Saturday, October 27, 2018

The Month of My Discontent

I've come to realize as I have gotten older, that there are more opportunities to recognize the joy of life, but there are so many more pressing issues to worry and suffer through.   Each year seems rougher because our world changes, evolves, and dies a little more.  And following the old adage, "I hope next month is better than this one,"  outside of something catastrophic happening, any month should be better than October.

Starting with a work schedule that seems to exponentially get tougher as our busy season grows, with IT and clueless out of department management complicating an already complicated, yet delicate, process.  Then throw my wife's surgery on the 1st of an already difficult month, plus minor complications. Then we have hockey season, which adds some relaxation but a rigid schedule since tickets are pre-paid. Add in some car trouble, and failing to take advantage of even more overtime when I usually do, I'm about to find a ledge.

And then, to end the month, we (meaning my wife with my unwavering support) have made the decision to put my mother-in-law into hospice.   Yesterday was a really good day after a series of nightmares, but the chance for a few hours like that are going to be fleeting. 

This could progress slowly, or it might take hold quickly, we don't know, so I'll do the selfish thing and say that all my games for Fall-In! and Mepacon could be cancelled at a moment's notice.

The selfish part of me (and of my wife, to be honest) wants me to go to the conventions, take one of the kids to Fall-In! and two for part of Mepacon.  We all need that short vacation to do what we want with only a portion of the family, so we're recharged to do things with the whole family.

So, that all partly explains my lack of posting.  Not that I've been pretty close to a post a day for the entire month, but I've largely avoided wargaming and Gnomes (although the short Gnomes and Fungus article was fun).

What's going on...
Painting:  The basement is dry, but I haven't gotten any reasonable time to go down and touch up minis and prep things for Fall-In!, so those 30-45 minutes burst might be better spent on the computer working on RPGs.

5e online:  The two-hour Monday night game finally got a serious story arc (and combat) finished.  The Barbarian might be slightly broken, although I've been taking talents (?) that increase speed instead of general fighting prowess.

Lost Dispatches:  Continues the developing success of my other Actual Play.  What I thought would be simple letters covering an adventure have demanded... storytelling on the part of Elsderth.  The story I'm telling is consistent, but the details need to be better polished.  The first eleven episodes are the can, waiting for a Tuesday release.  I'm scratching the worldbuilding itch with material I didn't go over this much back in 1991!

Nevoz:  Actual play write-ups of my 90's Canadian Cthulhu/Action game will be slated for December release along with *drumroll please* Maja's first ever character provided purely for the blog.

Conventions:  With the car in the shop and the mother-in-law needing my wife, this weekend should get my through a good chunk of my to-do list.   In a similar vein, I would still like to go to Fall-In!, as shopping list hasn't been this reasonable, yet robust, in quite some time.

Other Games:  As my cross-country and track coach, Ray Herman, would always say, "We shall see what we shall see...."  Still hoping.

And there are glimmers of hope.  The 225th issue of Game Trade Magazine showed up in pdf yesterday, allowing me to put together that post closer to on time than really late. 

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