The Friday before Independence Day, we were expecting that our weekend was going to be filled with taking care of the newest member of the clowder. Particularly keeping him off the counters and out of food. That lasted until I got a call from The Brother that our mother was heading to the ER. The Wife and I jumped into the Ward Wagon and trekked up to the hospital.

Upon arriving, I found out that the hospital has full security screening. Which meant most of my normal EDC had to be left in the vehicle. In true Florida fashion, I walked through the metal detector. it went off and the security guy had to wand me.

“Hey, what’s this?” “My holster.” “Cool, I just need to make sure it’s empty.” Satisfied, The Wife and I went over to where Mom was waiting with Shootin’ Buddy and his girlfriend (who live with Mom). A few hours later, Mom was ensconced in her room.

Over the next week, I made sure I went to see Mom every day to make sure she has everything she needs. Normally, The Brother would have handled that as he is much closer. Unfortunately, The Brother currently has a bum leg. Which meant I had to make the trek up. Since I still had to work for most of that week, I hauled up my work laptop and peripherals up. I am so glad we bought that portable monitor back in October for our trip out west.

Friday comes and Mom gets discharged. It was a bunch of wait, wait, now hurry up. Still, we got her home and settled in. Shooting Buddy started doing meal planning with Mom’s diet restrictions while I retrieved her prescriptions. It had been a long week, and I was ready to go home.

Then someone rear-ended the Ward Wagon. I don’t blame the kid. Traffic came to a quick stop on 75. It took me standing on my brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of me. Two cars behind me had to veer on the shoulder. The third car just couldn’t stop in time. No one was injured, but the Ward Wagon was dragging its exhaust. So, it’s off to the shop our insurance recommended. Due to the traffic, it took The Wife and MIL a while to come and get me.

Since the Ward Wagon is our only car, we rented a vehicle. We asked for a smaller SUV. We ended up with a Ford Expedition. Yeah, that SUV is bigger than I want to deal with. Yet, we needed something because I was supposed to go to jury duty and The Wife was going to have to schlep three of the cats to the vet. I was not looking forward to taking that into downtown Bradenton. Fortunately, when I checked on Sunday, I was not required to report. I’m going to chalk it up to my brutal honesty on my voire dire form. After all, I can just see attorneys seeing interests of “reading, writing, libertarian political theory, firearms, economics” and everyone asking to just keep me away. Or at least, that’s my head cannon.

Hopefully, we will get the Ward Wagon back quickly.