up at the most inopportune time. Then trading weekends. Neither of us can agree when we decided that our relationship was heading to marriage. All I know was that by May or June of 2018, I was hunting up wedding rings. She was sending me enough links to ones she liked that my FB feed had ads for rings for six months.

Five years ago, that message has upended my life. In so many good ways. I’d never thought I’d leave northern Hillsborough County. Now, that part of the state I’d spent almost all of my life in seems like a distant place. I’ve felt more at home in Parrish than I remember feeling since I was a child.

It’s been an amazing five years, and I can’t wait for many, many more.

This past weekend, The Wife and I got the bug to do some major rearranging. Major rearranging. Mostly between the upstairs living room, her office, and my office. These kinds of endeavors can be trying because we have very different opinions – more to the point, how to decide on things. She is much more deliberative than me. It’s very frustrating. We’ve gotten things to the “this is our experimental phase”.

After adventures in shuffling on Saturday, we went over to BIL’s and SIL’s house for family dinner. When we got there, BIL was watch How It’s Made: Dream Car Edition. He and I watched a few episodes. The one that kinda fascinated me was the Bugatti Veyron. Particularly how they put together the front end and the back end. Watch the first part of this video. Watch the floor. They have a rail with these metal slats that move like a wave. It’s nifty.

I tried to post this last week, but the WordPress app is for shit. Worse, it will work for a bit, and then look like it will work, but in actuality it’s eating the posts. Enough bitching – on to the story.

The wet food we’ve been using for the cats for as long as we’ve merged herds changed their formulation. Enough that even our normal ”garbage disposal” cats wouldn’t eat it. Grumble.

The Wife and MIL remedy this by experimenting with a variety of new wet foods. In true Ward family tradition, The Wife made up a spreadsheet to track who likes what food.

We now have a few varieties the cats like, but the experimentation continues. The Wife wants a wider variety. Just in case.

Now to figure out how to get rid of the flat of wet food the cats won’t eat. Grumble.

Since this week is The Wife’s birthday, I decided to reach back into the wayback machine.

I posted these as OOCQOTD’s on the Book of Face:

“Is “Scythian Raiders” referring to raiders from Scythia or raiding Scythia? Because I can see the former being an interesting board game, but the Romans learned the latter was a bad idea.”

“Yeah, but when you go to the store by yourself, I usually get flowers.”