![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillYesterday was a gaming day, and we had adventures clearing out a haunted city that my dragon-kobold character wants to take for their stronghold. Quite a bit of fishing-for-ghosts and a very dramatic battle with a very powerful giant maggot undead thing that was pretty scary. Also I discovered where my landlord funds were coming from; the city vault turned out to contain nothing but record books—records of investments made by the city that were payable to its ruler, records of debts people owed “the bearer of this note” and records of contracts various other cities had made with the city before it was overrun by ghosts that included failure-to-deliver clauses that meant the city was owed quite a bit of money. Jake’s character suggested my character had better hire bodyguards before trying to collect those, however.
All in all a very fun game.
Today we were going to take things easy in the morning. To get some exercise, Jake and Kip and I walked down to Bird Springs which is about 5 blocks from my house, and then took the long way back to the house; I used to walk 19 minute miles but since Covid it is more like 22 minute miles. On the other hand, back on the 5th of July I wouldn’t have been willing to try this walk at all so it is progress.
This afternoon we went for a planned swim with Dad at the Cherokee Dam swimming area. We all had swim suits and swimming shoes (you don’t go into Cherokee lake barefoot unless you are much braver than I am) though my swim suit was noticeably tighter than it used to be before Covid. One of these days I will buy a new one I think. We had to send Kip to the store for sunscreen, because while I know I have a new bottle somewhere, I could not find it in a a reasonable amount of time. This meant we arrived at the park with no sunscreen but there was a handy unoccupied picnic table where we could sit in the shade and watch the parking lot for Kip’s arrival. The picnic table was one of those horrible ones made out of mesh, but everybody had a towel for when we were coming back wet in the car, so we could sit on those and be comfortable.
When Kip showed up we sunscreened up and ambled down to the water. I had to put the car keys somewhere, so I had brought my purse, but we ended up taking turns in the water with someone always by our towels and (drinking) water, and my purse.
The swimming area had looked quite small when we inspected it the last time we walked at the dam; it seemed much larger today—perhaps because swimming is so slow compared to walking, or perhaps they had moved the boom out, so that it really comprised more of the lake. Jake and I swam out to the boom and hung off it for a bit—my shoulders were reminding me that we had not done anything like this for literally two or three years, but the up side to my swim suit being tight was that I had no particular tendency to sink, so I didn’t have to swim hard. The water was kind of murky, warm on top and cool underneath, with the two mixing in trails where we had swum a while.
Dad seemed to have fun; it was a bit hard to communicate with him since he had to take his hearing aid out to swim, and he left it in the car, but it wasn’t as hard to get him to understand as I’d feared it might be. Kip and Jake and I all swam for a bit—Jake and I did 2 sessions, with a while sitting in the shade watching stuff in between—and after about 40 minutes we decided we’d done enough and went home. People were grilling in the park and Kip decided he had a hankering to grill stuff for dinner, so we’re doing that.
We did fairly small birthday presents this year, since Jake and Dad had to shell out for plane tickets, but I got several Kindle books I wanted from Jake and Dad gave me a wok I’d asked for. Kip got lots and lots of D&D minis (and gave me some minis of characters in wheelchairs which I’d wanted—one of my NPCs in the Strixhaven game is a wheelchair jockey.). Dad got books, four of which we had to ship to his house in a box, since he is really only comfortable with paper. Jake got Kindle books from me and Kip. Jake has a slight preference for paper, but when he is traveling by plane it is so much easier to have books that weigh nothing and take no space that he went for that option.
Tomorrow afternoon Jake and Dad head home on a commercial flight. I’m glad we could have this visit, and that Covid did not spoil it. It is always good to spend time with them.
All in all a very fun game.
Today we were going to take things easy in the morning. To get some exercise, Jake and Kip and I walked down to Bird Springs which is about 5 blocks from my house, and then took the long way back to the house; I used to walk 19 minute miles but since Covid it is more like 22 minute miles. On the other hand, back on the 5th of July I wouldn’t have been willing to try this walk at all so it is progress.
This afternoon we went for a planned swim with Dad at the Cherokee Dam swimming area. We all had swim suits and swimming shoes (you don’t go into Cherokee lake barefoot unless you are much braver than I am) though my swim suit was noticeably tighter than it used to be before Covid. One of these days I will buy a new one I think. We had to send Kip to the store for sunscreen, because while I know I have a new bottle somewhere, I could not find it in a a reasonable amount of time. This meant we arrived at the park with no sunscreen but there was a handy unoccupied picnic table where we could sit in the shade and watch the parking lot for Kip’s arrival. The picnic table was one of those horrible ones made out of mesh, but everybody had a towel for when we were coming back wet in the car, so we could sit on those and be comfortable.
When Kip showed up we sunscreened up and ambled down to the water. I had to put the car keys somewhere, so I had brought my purse, but we ended up taking turns in the water with someone always by our towels and (drinking) water, and my purse.
The swimming area had looked quite small when we inspected it the last time we walked at the dam; it seemed much larger today—perhaps because swimming is so slow compared to walking, or perhaps they had moved the boom out, so that it really comprised more of the lake. Jake and I swam out to the boom and hung off it for a bit—my shoulders were reminding me that we had not done anything like this for literally two or three years, but the up side to my swim suit being tight was that I had no particular tendency to sink, so I didn’t have to swim hard. The water was kind of murky, warm on top and cool underneath, with the two mixing in trails where we had swum a while.
Dad seemed to have fun; it was a bit hard to communicate with him since he had to take his hearing aid out to swim, and he left it in the car, but it wasn’t as hard to get him to understand as I’d feared it might be. Kip and Jake and I all swam for a bit—Jake and I did 2 sessions, with a while sitting in the shade watching stuff in between—and after about 40 minutes we decided we’d done enough and went home. People were grilling in the park and Kip decided he had a hankering to grill stuff for dinner, so we’re doing that.
We did fairly small birthday presents this year, since Jake and Dad had to shell out for plane tickets, but I got several Kindle books I wanted from Jake and Dad gave me a wok I’d asked for. Kip got lots and lots of D&D minis (and gave me some minis of characters in wheelchairs which I’d wanted—one of my NPCs in the Strixhaven game is a wheelchair jockey.). Dad got books, four of which we had to ship to his house in a box, since he is really only comfortable with paper. Jake got Kindle books from me and Kip. Jake has a slight preference for paper, but when he is traveling by plane it is so much easier to have books that weigh nothing and take no space that he went for that option.
Tomorrow afternoon Jake and Dad head home on a commercial flight. I’m glad we could have this visit, and that Covid did not spoil it. It is always good to spend time with them.
