Nobody

Lazy Day

I got up, picking up the ashtray, and walking into the computer room. I hit the power button, set down the ash tray, and went and poured myself a glass of koolaid. By the time I got back in the computer was booted up and waiting on me.

Damn. That was quick.

I remembered what Miss Lily-Rylee told me she played a lot of late at night, looked at the papers she'd left me, and found she'd made me an account and downloaded it already for me. I logged on, found out I needed a subscription, and bought a month long one.

While it was updating I started going through the site, reading the documentation. Skills, how to level, maps (which I printed out), the races, the classes, details on the world. I sat and read player opinions on the official web-site, which led me to another site with something called a wiki, which apparently was a branching link data site, with stats on the game that didn't match what was on the official site. I checked the dates where I could and figured out what information I should be able to trust.

Apparently, the whole world was divided between two factions and if I wanted to explore the whole world I'd need to have a character on each side. No problem.

By the time I was done reading enough documentation I felt comfortable playing the game it had been updated for a while. I logged in, followed my plan, built a character, and lost myself in a virtual world for a while.

When stretched, yawning, I looked at the clock and realized I'd stayed up till nearly four in the morning, completely lost in a video game. Hell, I'd been fishing of all things.

That made me laugh at myself. I logged out, shut down the computer, and went to bed.

I dreamed of swirling colors and disjointed sounds.

When I woke up, I took a shower, ate breakfast, and stared at the computer. It was tempting to go back to exploring, but then remembered I'd had a plan for the day. I got dressed, went out to the shop and grabbed a machete, and headed off into the across the lawn.

The woods were cool, despite the morning's mugginess. Insects buzzed around me as I headed back toward the creek. First thing that went through my mind was that the brush needed cleared. It was a fire hazard with lots of dead underbrush and fallen trees and branches.

The creek was a ways back, with another acre of property beyond it, and was a lot nicer than I expected. The water was dark and murky, as well as slow moving. I tossed a few twigs into the water, judging the water speed, and figured it had to be running deep. I could see the ripples now and then from fish nipping at the surface and there was some nice shadows moving down in the murky parts of a slow corner that was slowly eroding into a pond. The creek was about ten feet of water across the surface for most of the length on my property, but that corner was nearly thirty feet wide and fifty feet long.

A nice spot.

I sat down on a log, picking at the moss and tossing it into the water, watching as it moved.

More than once a shadow would pull the moss down.

There was some nice fish in here.

I was careful to not leave any trace of the cigarette I smoked. I got up and headed back to the house, marking my trail on my way back. I was careful not to mark any living trees. From the way Miss Mary-Beth had made it sound, I'd need to have the forestry service come out and take a look at the land to see what I could cut and what I couldn't.

Endangered species maybe?

My house was cool inside and I poured myself a glass of koolaid. I went back out to the back deck and sat down to look at the forest around my house.