Fall is Here

So Labor Day weekend has passed, and fall is here. Seems that along with it comes a much more tired and less happy me. MN Seasons… sigh. I have broken out my mini sun-lamp, in hopes of perking up a bit. I think I’m finally willing to admit that the change of seasons hits harder than I’ve wanted to admit.

We did have a great time over the weekend though. Christy met me for lunch on Friday and we had a great lunch out at the food trucks - Potter’s Pasties. It was a nice afternoon catch up, which was great as we both had busy weekends ahead.

Saturday kicked off with breakfast at Jensen’s w/ Dave. Afterwards he came by to pick up the awesome desktop that Martin made for him. He was so happly with it, and I must say Martin did a great job. With each project things get better and better.

Dave got the same sort of adjustable height legs for the desk that I have. Looks great all together!

Later that Saturday, we had some friends over for another round of smoked beef brisket. Once again it was amazing, perhaps the best yet! It was great to catch up with the Spencer’s again, and we had Kim, who Grant introduced me to, and her sister Kelly join us as well. It was a lovely evening.

Ilona also brought me some day lillies to plant too. It took me a bit to get out and plant them, but I did manage to get it done Monday afternoon. It was tough clearing spots to plant them in our rocky front entry garden. I am not a fan of landscape rock, but I think it’ll look great next year!

Saturday afternoon and Sunday I spent a little time in GuildWars 2 again. They extended cooking to an Ascended tier, so I spent some time working through that. Of course it required making 3 of a 1-per-day, time-gated item to finish it. Sigh… Fortunately I got 2 in Saturday, one before and one after reset, then could finish it up on Sunday. I also managed to get my Thief through the last bit of the Heart of Thorns story, with a little group of two others who’d been waiting weeks to find a party.

It’s been 7 years now with Guild Wars 2; 14 with Guild Wars over all. Sadly though I feel like it’s the end of an era. Martin dropped off years ago, Dave is burning out, and his daughter and co. have faded away to other games/things as well. They made a big fuss over their recent Living Story announcement, but it hardly seemed worth the fuss… Don’t get me wrong, the story sounds interesting, but there wasn’t much said to go along with it. There was more hype than substance, and the overall community feel seems to be disappointment.

Overall gaming right now feels disappointing to me. There isn’t much out there that interests me. I imagine it is me as much as games, but others I’ve talked with are finding themselves in the same slump. Maybe we’re just old, but I feel like the type of games that we’re interested in just aren’t made anymore. Gaming has moved on, and we’re stuck longing for games of the past.

Anyhow, that means I’m on a quest for some other sort of time sink - preferably a creative one. That probably means I’ll be picking back up my world-building, mapping, and maybe some writing in the near future… But for right now I feel like that’s a pretty intense investment that I’m not feeling up to right now. The project that has sparked my interest (and that Martin’s excited about too) is building a model train layout embedded coffee table. There are a few hurdles to overcome with this as well: table size, materials, layout design, finding appropriate z-scale models & stuff. I’ve got the intended train - my z-scale Shinkansen 500 “Type EVA”. So that puts my layout in Japan, and from what quick research last year revealed is that many of the z-scale buildings for sale are German/European. Well, nothing worthwhile is ever easy, right?

One last update before signing off… The bed finally has it’s super awesome, Martin made, bookshelf headboard! I’m incredibly happy about this.

It’s got built-in clock storage, complete with power cable access. Hopefully it will also serve as a lovely cat-friendly sleeping space. I intent to top it off with something cozy for them to sleep on, in hopes of leg freedom at night.