Sunday with D&D

Sunday started with me rising about 7 and getting coffee. I try to start my day with a text and a call to Deborah, even when we are three time zones away. I had to be in church early to provide information on the refresh of the entrance way, fireside room, and little kitchen. I still had plenty of time to talk to Deborah and write the blog.

Coffee was prepared beforehand and was ready when I got up. I was surprised that I could find 1,300 words to describe a relatively quiet Saturday without an aside or other commentary. Still, it was nice to write without feeling any pressure, other than the need to finish within a few hours.

I had returned to my SciFi story, and I was feeling more relaxed while writing the blog. For me, writing is a muscle, and when I don’t write stories, I seem to start feeling anxious and lose some of the pleasure of just telling stories. Writing the blog begins to turn into work. Once I return to some Fantasy, Horror, or SciFi, I seem to unwind and can write the blog as if I were telling a story in front of a campfire with friends.

I have finished another one-third of a chapter in my Fantasy book. I am not sure it will ever be finished, let alone published, but it is fun to create a Fantasy setting, and the tool Scrivener is helping. It is slow going as I want every sentence to be good.

There were a few clouds in the sky, but no rain in the forecast, and it would be another 50°F to 80°F day. I shower, and all that, and dress in a dress shirt, a Pride tie, a green sweater vest, blue slacks, and a straw hat. While Oregon is a come-as-you-are style place, and our pastor often wears Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and sandals, I go the other way and try to look neat and well turned out.

I have D&D stuff already in Air VW the Gray with my now fourth-level sorcerer, Carter. The character is named after the famous magician here. I also took the color copies of the image of the update to the church. I stopped by Donut Day for some donut holes to share while I stood there. I get a few customers before church and collected some feedback.

I ushered, and MichaelR gave the sermon, which was about Paul and his message of hope. Paul is often quoted out of context instead of Jesus to justify an intolerant and elitist version of Christianity. As many people point out, the Sermon on the Mount is not what conservative Christians demand to be posted in courts and school rooms. MichaelR is trying to point out that Paul says that Jesus and Christianity bring hope, especially in difficult times. Often, Paul’s passages are used to justify that Christianity is the only valid hope and as justification for the terrible things done in wars of conquest and purges for social purity. And while MichaelR did a great job showing the hope the words can bring, I still see them splattered with the blood and ashes of the innocent, though taken out of context and mistranslated (another reason I studied some Greek). I will try to find hope and reconsider these passages; I want to reclaim them from the evil men and women who have misused them.

I helped finish up the service by assisting with putting the offering away and chatting with a few people. I headed off to lunch and decided that the Beaverton Carts would work for me at Beaverton Central. Jumbalya with a beer was my choice for a hot day. This version, with suggestions for places to eat in New Orleans for my next trip from the preyeror, including Brigtsens, was spicy, red, and sharp. The sausage was excellent, and the shrimp were cleaned and small. I still prefer my version, which is more brown, but the red version had bright flavors and was good.

I returned home, and with the church stuff, beer, food, and hot sun, I was soon asleep. I managed to remove my shoes and ties before closing my eyes, and I discovered it was a few hours later when I opened my eyes again. I had read some more Assyrian history from my new book; I have finished the 30+ page introduction.

I rise and find my way again. I have an hour before D&D at M@’s place. I cut roses for M@’s wife, Niki, who just had a birthday. My roses are enjoying the late summer, and I have many blooms of different scents and colors to combine. The cut flowers are all carefully wrapped in many sheets of paper towels, as my roses have the most wicked thorns.

Our usual group met at M@’s, some of us having played together for over twenty years, and we managed to play out the fight of a big battle, thereby driving off some of the bad guys once we had defeated the main villain. In our story, we supplied maps and details of the area to the various not-that-evil cults to help reduce the truly evil one; we may return (at a higher level) and see if we can help more. We returned to the Infinite Staircase to discover that one of our players’ patrons is the spirit of the stairs. We start at the next doorway for the next challenge. It was a good night.

I returned home and soon was curled up with Assyrian History and the Player’s Handbook.