I’ve really been sort of absent from these pages lately, and in large part that’s because the last several weeks have revolved around kitanzi‘s work schedule, which has her at her office 12 hours a day five-six days a week, and as a result I’ve been trying to pick up most of the household chores. This plan has been hampered by the fact that I’ve been having more troubles with my back, finally coming to the point where I got myself referred to physical therapy in an effort to get it fixed.
For the last two weekends, kitanzi has actually gotten the weekend free, giving us time and energy to actually be social with folks. Last weekend, we headed up to Colbert, GA for ApheliCon 2, the second annual Aphelion Webzine barbecue, hosted by my old friend vila_resthal and his lovely new wife, Lyn. Attendance was light, as usual, but Lyn’s delightful daughter Michele was there, along with Bill Wolfe down from Tennessee, and mrjaimie and his wife over from Marietta. We had barbecue and chili, discussed writing and science and art and politics and music, and I played my guitar a bit, at the command of the hosts, who insisted. (I also played them a bit of cadhla‘s amazing live album, and got at least a couple of converts, I think.) We stayed until about 10pm, and decided to drive back home rather than get a hotel room in Athens, which was a prudent financial decision, if it means I didn’t really get down into Athens at all on this trip.
This weekend was full of people too. Saturday evening, we went to the monthly Gafia housefilk, hosted by Alice and though it was lightly attended, the company was great, with mrpsyklops, his wife and daughter, and also joyeuse13 and abovenyquist, and we had a good deal of conversation and played some good music and had a grand time.
Sunday, we met up again with joyeuse13, abovenyquist, and Alice at Oglethorpe University to see the Georgia Shakespeare Festival’s production of Metamorphoses, a play based on the works of Ovid. Rather uniquely staged around the centerpiece of a large pool of water, the players retold several important stories from the Greek/Roman myths, all of which centered on the theme of transformation and change. All of the stories were familiar to me, but the presentation was so original that I found myself spellbound for the entire 90 minute production. If you are in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend you try to catch the show before it closes on August 20.
(Digression: I used to see a great deal of live theatre, but I’ve fallen out of the habit in the last few years. The last time I saw a play was, if I’m not mistaken, when I went with tigerbright, browngirl, and magid to see Copenhagen in Boston four years ago. That’s much too long.)
In other news, I got kitanzi a copy of The Sims 2 as an anniversary present, and we’ve both become rather hopelessly addicted to the game. I remember I used to watch telynor play Sims 1 on her laptop (I even got her a couple of the expansion packs), but I never really ‘got it”. But now that I’m actually playing it myself, there’s something strangely compelling and zen like about directing these imaginary people through their lives. Kit likens it to playing dolls for grownups, and that’s certainly fitting. It certainly does eat up a lot of time.
And that’s the news from Lake Unionhill. May all of your days be full of joy.
katyhh
Do you have the add-ons as well? (University, Nightlife, Open for Business etc.)?
Yeah. I am another addict 🙂 And I feel that this is a game which is not made for people who have a full time job *laugh* … it eats WAY too much time …
But wow, what fun 🙂 I just started experimenting with housebuilding … gosh, if I only ever took that much time to *clean* my own house … waaah 🙂
Hugsyouboth.
Rob Wynne
*grin* No kidding. I’ve sometimes decided NOT to play, becuase I only had an hour or two of time and I knew I’d get sucked in and play longer than that If I started. (Just one more turn….I had hte same problem with Civ2&3)
So far, we haven’t gotten any of the expansion packs yet, but i’ve been spending a lot of time snarfing stuff at http://www.modthesims2.com/ -- one of the things i Love about the game is the vast amount of user-created material available. It’s really nifty.
gnomedude
Duuude! Get your back better. Nothing worse then wanting to do a lot of stuff and ones back keeps slowing them down. Hope the therapy does the trick and you get back up to speed.
Rob Wynne
Yeah, it’s really tiresome. Basically, if I stand or walk for more than about 10-15 minutes at a stretch, it starts to tighten up, and continues getting worse until I cannot stand it and have to sit down.
It’s extremely frustrating, as there are several chores, like dishes, that I simply can’t do easily, because I have to stop and sit every 15 minutes. And it keeps me from getting the exercise I’d like.
But I’m following the doctor’s orders (mostly….i’m always bad about getting proper exercise, and that’s what’s called for — on the other hand, I have a strong motivation to get better, and there’s no magic bullet.)
magid
Any opportunity to turn the exercise into social time, too? I find that makes it a lot easier to fit into my schedule.
Rob Wynne
Well, these particular exercises are physical therapy exercises, and I just need to carve time to do them. When I get back to more general exercise, and I may try to see what we can do together.
One thing I really want to do is buy a bicycle and get back to riding for fun. I know I have at least one or two friends who’d be happy to join in with that.
Apropos of nothing, miss you. *huggle* 🙂
magid
When I had hand exercises to do for physical therapy, I was lucky that they were fairly portable, and I could do them while hanging out with people. You never know; someone may be willing to come and stretch (or something) while you do the particular things you need. ‘Cause, well, time with you is a good thing :-).
I really enjoy biking; I hope you find a great bike when your back’s ready for it.
Someday, there’ll be another Boston trip… (with theater! :-).
annonynous
“stand or walk for more than about 10-15 minutes at a stretch”
Ouch. Is this new? Chosen One, having been a nurse for twenty some years who found out the hard way that You Only Get One Back, is always telling me to bend my knees and be careful so as to not stress my back. Good for you for getting it looked at.
Ann O.
Rob Wynne
This presentation of it is new. You may recall I was having back problems a couple of months ago, but that was sudden random lockups, whereas this is subtly more insideous. 🙁
joyeuse13
I was doing a lot of special stuff for my back which really helped, and I ought to get back to it. The weight lifting does help, too, though, and I seem to be back to a twice a week habit on that.
Rob Wynne
Despite my best intentions, I never did cancel my gym membership. Maybe I should reconsider.
acciochocolate
If you want to see some seriously good Shakespeare, skip the “Festival” and head on down to the Shakespeare Tavern. 🙂 ‘The Sunday Paper’ last week had their annual local theatre review, and the critic sung the praises of the Festival and ignored the Tavern, and so the first Letter to the Editor in this week’s issue took him to task on that. *grins*
Rob Wynne
I have been meaning to get to a Tavern show for manys a year, and haven’t gotten a round tuit yet. We didn’t go to the festival for the Shakespeare, per se, but for this specific show, which we’d read good reviews of.
As for The Sunday Paper, I wouldn’t line a birdcage with it. It’s like they said “What would happen if we took Creative Loafing and removed everything remotely ineresting or fun about it, and published what’s left over. The little county papers that are nothing but three articles, a paste-in of Dear Abby and local hardware store ads are more entertaining.