And so ended the brave and unbroken continuous stream of posts. Time to begin again. Restart. Rest. New Game (plus).
First: reasons.
I have them. Some of them are even good. I went on a fantastic trip to Austin, TX to visit my friend Erich at his place in the wilderness (so, not in Austin, but about 45 minutes outside of it - we got into Austin plenty, don't worry). There we played copious amounts of video games, drank plenty of ice cold beer, played around with his PS VR (Playstation Virtual Reality System - it's for the PS4 and it's shockingly good though, to be honest, I've never had a chance to put my hands on the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive) and just chatted up a storm.
For the first few days we mostly took it pretty easy. He showed me some new games he'd taken an interest in, I pulled out the board games that I'd managed to bring (he pulled out some of his collection, too - many of which are quite good), and I fired up the grill and bar b que'd us some hamburgers and hotdogs. We're talking about an all-American get together, here.
On my last evening there we went to the place where Erich works, a gorgeous drive-in movie theater in the middle of nowhere named Blue Starlight (if you're ever near Austin, give it a look and tell 'em I sent ya :D). This was a sweeping plain dotted with trees and covered with a Texas blue sky. As the sun set and the movie goers began to arrive for a showing of the original Dawn of the Dead in remembrance of its creator, George R. Romero.
Erich walks up to me as it's a slow night and hands me a beer as I chat with a couple from the area about The Chronicles of Narnia and Austin cuisine versus Houston's. He coyly says: "Here's your water," as he hands me the plastic cup, clearly almost overflowing with foam. I love that guy.
As it's slow he gets off early and we head into downtown Austin. It's a Wednesday night and we're not expecting too much, but things pick up to a decent level around 10. At that point we leave the empty clubs or near-communal gatherings and head down to 6th street, where we promptly do as much bar hopping as we possibly can.
We meet random people, see the sights. The bars in Austin have a very different feel from those in Houston. It's hard to put my finger on it exactly, but the attitude there is quite different, too. People are almost exuberant when you talk to them. Of course, it was a Wednesday night. It might be a bit different on a Saturday.
We ended by going to a local burger chain before I headed back. The trek home felt short, and all too soon it was all over. But not really over. That Saturday was the beginning of my Mother's birthday. I say 'beginning' because my Mom is a woman who loves to celebrate things. Growing up we had 'mini-celebrations' with pizza and cake at every good report card, and holidays in our house, especially birthdays and Christmas, were a big deal. Knowing this it, perhaps, comes as no surprise that she considers her birthday a celebration of epic proportions. Taking place over Saturday and Sunday (with a small mixer on Monday) my brother and I get together at our childhood home and sleep in the rooms we spent most of the nights of our early lives in.
It was good fun. The bar b que was much more diverse than what I'd managed to cook up, and a lot of family and friends showed up over those two days that I hadn't seen in some time.
So THAT'S why I've been missing.
Like I said: reasons.
You guys know that mere lethargy and or absent-mindedness could never keep me from posting regularly. So here I am, working myself slowly but surely back into my regular and aggressive posting schedule groove.
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