Daily Update, June 12, 2023

    Today I stayed home. I did call my aunt in the middle of the afternoon, and we had a nice chat, catching up and stuff. I also called Auntie Barbara after dinner, and we had a nice chat, too. We also caught up on stuff. {Smile}

   I also worked a little on the story. I've decided I want to set it in Loihi. There's a seamount by that name - or was. It has been officially renamed recently. However, Loihi the seamount was named after a magical floating island that would appear out of the mists at sea, then float back into the mists at the end of the story. It was home to a variety of creatures too magical to live in Hawai'i fulltime. I think it would be a great setting for fantasy with a Hawaiian flair, whether traditional or modern. Why not have Japanese, Chinese, European, and Filipino magical people move in and settle as those types of humans have? {Smile}

   Today, I had dinner with Mom and read to her before that. I started with scripture and thoughts about it, and continued with a few cards, from Helping Hands (our nursing company), church, another from Helping hands, and one from her sister. Then I started showing her pictures in _A Picture Book of Cute Kittens Vol. 1_. There are no words, so i tried to describe each cat in the pictures. Then I read "Florida Beermaker Creates Six-Pack Holder to Feed Turtles Instead of Killing Them, " from _100 Uplifting Short Stories for Seniors_. Then I read the June 12th story, "Bright Feather," from _366 Stories for Bedtime: A Tale for Every Day of the Year_. Mom enjoyed both reading and pictures. {Smile}

   I did my walking, arm swinging, arm weight training, arm resistance and head exercises. Yes, I've added two resistance exercises, I think they're called, where I pull on stretchy bands my therapist gave me. {Smile}

   I read comics in the morning tried a little writing of the story. I feel like I need to get to know some of the characters, after a change, but I found other changes I can make right now, which is encouraging, somehow. I read comics over lunch, too, and for a little while afterwards. Then I hopped into City of Heroes and found Perogies. I wanted to test a character I'd improved a little, and he wanted to do the early long, large group event, so we did both. Then we did a mission that was more difficult than we wanted but tested my character more thoroughly. Then I mentioned wanting to make a phone call, and he told me to do it while he worked on getting a character high enough level to be more fun to play. So that's when I called Aunt Valerie. When I came back, we just missed getting in on the later short, large-group event, which meant we arrived at the later long, large-group event early. That event and a bit of talking and paperwork afterwards took me up to time to read to Mom. {Smile}

   After dinner, exercise, and my phone call with Auntie Barbara, I hopped back into City of Heroes: Homecoming. I was surprised at both how few friends were on, and how little seemed to be going on with Pick Up Teams and such. However, I spotted a group that had found a giant monster and joined them for the fight. Then much of the group broke up, but a team of folks from that went on to summon the most famous summonable giant monster in the game. Again, it broke up, but a few of us - somehow, I was leading at this point - went on to summon another giant monster and fight it. Then it broke up again. I first thought to pursue more giant monsters, but when it finished breaking up, I only had one person. I got one more by advertising, and we ran some normal missions. When that person left, I got one more by advertising - it was definitely a slow night; you can usually get at least two or three, if not a full team and more interest from a few calls. Then Soothing Darkness appeared and said hi - they weren't on earlier - and I invited her to join us. However, while she was getting the character she wanted to play, the others left, so I switched characters too, and we ran a few missions together. Then we chatted - mostly roleplaying in character - while I wrote up most of this before admitting it was too late and making notes about the rest of my night. {Smile}