Gaming “Chores” and Moving Preparations

On the gaming front:

In WoW, I’ve been <afk> since before Nobelgarden till last night. I was sitting at 40% on the trading post bar and decided to bang it out on my Moo Shaman. Yes, his xmog is mostly the same mog since BfA (the Heritage quest changed the helm from Headdress of the First Shaman to the heritage helm and the hidden back to the heritage totem):  Ancestral Chieftain’s Headdress, Pauldrons of the Chosen Dead, Ancestral Chieftain’s Totem, hidden chest/shirt/tabard, Earthfury Bracers, Gor’s Re-Inforced Gloves, Firearrow Belt, Orgrimmar Leggings, Earthfury Boots, Fury of the Stonemother (enhancement artifact magma-mace appearance), The Highkeeper’s Ward (elemental artifact flame-shield appearance). Unless there’s a tier set that makes me all squirrelly, I don’t see his appearance changing that much in the future. I finished filling the bar in a couple hours and got him a level and a half out of it.

I still haven’t done the Forbidden Reach content. I was toying with heading over there on my main and at least getting the glyphs, but didn’t feel like putting forth the meh-ffort to do it. I’ll get there at some point. /shrug.

In FFXIV, I’m current with all of the MSQ, but all I do is retainer ventures/market-board and stable/train my chocobo (and train any chocobos in the apartment’s stable). Occasionally, I’ll go fishing and fill out some more fish in my fishing log.

I’ll probably be more focused on gaming once my living situation is stabilized. In the meantime, I’m glad there’s something that can get me logged in to both games and make me feel like I’m doing things. How meaningful the things are is completely irrelevant to me.

On the moving front:

I took the bike to the shop yesterday for tires, brakes, and a full inspection to make sure she’s good for the trip from Portland to Denver. Should be picking her up today with a clean bill of health.

Jo and I will be riding to Denver over Memorial Day weekend. It’s approximately 1300 miles. She wants to do it in 2 days so we can go to a festival on Memorial Day. That puts it at about 650 miles a day, which is doable for only 2 days. She’s used to LOOOOOOOOONG rides in a car, so the time isn’t the issue with her. It’s more the physical whooping you get on a bike that I’m worried about. I’ll be bodily blocking most of the beating up, but it’s still going to be very different than in a car. I’m hoping to put the bulk of the time in on Saturday so that we can have a leisurely ride home on Sunday and rest up for Monday.

It’s been about 2 decades since I’ve done an interstate trip with a passenger. She’s up for long bike rides, so I’m hoping it’s not another 2 decades before my next cross-state-lines trip with a passenger on the bike.

Upcoming Journey and Gaming Hiatus

Once again, I find myself in transition. Six years ago, I was preparing for my relocation from Florida to Oregon. This time, I’m heading in the opposite direction. However, I’m not heading back to that shithole swamp. I’m heading to where I should have stopped when I was heading west. I’m headed to Colorado, where my chosen family is.

The difference between this transition and my prior transitions, is I am able to play WoW and FF XIV during the transition period. I just find myself not wanting to. Our guild has had some issues recently (combination of real life and other external forces) that have made progression a problem. We’ve decided to halt our progression so people can handle life. I’ve logged in to both games recently (multiple times) and I find myself just sitting there with no drive or direction. I loved chasing KSM the last 2 seasons. I even helped others chase it too. This season, I’m 500 io away from it and I couldn’t care any less. Maybe I’ll feel more of an urge as season 2 is announced. We’ll see.

In the mean time, I’ll likely be posting more about the scoot ride that will be happening over Memorial Day Weekend. That will be my final transition to Colorado.

Almost feeling the Halloween bug

Out and about in the real world and I run across some Halloween decorations that amused me. In the store today, I found hound and cat skeletons.

hell hound skeletons

kitteh skeletons

Blogiversary

In all my relocation and trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing on this rock of ours (news flash: I still have no farking clue), I apparently missed my 3 year blogiversary with WordPress (by about 2.5 months). Heh! Preoccupied much?

This originally started out as a place where I could geek out about WoW and riding motorcycles. On the heart front, it’s seen me go from happily married to accepting it’s time to move on (though I hadn’t really posted a lot on that subject). On the home front, it’s seen me living in FL, then *poof*, gone and mysteriously in Oregon and already looking for a new place to live. On the motorcycle front, it’s seen me and the bike through all kinds of fun and not-so-fun times and (though I haven’t posted the details) driving across the entire US from FL to OR. On the WoW front, it’s seen me wasting time chasing ridiculous achievements, destroying a guild that I once considered family, server transferring my toons to a more active server cluster and guild (almost a parallel to my cross-country relocation), become a raider (and eventually an assistant raid-lead), and then slide back into the background of the green text. I didn’t think this would become a living entity of sorts. It’s been a source of new friendships and another place to connect with existing friends.

So here we are. Three years in. Here’s to at least 3 more.

Changes and transitions

Since leaving central FL on 2017/05/13, I’ve effectively stopped playing WoW. I’ve logged in on occasion to handle mail, auctions, kick off missions (until I ran out of resources), occasionally try the Mimiron’s Head and Ashes of Al’ar runs on a toon or three, and claim the pets/mounts that I’ve collected via the WoW shop. However, I have not really played. I’ve missed 7.2, class mounts, and Tomb of Sargeras (yes I can still enjoy the content, but it’s old news). Patch 7.3 is out now, and I’m about to be relocating again.

As a biker, this makes me happy.

There’s nothing witty to be said here. This is simply some awesome design and fabrication work.

One of those nights…

There are some nights where you just have to go anywhere except to an actual destination (in otherwords, nowhere in particular).  These are the nights where you just pick a direction and ride.

Woof! That is some seriously stanky stink.

Monday was a company gathering at a local Red Robin burger joint. The food was great, but I was looking at the prices on the menu and thought of the scene in Pulp Fiction between Mia and Vincent.

• Vincent: Did you just order a fifteen dollar burger?
• Mia: Sure did.
• Vincent: A burger? Bits of dead cow and bread?
• Mia: Uh-huh.
• Vincent: It costs fifteen dollars?
• Mia: Yep.
• Vincent: It doesn’t come with a shot of bourbon with it or anything?
• Waitor: Nope.
• Vincent: Just checking.

Once the food arives…

• Vincent: Goddamn! That’s a pretty fuckin’ good hamburger.
• Mia: Told ya.
• Vincent: I don’t know if it’s worth fifteen dollars, but it’s pretty fuckin’ good.

Typical office hob-nobbing then I hit the road for home. The proximity of the toll-road makes it the most convenient way to head home.

What I forgot about was the small span of road that goes over Lake Monroe. Woof! The moths, love bugs, and mosquitoes are gargantuan over that bit of SR 417. They also feed on lake animals, which means their guts smell like fish that have been left in the sun for about 2 hours. I get about 20 yards (18 meters for the other 95% of the world) down the causeway and have to hold a hand up to deflect the onslaught of death and vision obstruction. Before I even make it halfway across the lake, the stench hits me. I’m glad I have a strong stomach. Otherwise there would have been a fifteen dollar hamburger lining the inside of my helmet.

I must remember to avoid that stretch of 417 during the summer.

Tropical Storm party

Over the weekend, we were “hunkering down” for the coming apocalypse that was Tropical Storm Erika. There was a ton of rain over the weekend, so I spent most of my time playing on the computer.

The motorcycles were just chilling out in the garage, for the most part. There was a window of clear weather on Sunday that allowed me to mow the jungle that was my lawn. It even gave me a chance to hop on the bike (had to get more gas for the mower).

Never forget that this exists…

There is nothing that needs to be said about how much awesome is contained in this 27 seconds.