Today 8Jan2022

Today I am running late as Dungeons and Dragons ran over, and then I chatted for a while after. So I will only be covering a few events.

The morning started with me having little sleep as I had too much coffee while playing board games with Richard on Saturday night. Not his fault; I should have just had a caffeine-free herbal tea when I was cold. Next time.

So the 7AM start time for Sunday was hard. The coffee I made, liberal, using the French Press, made me more on edge, not more awake. I went to write the blog and wrote for about two hours. It was over 1,400 words, as Saturday was a busy day and included some events. I wrote until 9:10 and then jumped in the shower, dressed in a dress shirt and tie with my blue sweater over it. The rain was over an inch in the last two days, and there is water around the house again. A cold, windy, wet Sunday morning in Oregon.

I reached the hummingbird house without incident. The rain is constant. Susie, waiting for me and ready to go to church, would prefer to stay warm and dry today. I agree, and I had brought the Apple and cables in Air Volvo just in case we wanted to do remote worship. Anassa sat Susie in her wooden rocking chair, and I connected everything.

We watched the service on the Internet. The music at the start, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus on the organ by Howard, our Music Director, was beautiful. The hymns were mostly familiar. Pastor Ken gave the sermon about the difference between a cult, a great leader like MLK or Gandi, and what Jesus taught. He observed that cults are hiding, while great leaders like MLK and Gandi operated publicly and gave their lives for what they believed was right, not sacrificing their believers.

Susie slept through some of this. She looked very comfortable in her rocking chair, hearing familiar voices and having me there to ensure she was safe. She was happy to just hang out and nod off. She was stable, secure, and comfortable–the best I could hope for today.

When church finished, with the sound lost of the communion part of the service (not that important for us remote folks to hear people taking communion), the final music, again by Howard, was beautiful.

Bext, I played the 80s and some 70s rock videos on YouTube. Susie sang along to some of the songs.

I got the nail cleaner, paints I bought in NYC, and other nail stuff from previous health events. I had moved it to Susie’s room at hummingbird house. So while the rock videos played, I removed and redid her fingernails, including a top coat. It is about an hour of work. So with that dried, it was time for me to head home and Susie to get some lunch and maybe a nap. Susie had a lovely time and was not sad when I left (with a kiss)–we had done church, music, and her nails; a good day. I also introduced Susie to the Ketchup song, and she tried some hand movements; more practice is needed.

I went home and glued my stands together for my flying octopus monsters for Dungeons and Dragons. I got the miniature plastic figures from Etsy. They were a hit when the players faced the ghost-like astral killer octopus later that evening.

I also assembled the two spacejammer boats to use later this year. These are made from laser-cut wood, also purchased on Etsy.

Soon it was time to head to Cory’s house. I loaded up all my goodies and soon headed north to the edge of Portland. I arrived and soon unloaded. I was Dungeon Master tonight and had written a complex adventure for my friends–this is all my stuff. I tried to make multiple layers for every challenge tonight, not just a video game-like totaling damage. Further, I made damage do different things. The damage had to be applied to eliminate protections. Traps had to be avoided, and environmental threats avoided or overcome. Everything did lots of damage and some catastrophic damage–planning was necessary for the player to overcome or just survive. So not your usual 5E dungeon crawl, and I think everyone liked the mixed challenges and complexity–I try not to just build interesting traps and puzzles but to turn even the combat into puzzles to solve.

I had figures for everything I planned, including the octopus, and some threats were just thematic and not real threats to the player’s characters, but I had figures for that. Everyone seemed happy, but we ran late. We finally finished at about 9:30, almost four straight of non-stop adventuring.

In my adventure story, a Rath, Paladin of the Dead, was central. Scott suggested that maybe he returns or is reborn as a first-level adventurer. So I will play Rath the Reborn, Paladin of the Dead, Defender of the Buried, and Trail Blazer to Afterlife for the next game.

We will retire our old characters after tonight. They got an extended life in my dungeon crawl, but it is time again to start over and begin a new campaign. This time D&D in space with even space hamsters and gun-using hippos. Exciting.

I returned home, wrote this blog, and now it is 11:30. Time to stop.

Thanks for reading.