Week 3

April is the traditional month for complaining about the weather in Portland. If it's 49F and raining in the middle of the winter, hey, could be worse (snow, ice, or freezing temperatures plus a vicious east wind taking the wind chill to down around 0F). Come spring, though, when the flowers are blooming, the leaves are budding, and it's still struggling to top 50F...

Then by the end of May, we're usually complaining about the heat.

There are nice moments though. The sun comes out every now and then. I happened to be out on my walk Monday morning, when it came out the light plus all the water made everything practically glow. There are tulips blooming everywhere, and when it lights up they really pop.

There are other things I've been noticing on my walks, as I get into parts of the neighborhood I don't usually. For instance, the newer houses on the other side of the local park. I've been reading McMansion Hell for a couple years, and it has mentioned how the features of rich-person houses, no matter how terrible, eventually work their way down to everyone else, but I never knew until now that I could have just walked a few blocks to see it with my own eyes. It's all there: roofline soup, random splashes of brick or stonework, collections of mismatched windows, ACTUAL NUBS.

I guess if I have the spare energy to complain about residential architecture, then things are going well.

The perils of high-level gaming

Things my Pathfinder 1st edition wizard prepared spells for in her current play-by-post adventure:

• Exploring the frozen tundra
• Fighting undead
• Assisting with anthropological research

Things she is actually doing in the first encounter of the game:

• Turning into a water elemental
• Attempting to distract some orcas so that they do not playfully capsize the canoes the rest of the party is in