Well, since reaching level 70, I haven’t done a lot of questing or hunting. I haven’t done much playing at all, really. I think I average maybe four hours of WoW play a week.

I’ve played my human priest some, just to level her up. She’s level 34, now, and I’ve been following Jame’s Leveling Guide since level 30. The guide is very well done, but I just don’t have the time to put in to really work it. In a twist of circumstances, my three friends who play WoW switched from Horde to Alliance. My main is an orc hunter, so we don’t play together in WoW anymore. That’s why I started trying to fast level my human priest, but it really just isn’t going to work out. They all have more time to put into playing, so I’ll never catch up to them with my Alliance character.

As for my main, most all I’ve been doing with him is flying around Outland on his wyvern. Flying around is a great feature. I did leave Outland for a while to visit Orgrimmar for Brewfest. I had never gotten a character drunk before, but I had heard about it from my friends. I stocked up on a few dozen brews and started guzzling them. Being [virtually] drunk is fun. The view wobbles and gets blurry; when you walk or run, you tend to weave and loose direction. Nice little gimmick, there, Blizzard.

I played last night for a couple hours, and completed some quests in Netherstorm, Outland with my orc hunter. The quests were nothing special, and I only made less than 100 gold, but I thoroughly enjoyed the flying around.

Without friends to join up with on occasion, WoW has lost some of its appeal. Plus, I have a lot of work to do in the evenings, now days, so playing WoW kind of wastes valuable time. I’m considering dropping the subscription again.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

All this week, the kids have been sick. Our 6 year old had a high fever the night of October 5, and developed croup the next day. The 2 year old came down with the same thing on October 8.

Croup is a virus that affects the larynx. In an adult, we’d just get hoarse, but in a child’s throat, the effects can restrict the air ways and can be dangerous. A bad case can send a child to the emergency room. Fortunately, neither of our boys has needed a hospital for this, although we’ve been to the doctor’s office twice. They both had fevers spiking up to 104 degrees for a several days.

The 2 year old missed both days of his preschool, and the 6 year old missed Monday through Thursday of his first grade this week. It’s been a pretty exhausting week in the home. We’re having the 2 year old’s birthday party on October 14, and we’re hoping he’ll be up for it. We’re hoping we parents will be up for it.

There’s not much that’s more pathetic than a sick child, but as of yesterday, it looks like both may be over it, finally. Now we all just need to get back into our regular family routines, and prepare for a 3 year old birthday party.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Several days ago, my wife rented a couple of movies: Toy Story for our boys, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer for us. Unfortunately, we didn’t get time to watch anything for a few nights. During this time, her friend brought over a movie to let her/us see.

Then a couple nights ago, when I was suffering from a bit of writer’s block, I saw the FFRotSS DVD sitting on the kitchen counter. I needed a little action and excitement to grease the imagination.

“Hey,” I said, waving the Fantastic Four DVD in my hand, “want to watch a movie tonight?”

“Yes,” she answered. “There’s one in there my friend brought”

The Holiday – a chick flick about “relationships.” Yuck. Not at all what I was hoping to get into. I showed her the FF movie, but no go. I held back a sigh. I’d have rather tried writing, even poorly, than watch a chick flick right then. I put the FF DVD back in the kitchen, and just “forgot” to grab The Holiday.

A minute later, my wife retrieved her friend’s DVD and brought it to me. “Put this in the player, please,” she said. I held back another sigh, and I might have rolled my eyes when her back was turned.

I put the DVD in the player and started it up. She sat down on the sofa and asked me to come sit with her. When I sat down, I picked up the DVD box and looked for the running time for the movie. I could put up with it and hold off doing my work for 90 minutes or so. I found the running time: 136 minutes. “Oh geez!” I did sigh this time.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“It’s over two hours long,” I said.

“You don’t have to watch it,” she said.

My work really increased in importance at that moment. I went to my computer and got down to writing, poorly.

As I sat there, I could hear the movie. When I looked at my wife, I could see her smiling while watching it. Only a schmuck would work when his wife wants him to sit with her and watch a movie. So I left the computer and went to sit with my wife and watch that, sigh, two-plus hour chick flick.

From the back of the DVD case:

Iris is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda, realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday. Iris moves into Amanda’s L.A. house in sunny California as Amanda arrives in the snow covered English countryside. Shortly after arriving at their destinations, both women find the last thing either wants or expects: a new romance. Amanda is charmed by Iris’ handsome brother Graham, and Iris, with inspiration provided by legendary screenwriter Arthur, mends her heart when she meets film composer Miles.

Every once in a while, during the movie, my wife said,
“A man with a machine gun is about to jump out.”
“That car is going to explode.”
“Guys are about to parachute down with guns.”
“Ninjas are about to attack.”

She knows how to keep me interested in a movie.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

My family had just dropped me off at the garage to pick up my car after it got an oil change, when my cell phone rang. It was my wife letting me know that a truck had just exploded next to her and the boys on the road in front of the shopping center.

She told me they had been stopped at the intersection light when a utilities truck burst into flames right beside her. They could feel the heat from the flames as they sped away. She had called 911 before calling me. “You should take the other way out of the shopping center,” she warned me.

As I was walking out to my car, I saw the black smoke rising above the tall trees around the parking lot and boulevard. I left my car in its parking spot and walked across the lot to the road to see the situation. As I got closer, I could see the orange glow between the tree limbs, and I realized that the fire was bigger than I expected.

I’ve seen one or two car fires before; I’ve even seen a house fire. But when I cleared the trees, and stood about a hundred yards from the utilities truck, I saw the deep orange flames rolling upwards of 100 feet into the sky. Holy moly! I’ve never seen a fire that big.

There was a fire station just up the street from the intersection, and the fire truck and firefighters were already on the scene. Within five minutes of the start, the firefighters had water going on the blaze. In another few minutes, more fire trucks started showing up.

I stood on the street side, with many other gawkers, for about 30 minutes watching the scene. There were two helicopters and a plane circling overhead, and several photographers were capturing the scene for the news. The blaze was huge but I couldn’t tell if the heat I felt was from the fire or from the noon sun. I could smell the gasoline from the burning truck, and I could hear the roar of the water rushing from the fire hoses. The water seemed to be doing absolutely nothing against the fire. The rolling and twisting inferno was hypnotic to watch. At one point, a thin tornado spun off the blaze and twirled off to dissipate in the trees on the side of the road.

I heard the people near me talking about the scene.
“The radio said it was a multi-vehicle accident.”
“If it’s a gas line, why don’t they just turn it off?”
“Was anyone burned?”

When I left, the fire was still raging. In fact, the fire continued for several hours. Workers had been drilling on a concrete median in the intersection and struck a gas line. According to the news, there was no gas line cut-off in the area, so the gas company workers had to literally cut a hole in the road to make a cut-off. All the businesses and stores around the intersection were evacuated, and the area will be shut down for a couple days.

My family, in our van, was about 20 feet away, stopped at a red light when the gas ignited. They felt the heat from inside the van, and when my wife got home, she checked the passenger side for damage (there is none). It was an amazing thing. According to the news, no one was hurt by the fire.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com