Category: Family

Surgery Happenings – The cyst is gone! My PC referred me to a surgeon on Thursday and I was in the OR on Monday. The good news is that it was an outpatient procedure and they were nice enough to give me a very early slot – as in we had to be at the hospital at 0530. NBD, as The Wife and I are early risers. Plus, we were home before 11. The bad news is that I had to stop all my ibuprofen. Which I take a lot of for my joint pain. It wasn’t that it all came roaring back, but I started noting things starting to hurt a bit more.

Everything went well. I spent Monday pretty much sleeping on my recliner while listening to the first Honor Harrington book. And indulging in the fact that Publix has their key lime cookies back. I’m also getting my endurance back. Doing chores on Tuesday morning winded me a hell of a lot more than expected. And the doc said that he really wants me to take it easy for the next couple of weeks – so my boss said to stay home and recuperate.

Mother’s Day Happenings – Normally, we have the big Mother’s Day dinner at Ward Manor. This year, with me going into surgery on Monday and some of the family of on adventures in other parts of the state, we decided on doing something small. The Wife, MIL, and Mom have had a monthly pedicure appointment at a place across the main highway. While they’re getting their toes done, The Brother and I hang out at the Manor. Normally, The Brother and I play a board game from his extensive library, but this time we watched an Aussie show called Guy Montgomery’s Spelling Bee. The best description I could give of this show is someone saying “Let’s do a spelling game show, but only after we mainlined every single episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Anywhoo, because it was Mother’s Day, the mothers decided on getting a late lunch/early dinner from Chicken Salad Chick, which has become a Manor Favorite. Well, it is among the estrogen side of the house. I like it fine, but my proclivities run more to typical quick-service fare. But, everyone enjoyed themselves, which was the most important part.

Penn & Teller Happenings – Last week, I managed to cross off one of the acts from my “see them live” list. The Wife and I went up to the Mahaffey Theater in St. Pete to catch Penn & Teller. They were supposed to be here in January, but that show was rescheduled to last week. There was some consternation with the tickets that required a nearly hour long chat with the vendor, but fortunately sorted out before arriving in St. Pete. It was also amusing to discover how “incomplete” The Wife’s mental map of points north of the Manatee County line can be.

The show was as expected. Fun, irreverent, with some amazing magic and hilarious comedy. The Wife and I were up in the box seats, which afforded us a good view of the stage. Although we both agreed, if we were going to get these seats the next time we saw something at the Mahaffey, we should really get opera glasses. For aesthetic if nothing else.

Birthday Party Happenings – It was time for the annual April birthdays party. The Brother, Shootin’ Buddy, and Friend With A Common Name all have birthdays in the later part of April, and we’ve had a tradition for the last few years of getting together for a meal. It was a good time and we got to catch up with Shootin’ Buddy’s little family – including his now-two-year-old daughter. Friend With A Common Name’s SO also attended, and we enjoyed her company as well. It was a lot of just chatting and catching up. The Wife and I departed maybe a bit early, but there was a break in the rain as a cold front came through our area.

Okeechobee Happenings – Sunday, Mom and The Brother came down, and the four of us traveled down to Okeechobee to visit with my Great Aunt and some other kin. We take Mom’s minivan because it’s the only one that will hold all of us when we take the Great Aunt for lunch. Mom’s entertainment system was acting up – it wouldn’t hook up CarPlay. Y’know how you just get used to having something and you have to figure out how you used to do it before it came around? Anywhoo, I still had a car mount from when we were having CarPlay issues with one of the Subies. So, at least I could put my GPS up. We took Great Aunt out to lunch at a seafood place that we all love. Great Aunt was saying during lunch that she wanted the Bible on CD’s as her eyes have deteriorated over the years. Through the power of Amazon, we had not only the Bible, but her favorite book purchased and sent to her home. After lunch, we visited with other kin for a bit before heading out.

After a couple of years of rather quiescent lovebug populations, they have come back with a vengeance. Let’s just say the front of Mom’s vehicle looked like we were harvesting the pests for something. It’s a good thing she has a membership to one of those car washing places.

“I Need What Kind of Tests?” Happenings – When we were cleaning out the garage a couple of weekends ago, I felt a very painful, well, lump on my chest. Damn thing was about the size of a large marble and hurt like hell. The Wife put it into AI and got back it was likely an infected cyst or something. Intellectually, I knew that made sense based on sudden appearance. But… I’m about the same age as my dad was when cancer intruded on his life. And I was getting some nasty flashbacks. So, we went to the doc. It didn’t help when he took a look at it and sent me off for an ultrasound and a – mammogram? Oookay. Also, for the record, it was a pain in the ass to get one of those scheduled. I was lucky we called right after someone else cancelled.

Our stress levels dipped a couple of days later when my lump started, well, leaking. I’ll try not to be too gross, but it was enough that when we called the doc, he sent over a prescription for antibiotics. But he didn’t cancel the tests. I figured he still wanted to rule out the nasty diagnosis.

Garage Cleaning Happenings – We scheduled our lawn guy to come and haul some junk (including the recliner from yesterday’s post) and then power wash the driveway. Then we walked out to the neighborhood garage sale. For the last couple of years, attendance was sparse. This year? Fucking madhouse. Arranged for the lawn guy to come after the madness died down. We used the time to do some cleaning out of the garage in preparation to put together the new exercise equipment. And since it was garage sale day, we put a lot of the stuff we were going to donate down at the end of the driveway with a “FREE” sign. Which got rid of some, but not all. We did manage to get rid of a lot through donation, and a bunch more through handing down to the lawn guy’s family. He does a lot for us, so I don’t have a problem making his life easier.

Catquake Happenings – The Wife teleworks for her job, and the cats often make “guest appearances” on her calls with her coworkers. Freya, the youngest, is well known because she’s always hanging around The Wife. Freya has also been known to cause mischief. Anywhoo, last week The Wife was on a call with a coworker and for some reason, Freya decided the monitor needed investigation. The monitor with the webcam. To which, said coworker asked if The Wife was experiencing an earthquake. In reply, The Wife sent a photo of Freya’s investigations. Coworker thought this was hilarious. The joys of living and working with cats.

Y’know how some folks get sentimental about the first furniture they bought on their own? This recliner wasn’t that. It was the first furniture I bought post-divorce that wasn’t strictly functional. It – and the couch I bought with it – became important to me because it was one of the first definitive events of me coming out of my post-divorce (admittedly, self-diagnosed) depression.

I slept in that recliner many a night because of my shoulders. Other than showing comfyness, that statement wouldn’t be important – but it was. My previous girlfriend got upset over the fact that I would leave the bed to go sleep in the recliner. The Wife? She just laid down on the couch – which was admittedly also comfy – and slept next to me. She just wanted me to be comfortable. It was one of those myriad of small things that demonstrated why she was destined to become The Wife.

I moved it down to Parrish, and would continue to sleep in it. The recliner didn’t fare particularly well in a household of cats. There’s a reason pretty much all of our furniture is leather or leather-adjacent. Some new coverings helped, as there were still several nights where I slept there. When The Wife scored me a better recliner at her then-job, I was still hesitant to part with the old recliner.

When we moved to Ward Manor, the recliner went into my office. And there it truly became the domain of our cats. Our little vampire cat liked to hide under it when there was too much company for her to be downstairs. Our big orange cat used it as one of his main sleeping spots. Particularly when I was also in the office.

All good things must come to an end. Wear and tear finally caught up. Since we had someone coming to take a bunch of big items to the dump, we decided it was time. The recliner came down. Fortunately without too much hassle. A club chair that we’ve had bouncing around the house is now in its spot. The orange cat is letting us know in no uncertain terms he doesn’t like the change.

Recliner’s gone, but the memories remain.

Cat Box Happenings – The banal part of this entry is that we’ve replaced almost all of the inside cat boxes with the newer stainless steel versions that are all the rage. Mostly because we really liked the bigger boxes upstairs because they line up flush against the wall. Opens up the walkways.

That really isn’t the point of this particular entry. During the replacing, there were some messes that required mopping. Of course, we get all that done and sit down to relax. After a bit, The Wife asks where Freya, our youngest cat, is. The little mischief maker is usually hanging around with us. Then came the small squeaks. It took us a moment, but we discovered the issue. Poor little Freya managed to get herself locked up in the hall closet. Curiosity didn’t kill the cat, but it did manage to put the cat into time-out for a couple of hours.

Office Happenings – The day job informed my team that they were “consolidating” us because another service was invading – I mean, returning to the office – in our office building. This meant, instead of us having our own offices, we were going to have to shared offices. Don’t get me wrong. Our team has been very lucky having our own offices for as long as we have. And it’s not like we’re being thrown into a cube farm. Still, after having my own office for fifteen years, it’s going to be odd sharing with someone else.

Wildlife Happenings – It’s that time of the year in Florida when the gators are getting more active. We generally have one in the pond out back. Not sure if it’s the same one year to year, but we generally see one around this time. This year, we have a big one. We usually see it on the other side of the pond, but I got some good pics when it decided to sun on our side.

There’s more than one reason I keep a loaded carbine.

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.

Easter Happenings – As has been the case for the last several years, we hosted Easter dinner at Ward Manor. The grandniece and her mom showed up and we participated in the normal easter egg hunt. Which were these pre-filled eggs with little squishy toys. The grandniece was very pleased with this.

For the actual dinner, we kinda took the traditional Easter menu and tossed it out the window. The main courses were a beef stew that The Wife wanted to try and I smoked up some ribs we found in the back of the freezer. Green bean casserole and some very cheesy mac and cheese were the sides. Part of the dessert were some no-bake oatmeal cookies, but The Wife substituted out peanut butter for Biscoff (see below for partial reason). These were good, but you could definitely tell the difference. The rest of the dessert were oreo-stuffed cinnamon rolls from SIL.

We had a lot of fun with everyone, ate too much, had too much leftovers, and was exhausted by the end of it. In other words, a successful holiday.

Biscoff Happenings – The Ward household over the last year has switched from peanut butter to Biscoff cookie butter for a lot of things. My lunch is usually a street taco sized tortilla with Biscoff on it. Why? Hell, the cookie butter has less calories than the standard peanut butter. The downside is Biscoff is at least twice the cost on a per-unit basis and availability can be iffy. On a lark, I checked to see if Amazon had it. Um, yeah. So, now we have this tub coming on subscribe and save.

Yes, that’s 100 ounces of Biscoff. Liquid Death 6-pack for size comparison.

Quilt Happenings – Due to shoulder issues, it’s not unusual for me to sleep for some/most of the night in a recliner we have in our bedroom. I kept an inexpensive blanket on the recliner for when I was sleeping there, but unfortunately we have asshole cats. One in particular has decided to mark my recliner multiple times in the past couple of months. Washing the blanket was no longer effective. Fortunately, The Wife’s BFF decided to gift me a new quilt for helping her with setting up her new laptop a few months back. It was definitely aimed at my interests.

It’s weird thinking that we’ve been in Ward Manor for five years. It’s not that I have that dichotomy of feeling like we just moved in and feeling like we’ve lived here for twenty at the same time. It’s more of “it’s only been five years?”

Part of that is because the area around Ward Manor has been sprouting up like unattended weeds. When we moved in, there were just a few places to eat out within a reasonable distance. Now there’s a bunch. All sorts of commerce that we used to need to go into Bradenton for is now within a “close” car ride. I use the quotes because with all of the aforementioned growth, the infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Some of that is just normal growing pains. Some of that is county mismanagement.

I’m not going to talk about all the changes within Ward Manor, as most of them have been chronicled in previous posts. I find it somewhat interesting that the only two major appliances that we’ve had the entire time are the fridge and the outside freezer. Heck, even the cars have changed. The Wife and I are looking at some additional upgrades over the next few years, but we’ll see how all of that shakes out.

What amuses me the most is that for us, this is our “new” house that we bought after we got married. For the grandniece, this is the “old” house that Derek and The Wife have always lived in.

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.