Since The Wife and I both have our birthdays in July, we generally use up birthday gift monies on Amazon’s Prime Days. This year, I used my available funding on illumination, charging, toys, and a big Echo.

Illumination – I replaced my “walking around” flashlight that I’ve had for the better part of a decade with a new Streamlight 500-lumen rechargeable. I also picked up one of their rechargeable headlamps.

Charging – For the EDC bag, I replaced the battery with one of Anker’s mag-charger ones and added a small USB-C plug. I also picked up one of Amazon’s 100W wall plug that has a couple of USB-C ports. I also got one of Anker’s batteries that plug into the wall. This one’s a bit bigger than I expected, but it can deliver 65W of power.

Toys – On impulse, I picked up the Black series Cad Bane as well as an SD VF-25 Messiah with cutesy Sheryl Nome figure. I need to rearrange my office a bit with all the little toys I’ve picked up over the past few years.

Echo – Yes, I know all the security concerns around Amazon’s smart home devices. I’ve decided that it’s an acceptable risk for the convenience. With that throat clearing out of the way, I’ve kinda wanted a Show in my office. They’re great for accessing the Ring cameras, looking at our calendar, and acting a smart photo frame. I will admit, the Echo 15 I got was maybe a bit more than I needed, but dang it looks nice in my office.

Back on Friday the seventh, the Ward Wagon was rear-ended as I was coming home from helping my mom. As I said last week, no injuries on either side, but the Ward Wagon needed to be towed due to its exhaust trailing on the ground. Tow truck was supposed to deliver the Ward Wagon to an auto shop in Palmetto, which was much nearer to Ward Manor than where the accident occurred. Insurance rep tells me that I should hear from the auto shop on Monday with an estimate and authorization for repair.

Monday comes and nothing. Tuesday, The Wife calls. The auto shop says they will get back to her. Nope. Wednesday she calls. We’ll check and get back to you. Not five minutes later the auto shop calls me back. We don’t have your car. Umm, what? We’re at capacity and refused the driver on Friday night. So, where the hell is my car? Don’t know. You’ll have to contact your insurance company.

Instead, I call the tow company. Nice guy answers the phone. He pulls up the information. The Ward Wagon is at their storage lot. Do you know why no one bothered to inform us about this before now? We notified the middleman that talks to insurance company and tow companies. We have to wait for an authorization from them before we can do anything. Have to call the insurance company to find a new place. The Wife calls insurance company. The first rep plays the “I can’t hear you” game. The second is very helpful. Unfortunately, the closest place with capacity is an hour away up in Pinellas Park. Well, fuck. Still, we can’t be without a car. Okay, let me talk with them and get things in motion. -CLICK- DISCONNECT. The Wife let out a primal scream of frustration ladened with appropriate expletives. Fortunately, the rep calls back within ten minutes. Everything is set up. I get text from new auto shop. The Wife calls new shop. They’ve received initial information from Middleman and hope to have the vehicle delivered. They’ll call us when they receive it for authorizations.

Thursday – nothing. Getting concerned. Friday, The Wife calls the new auto shop. No, they don’t have it yet, but they have it on the schedule to be received. Later on, I get a call from new auto shop saying that they’ve received the car and that they need me to sign authorizations. Would I like to come in or have them email me the documents to e-sign. Email please. I get that turned around. Less than a half-hour later, insurance company calls. Need some additional information not originally collected. Okay. Basic car info. License plate. By the way, the auto shop is showing that it can’t take your vehicle due to capacity. Did you tell them it was going to be a tow-in? WTF? Not only was that made clear by last insurance rep, but by The Wife when she talked to them on Wednesday. Besides they contacted me with documents to sign for authorization. When was this? Back on Wednesday? No, less than an hour ago. Do you mind while I put you on a brief hold and contact the auto shop? Nope. A few minutes pass. Insurance rep and customer service rep from new auto shop. No, they have space for the car, but they haven’t received some sort of authorization from Middleman. We have our own towing company than go fetch your vehicle, but we need your authorization. Authorized. Just get the damn car. (I didn’t vocalize that last part). Customer service rep starts getting my information. Her co-worker overhears and says something I can’t hear. Oh, his car’s already here? It came in an hour ago? Back when I was on lunch? Okay. So, Mr. Ward, we have everything we need. We will call you early next week.

Monday nothing. Tuesday nothing. Call yesterday. We hope to have it disassembled today with an estimate to you sometime Thursday.

This is not helping my blood pressure or my work productivity. Feck.

As previously stated, we recently brought a new cat into the house. We took him to the vet to get him established.

The vet took a listen and informed us Boo has a pretty strong heart murmur. We are in the process of determining the murmur’s etiology. Hopefully it will be something we can easily treat.

The point of the title is that this murmur was something the vet at the shelter should have known about it. Or did know about it and didn’t tell us. I’m not going to ascribe malice, but it’s annoying that we had to find this out on our own.