Daily Update, August 26, 2023

    Today, I spent a quiet day at home. The most exciting thing that happened was talking to Perogies, my City of Heroes: Homecoming and video watching friend about reading a story I wrote to his grandkids. The kids like it, and he thought the sadness was just about right for sharing with them. They only read the first part today, but he left the story so they can finish it later. I am so excited because I really wrote this for different generations to share with each other. I'm finally reaching the audience I was aiming for. {SMILE}

   I ate breakfast and dinner with Mom and read to her before dinner. First, I read scripture and thoughts about it. Next, I read the next part of her niece's long family Christmas letter from 2021. After that, I read the next several pages in _A Picture Book of Cute Kittens vol. 1_. After that, I read a story called "The Party Zoo," then a couple of repetitive poems, then a four-page version of "Puss in Boots," all from _365 Bedtime Stories and Rhymes_. Next, I finished with the August 26th story, "The Hunting Trip," from _366 Stories for Bedtime: A Tale for Every Day of the Year_. An Indian boy set off in his canoe, hunting, promising his mother he'd bring stuff back. He found an otter who gave him a fish, and some beavers who he helped build their dam, who gave him berries, and a raccoon who gave him some eggs. When he gave them all to his mother, she praised him as a good hunter. {Smile}

   I did the three walking exercises that don't use the railing, the arm resistance exercises and the arm swinging exercises before my salsa dancing. Yes, I did my salsa dancing, over 20 minutes of it, including a warmup set and a less structured set. After my salsa dancing, I did my head exercises, then my weight training exercises first the two standing ones, then all four sitting ones. Yes, I'm finally comfortable doing my weight training exercises. My palm is healed enough, it's not disturbed by holding it, and it turns out I can hold it with my ring finger slightly away. Even better, it's neither far enough out nor the right finger for me to give anyone the finger that way. {Grin}

   I read comics and articles in the morning and hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming before lunch to do some paperwork. I left for lunch with Mom, then hopped back into City of Heroes: Homecoming after lunch. I tried to join a taskforce, but they'd started when I got there. However, I then realized I was there in time to join the early long, large-group event a bit late, but not badly so. So, I did that. Then I did a bit of solo badge hunting until Perogies popped in and said hi. We got together to run a mission for a badge we both needed, though we had to restart because it didn't quite work the first time. He first told me about the grandkids' reaction to the story, and his own feelings about it. I'm so excited because this is the audience that I didn't quite realize I was trying to reach. The same one Vi Thompson, my first out-of-family writing mentor, wrote for: grandparents and parents reading to their grandchildren and children. {Smile}

   After dinner, I hopped back into City of Heroes: Homecoming. I had a lovely chat with Ulty, but she was winding down from a roleplaying wedding she'd been to, and needed to go, so we couldn't get together for roleplaying, missions, or a combination. I did some paperwork and solo badge hunting until Perogies came in and said hi. We got together, and got a couple more badges we needed, as well as some along the way that were easy, or useful later. We also talked more about my story... that's when I found out more about how reading it to the grandkids went. I'm really excited about that. After the badges, I switched characters to one who had some missions I particularly wanted to do. We did a few until he was ready to leave. Then I worked on exercises and paperwork. {Smile}