I’ve left this blog idle for just about 3 months. Couple of the months, this laptop’s been downstairs near my workstation, so once I’m off work, I’m upstairs, and then I don’t have this handy. If only “thoughts” could be “recorded” and converted to typed words and posted. (But then, would also be great to have a pensieve–that device from the Harry Potter books–where one can remove and “store” memories while getting them out of one’s own head for awhile)
We had that new health scare with Chloe at the beginning of August; within a couple DAYS of an exact YEAR from the 2021 instance. We then had another one last week over the Veterans’ Day weekend. I’m personally not even sure what to think THERE…but it SOUNDS like what had been feared to be a bladder tumor MIGHT be hyperthyroidism. Either way, Chloe’s got a new “regular med” as part of her routine for a bit.
She’d also gotten shaved, and she’s back to being a furry cat…slightly longer hair than Sarah’s “shorthair” but not her full length “longhair”…though she’s remained EXTRA-snuggly, which I’ve cherished.
Tomorrow will be Week Eleven (of 13) for a GriefShare group I’ve been attending. Particularly thanks to encouragement from Sara, Cass, and Lizz; found this group and started going. Not quite sure how to describe it for myself, or its impact…but among other things, for these last several months, it’s been an added fixture in my week, something concrete and planned, more than “just” “going to the comic shop” each week, to get out/away from the house for a bit. And it’s meant meeting other people in similar situations/places of life where none of us would want to be “qualified” to be there, but we all know why we’re all there, and so there’s something to THAT (speaking for myself, anyway).
It had also recently occurred to me that this has been THE first “social group” thing of any real note that I’ve been a part of since The Dive back in my Kent State days.
I suppose I should note that it was ALSO “This is Us” that helped push me toward it, having a better idea of “support groups” and the like from the show.
I know at one point I’d “planned” on doing some blogging based on prompts from the “workbook,” and I may yet…but I guess I’ve taken to using GriefShare as an outlet in lieu of this blog, for a time. I’m too much of a rambler/writer/venter/whatever to permanently stop writing, hence diving back in here/now.
Back in early October, having returned to watching too much YouTube, I caught a video from “The Professor” (Tolarian Community College) where he hyped up “Flesh and Blood,” a card game from Legend Story Studios…especially amidst the 30th anniversary crap from Wizards of the Coast for Magic. It caught my attention, especially as I’d heard of the game last year or the year before, where I went for “Gate Ruler” instead. (I found that unopened GR stuff and wish I’d gone the F&B route then!)
Looked into the game and found that it definitely appealed to me–from the art, the cards, the gameplay, the publisher’s philosophy, being something designed for IN PERSON (“in flesh and blood”) play (rather than some digital-only/app-only “card game”), etc.
I dove in, and found that it was definitely something to be enjoyed/appreciated…as well as being something new for me to “throw myself into.” As a TCG, not exactly a totally new ‘hobby’ (Magic the Gathering, Spellfire, Marvel Overpower, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, dabbling in modern MTG in 2018/2019, etc) but still something NEW for ME in and of itself.
I was able to get to a “draft” event on October 30th, several days after going to an introductory/”welcome” event; to get my first real taste of actually PLAYING the game…as well as my first-ever TCG “draft” experience.
But what REALLY made that one memorable for me was that it was October 30th…which would have been Dad’s 72nd birthday. At this draft event, I wound up getting 2 of THE rarest cards in the then-current set…one that would be found approximately 1 in 96 packs; and another found approximately 1 in 960 packs. Lotta thoughts and such condensed…I know Dad would have been tickled at the story; at me going to this thing and pulling both these cards…especially combined with his having maintained that HE tried to get ME into Magic when it was first solicited back in 1993.
He ALSO would have VERY MUCH encouraged me TO go out to this event, been glad to see me involving myself in something like this, getting outta the house, trying something new, etc.
And–granted–the GriefShare group would never even be on my radar if he was still here, but all the more ME getting into a new game and choosing to venture out to get involved in such a thing with complete strangers…he would have really dug that.
And even the event being on his birthday, he’d have wanted to work around it, rather than be any part of any excuse for me NOT checking it out.
The day before that F&B (“FaB”/FAB/fab) draft, Mom and I got down to Zanesville to see family, and share a meal in honor of his birthday. For me, in some ways, that became the…I’m not even sure the word I’m looking for. We didn’t get to do a funeral thanks to C19 and such. So a sort of “celebration of life” at his birthday kinda filled some of that.
Dad’s birthday–October 30th–was also 10 months since we lost him, December 30th. Which did not go unnoticed by me in the months prior, at the time, nor now.
As always, I’m kinda trailing off here. Far more thoughts than can be put to words. But as I came downstairs to attend to something else requiring this laptop, I figured I’d just open the “create a post” page and start typing and see what I’d wind up with.
“break the ice” and such on this blog again, and see if I get back to more regular posting, at least for a bit.
The Life of Walt 