The Week That Was

It is hard to believe it is General Conference time again – time does fly. The past week itself went by rather quickly thanks to a road trip on Wednesday.

Monday I accompanied my father on a pair of repair jobs and ended up not helping at all due to not being needed. However, it was good to get out of the house. Having the car out of action again has been frustrating. Anyway, the second call was at a friend’s place where the dishwasher pump isn’t working properly. While I was there, his son suggested watching his new Yellow Submarine Blu-ray which looked great even if the animation was pretty bad.

Also, in retrospect it made Magical Mystery Tour look sensical (this isn’t a word, but should be) by comparison in my opinion. This opinion will be shared by exactly zero other people in the world.

Tuesday came along and Beat Hazard seemed to be helping me overcome the burnout on video gaming. Such a simple concept behind the game is what makes it so effective. Imagine a mix of your own music providing the tempo and intensity of classic arcade shooters such as Asteroids, R-Type, Sinistar, and Galaga – that’s Beat Hazard. There is a slight hint of RPG style in that you can unlock and equip a limited amount of perks from a large list. Those perks affect score and gameplay greatly.

Wednesday was the road trip with my father and a buddy of ours to St. Paul to visit our State Representative Greg Davids and others. The day was bright and sunny, though we set out from home before the sun rose. Road trips are always a good time to talk and goof on things so a lot of fun was had.

The day was supposed to be a slow day at the legislature so we were more in it for the stop to pick up a case of White Castle sliders on the way back home. Whatever our expectations were, events decided to be a lot more interesting than foreseen. We ended up in the middle of a bunch of political intrigue involving a very puzzling move by a legislator that had both parties and the media in a tizzy.

This was the closest to a Hollywood interpretation of politics that I’d seen. Of course that made it very entertaining to watch if baffling at first. That would be due to the mystery of why this political move was being made because it was a suicidal no win scenario that was guaranteed to alienate everyone involved. In the end the only explanation was that it was motivated by petty vengeance, which has more place in politics than it should. It did bring people together who normally wouldn’t be, ironically.

Then as we were leaving, another unrelated bombshell dropped that got a lot of media attention later. So much for a nice quiet day to visit!  Normally during one of these annual “pilgrimages” of ours we would sit in on a caucus or committee meeting before hitting the floor to watch voting. None of that was in the cards and we needed to get home early.

After scoring the White Castles, we headed back and retrieved the Subaru Outback from the dealership where it had languished for a week and a half while we waited for Social Security to come in. I drove her back and the engine sounded better and did not overheat. There are sounds and vibrations still coming from where the replacement boots were put on during the previous repairs though I can’t be sure due to worn rotors and brakes needing replacement. After our multiple problems with Dahl over the years, we’ll be having all non-engine related work done elsewhere.

That night I downloaded the DLC’s from a game I have and started playing them since L.A. Noire failed to grab me. So at least part of my gaming burnout has lifted. Thursday was more of that because I was too tired to write or do anything intelligent. When you have CFS you pay the piper for doing anything and more for doing a lot.

Friday rolled around bringing only a little more energy and the completion of the spreadsheet index of DVDs and Blu-rays I have. More gaming due to the continued absence of neurons firing in my brain was inevitable. Good thing I’m using a level 50 character in a level 30 setting…

That brings me to today. General Conference and running an errand are the plans. Hopefully I will make it to Priesthood Session tonight. Time will tell.