I think we all grow up realizing we are only temporary residents here. Reaching the late 50s, I have begun to see more clearly the possibility of an end of lease. At a younger age, I would have thought a commitment to something great would have been the best possible thing. Now, seeing how every good intention gets twisted into something awful, I wonder if playing with toy soldiers is such a bad thing. It does not cost much money, I do not get opportunities to involve myself that frequently, and no one is physically threatened by the enormous plastic and metal weapons.

On the other hand, I do not earn much in the process nor have I heard of many people having successful careers in he field. It is not something that will relegate one to some special remembrance or change the world for the better. Still, it seems that even without some material purpose it has purpose unto itself, a magical little world populated by millions all intertwined in ludicrous conflict.

December usually comes and goes quickly. I have had little enough time to even snap any of my poor quality photos of the thousands of miniatures drifting about. The Imex/Accurate figures have reemerged upstairs and are placed in serried ranks of varying colors. WarWeb shut down after failing to deliver on some 10mm Saxons. It has been an up and down time.

I found the baby strolling through the family room with my driver’s license. I suspect that she is a baby who will be into things in a big way. Right now, she has three goals: chew, bang, and hide. Life will be much more complicated when she learns to climb stairs.

Needless to say, changes continue and hopefully I will get some chance to document them in the coming quickly passing weeks.

October passed without a whimper. Tonight, I get to drive 250 miles and then get some sleep. There remains a lot to do and ever decreasing amounts of time available to do anything other than drive and sleep.

The goal this weekend is to move the scenery from Gainesville to Tampa and establish the upstairs area for some attempts at playing through the various rules sets likely starting with Joseph Morschauser’s book. It is surprising to look back on older rules and see what they got right and what they missed. I am sorting through an old Charles Grant book and surprised to find no rules summary anywhere. No wonder the old books are so worn.

I also dug out an old copy of Swords and Spells by Gary Gygax. D&D has been in its early days linked with the Chainmail rules but here Gygax tries to break free. Some of the idiosyncrasies of Chainmail remain while Gygax introduces a diceless system for combat. It is all pretty confusing and will be interesting to see in action.

But of course first I have to have the time.

According to the statistics compiled, there have been 1,892 malicious login attempts on this site, 588 spam comments, and only one legitimate comment. Good to sit back and keep score.

PS. Just a few hours later and we are up to 2012 malicious login attempts and 591 spam comments. Anyone want a Michael Kors handbag?

The local cable company seems incapable of providing an Internet connection here so things are off to a rocky start in my new home. All I have to show for 2 weeks of ‘service’ is a bill for $80. All the paints seem hidden away and I have taken the radical step of ordering new ones. Space is very limited. The apartment is dominated by boxes. I see that I have to rid myself of some books and debris to make the next move easier. I have no illusions that it will be my last move.

I have plenty to present once things get on track including some attractive 1/1200 Renaissance ships from Valiant and Langton. I have found some interesting rules sets and am hoping to do some simple play-throughs. I will also likely expand the painting section (though as far as I can tell no one has read it) and photograph the Ral Partha Renaissance figures and the Archive fantasy figures. In other words, a lot is coming as soon as time presents itself.

Made the drive from Texas to Florida in time to rescue the baby from a daycare center that promises to teach her Spanish and basic math skills but apparently offers no guarantee that she will come home in one piece. In just 2 weeks, she received a large scratch breaking the skin along her ankle, bloody scrapes on both big toes, a scraped knee, a scratch on her thigh, and a bruise mark on her arm where it looks like someone grabbed her hard. The baby is just 6 months old and cannot yet crawl. The daycare workers blame the injuries on her rapid movements.

In other words, I am still on hiatus as life is restored to some sort of order.

No need to ask, I survived. After being marooned in Dallas and driving back after midnight with the storm to the east facing me down, I abandoned my car in Houston and headed the rental back home. Just as well as the photos of Interstate 45 suggested it would have been a rough ride.

I picked up the car yesterday. There were still puddles of water and wrecked cars but I got there and back. Which is all to say that there is not much else going on with me this past week.