My father was a center of calmness in a sometimes chaotic family life.
He had a way of keeping calm, even in the most stressful situations.
He grew up in rural Manitoba in a small town called Gilbert Plains,
just outside of Dauphin. We visited there so many times in my childhood.
I still have a vivid memory of taking the bus to Winnipeg and waiting at
the bus terminal for the next bus up to Dauphin,
with a stop at Salisbury House for dinner.
While I didn't realize it at the time,
(mostly because managing travel boredom was very hard for me as a kid)
these trips were his effort to stay connected with his parents and
other family back in Manitoba.
This is something I struggle with sometimes, so I understand it very keenly.
Those early trips back to see family evolved into a family tradition of
long summer road trips.
We camped of course, since staying in hotels gets really pricey, really quickly.
In pre-GPS days we navigated either by a folded up provincial road map,
acquired for free at the provincial information center that we always stopped at,
or a highlighted "TripTik" (a flipbook of little maps) that we got from the CAA.
I remember being the navigator for my Dad,
watching for the next interchange we are supposed to turn at.
Those trips were so much fun and really set the expectations for how a vacation is meant to be done.
Lots of driving. Going to museums. You rest when you sleep at night.
My Dad instilled in me a love of the outdoors.
In our family, we always were hiking or taking trips.
When I was a kid, my Dad took me to the local Scout group.
They quickly recruited him to be a leader.
So, I spent many years trying (and failing) to learn how to tie knots.
But I did successfully learn how to go backcountry camping.
I was a kid who always wanted to be inside using the computer,
reading books, or playing tabletop games (though frequently on the floor
because we didn't have that many good tables).
But I grew up in a place with extraordinary natural beauty,
and it was because of my Dad that I got to see it.
We picked wild blueberries.
We had a canoe that we attached to the roof of our station wagon
with the predecessor of bungee cords.
Folks, it was a very intricate system.
We went out to this old bridge to pick cranberries,
so my Mom could make cranberry ketchup
(the only kind of ketchup I would eat when I was a kid).
When I came back to Thunder Bay to finish my university degree,
I discovered that my Dad was systematically listening to every single audio
tape in the house.
This included all the tapes I created for listening on the go in the era
after CDs came out, but when I still had a Walkman.
He didn't give me too much critique of my musical taste,
but he did tell me he didn't re-listen to the tape that was mostly Nine Inch Nails.
As far as I know, he was still working through that project.
Looking on the shelves at home, I found a bunch of collected radio dramas
that he probably got from the free library at the community center.
My Dad was very into physical media - stacks of books, tapes and even records.
He was also not really on the Internet.
I remember asking him if he wanted to use the computer at home,
and he replied that he had enough of those things at work.
I think he stuck to that throughout his life.
I didn't get to see him as much as I would have liked the last few years.
Travel is hard and things get in the way.
I did get to have some good conversations with him in the last days.
I value all the time I did get to spend with him.
As is tradition, I have decided to read Roger Zelazny's 1993 book
A Night in the Lonesome October one chapter per day
throughout the month.
I've actually been able to get my partner to join me in this.
I have the advantage that it's written from the dog's point of view.
I have read the book before and I think I have even attempted this before,
but the last time I'm pretty sure I got impatient and skipped ahead.
This has always been a failing of mine.
Let's see how this goes.
I've been a Zelazny fan after discovering the Amber books
(by the route of the Role-Playing Game of course).
Last night, I got to play in my bi-weekly Dungeons & Dragons campaign
and I tell you, folks, the dice got weird.
I honestly don't think there was any dice fudging involved.
I've really come to trust this group —
plus this phenomenon happened to me as well.
Our session was top-to-bottom one entire battle.
(I got to use my new 3D printed mini for the first time.)
No breaks, just fight-fight-fight.
That meant a lot of dice rolls.
Even given that, I've never seen so many 20s and 1s come up in one session —
especially in row.
One of our players had three 1s come up in a row,
switching to different dice each time.
I suspect that if we had recorded all the rolls that night,
the distribution would actually be pretty flat —
but it did make it seem like luck was really turning for and then against us.
So it did serve the goal of making it a fun experience.
Having those extremes is one of the features of having a design based around a
single d20.
The dice you choose for your central mechanic have a big impact on the feel of
the game.
I remember first hearing that on the Fear The Boot podcast.
The battle had some nice moments.
Our opponents seemed pretty overwhelming at first,
especially since we couldn't use most of our abilities.
We had an initial plan,
but that went sideways quickly.
I wasn't sure we were going to make it
Then some reinforcements arrived and I thought everything's going to be OK —
But they immediately got bogged down by foes.
We did manage to turn the tide thanks to a wild leap from a way too tall tower
by one member of the party.
I'm so glad to be in a regular RPG campaign again after so many years.
I honestly didn't think I was actually going to get that chance again.
I have to thank our regular DM, our guest DM for this session and all the other
players in the group.
It really means a lot to me to be able to play.
I also have to thank the whole team at Ravenwood Tabletop for putting it all together.
I'm so glad we have a place like that in my town.
Check them out of you can.
This morning was the day I actually used my digital multimeter,
purchased several months ago from a thrift store,
for an actual productive use.
Yes, it was for testing a battery.
And now it's back in its box and not cluttering up my desk.
It's the kind of technology that I always wanted to have around,
just in case.
I bought my first multimeter from a hardware store after I had to fix
one of our light switches.
I had to get some help from a family member,
because I messed it up.
I thought I could replace a broken switch,
but it turned out to be part of not one, but two, three-way circuits.
Part of the process of fixing it involved lots of testing which wires had
current running through them.
I thought that was really neat,
and I wanted to get a tool that would do that.
The fix worked, but we were left with one three-way pair of light switches
that didn't work properly.
I figured that I could fix the problem, so I got that first multimeter.
I never found the time to actually do it, so we called in a professional.
She fixed it in a few minutes.
I'm also glad that I didn't have to mess around with the wiring
when there was actual current running through it.
So now I have two of these things kicking around.
They have been useful for testing batteries.
I still hope to do some hobby electronics.
Someday.
This morning was the first time I woke up to find snow on the ground this season.
It really does start to put me in a winter break kind of mood.
I just had this vision of enjoying my coffee, watching the snow from inside.
Know that I don't have to head out there anytime soon.
Of course, I know that this all presages lots of struggling through snow,
shovelling the driveway,
scraping ice and snow off the car,
etc.
And there is a bunch of things that I want to get done before the winter break.
Writing has always been a thing of moods for me.
Sometimes you're not going to feel like it at all.
That's one thing that I want to tackle with this daily writing practice.
Force myself to write something even if I don't want to.
In my current role, I occasionally have to create or contribute to briefing notes.
I used to live and work in Ottawa,
so I would hear from friends about having to put together a briefing note at the last minute.
That sounded like something terrifying at the time.
How do you write something that sounds even remotely good in a few hours?
Even if it's a subject you know well.
I'm learning that I can build up that ability in myself.
Mostly through practice, as you're seeing here.
I know it's going to come in handy.
I have a nut allergy,
and while it is generally mild it means I avoid eating nuts.
This means I can't eat a lot of granola on store shelves.
When I was out in British Columbia,
I got hooked on Rogers Granola,
which used to have one non-nut flavour.
Now they don't even list the non-nut flavour on their website.
I was complaining about this when my sibling suggested I make my own.
Apparently they do this all the time and it is really easy.
And I can now attest that is is actually very easy.
I found this simple granola recipe that has no nuts.
I add pumpkin seeds, raisins, cranberries and whatever else I want.
I make a big bag and it servers me well throughout the week.
It's great for commuting days when I have to eat breakfast on the go.
Anyway, I still have to perfect my technique.
This morning I found a chunk of brown sugar that hadn't been completely dissolved.
Not really an unpleasant surprise, but not perfect either.