Herbing Relaxation

Last night, a guildie commented, "You know, herbing can be sort of relaxing."

It really can, especially in flight form; that's one reason I enjoy doing it.  It's kind of like WoW Zen.

And after the day I had yesterday, I needed relaxation . . .

It all started with the full moon.  As most parents or Sunday School teachers know, while our children are not werewolves, the full moon does something to them.  And yesterday was no different.  Church was an exercise in patience, reminding kids to be quiet, turning kids back around on the seat to sit facing forward, and rearranging seating when it became obvious that this sister was not going to be quiet sitting next to that sister.

I'm not sure if the full moon had anything to do with the 10-yr-old climbing a tree outside the church after the services in her dress, but I wouldn't be surprised.  (Who knows?  This is the one who was doing jumping jacks in front of a rattlesnake.)

The first I knew about the tree was when she came back inside the church, big tears in her eyes, and what could only be described as "tree rash" all on the underside of her arm.  The branch on which she had been standing had given way, and, while she had not completely tumbled to the ground, the effort to avoid this had cost her a certain amount of skin.  All I could do at the church building was wash out the dirt and bits of bark, waiting until we returned home to perform more extensive First Aid.

And then came the refrigerator . . .

I'd be prepared to accept that refrigerator performance has nothing to do with the full moon.  I'd even be more prepared to accept the idea that household appliances lie in wait to break until my husband is on a business trip which will last at least a week.  The evidence is in my favor on this point.

At any rate, after we got home and ate, things settled down a bit . . . Until my 13-yr-old approached me. "Mom, something is funny with this ice cube." "Oh?" (My girls like to take ice from the freezer and suck on it . . .) "Yea, when I reached in to get it, things felt wet, and it broke right away when I bit it." (You were biting ice? How many times . . . never mind . . .)

Sure enough, the freezer and refrigerator inside the house was not working. I conscripted the 13-yr-old and my injured 10-yr-old (now wearing large gauze bandages on her arm) to help me carry the contents to the garage refrigerator and the freezer, not before things thawed, but before they actually reached room temperature. (Sometimes, there are advantages to living in the sticks . . . like having multiple appliances . . .) Between tossing out the stuff which should have been tossed a while ago and keeping out the leftovers to use for supper, we managed to fit everything into the other refrigerator, but only barely. (I was threatening to throw out the flavorings for snow cones . . .)

At least we can be thankful that on two counts, complete disasters were avoided: the 10-yr-old didn't break a leg or something like that, and another refrigerator was available to store our food.

But that meant by the time I sat down to play, I was well and truly exhausted.  I stared at the screen.  Queue for an Heroic, to try to cap my Valor?  Why?  Not much more I need from Valor, to be honest.  I found myself just hovering above Stormwind in a sort of aimless daze.

What I needed was herbing.  I took a look at the gbank to figure out which herbs needed replenishment.  Cinderbloom . . . definitely cinderbloom.  (All those Volatile Elixirs do a number on our cinderbloom stock.)

I spent the next couple of hours flying around Twilight Highlands and Mount Hyjal in search of Cinderbloom.  By the end of the evening, I had several stacks of Cinderbloom, along with Stormvine, Twilight Violet, and assorted bits of Azshara's Veil, along with roughly 70 Volatile Life.

Between chatting and herbing, I hardly noticed the time flying by until I realized I'd better stop and sleep, or risk being unable to wake up in the morning.  It was a good end to a tough day.

Postscript:  My daughters and I did take the time in the middle of everything to remember 9/11 and to honor those who have fallen defending our freedoms.  Two of them were in a play last year centering on the events of 9/11, so they've heard my 9/11 story, as well as that of their father's.  They were two young to remember much, themselves, so we make a point to tell them the stories of that day.