Various and Sundry

I've had a lot on my mind lately, so pardon the ramblings.

My husband changed positions at work, which hasn't always been easy.  (Sometimes even a promotion can make you feel hollow at first, just because of the shift in focus--having to leave behind the results of the hard work you've put in for so long.)

My teenage daughters have been giving me grief.  (What teenage daughters don't, right?)  The other day, I actually sat on a floor, reading a book, waiting for my 9th grader to finally stop pouting and be ready to listen to me.  (Good thing I had a book.)  The whole thing ended well, but it sure took a long time, a lot of patience, and an outpouring of love.  Even my teenage daughter who is doing fabulously at school (8th grade Valedictorian, yay!) has moments where she bursts into tears while I stand around wondering what body language I failed to see or what I did to make her feel she is unloved or something.  And my 10th grader thinks she is always right and knows loads of information on every topic.  (If she really doesn't, she fakes it. 'Nuff said.)

Local happenings have been . . . well, happening.  In a rural area, whenever someone experiences tragedy, it has widespread effects.   And tragedies seem to run in cycles.  You'll have a long time when nothing much happens, then a series of tragedies happen in only a few weeks.  In the last few weeks, my second daughter's classmate's father committed suicide, a friend's sister lost her full-term baby (stillborn), and our postmaster had a stroke.  And just two days ago, a co-worker got in a serious four-wheeling accident.  He's still in a coma with a pretty broken-up body.  Oh, and by the way, two mountain ranges over, a big fire started yesterday.  The smoke is intense--looks like a large, low-lying cloud over our valley.  The high winds aren't helping the situation at all, and at least one co-worker's home is potentially in the danger zone.  (She's understandably not at work today.)  The good thing about being in a rural area is when tragedy does happen, people come together and help out.

So when I have looked into my mind to think of things to write in this blog, my mind has stared back at me, as blank as the page.

In the evenings, when it's time for the girls to be in bed (all of them . . . little ones go to bed earlier, but they don't always fall asleep earlier . . .), I've wanted to sit down and run an instance or something, but so often, I've found myself too tired, emotionally if not physically.  I'll log on Anachan and think, "Troll heroics!" but when it comes down to it, the thought seems exhausting.  (I did manage to make it into a ZG the other day, on the last boss.)  Or I've pulled out Hikarinoko, who is now running around the Eastern Plaguelands, and think, "Ok, I think I have enough Intellect gear to attempt to heal, and I have Beacon!" but again, I find myself too tired to press that Dungeon Finder button and end up running quests instead.  (I'm reserving judgement on the updated Darrowshire chain until I finish it . . . but the caravan is amusing.)

I think I've managed to figure out a Vuhdo configuration for Hikarinoko's healing.  The train of thought on the bindings is similar to the train of thought on both Anachan and Kaminoko.  Standard spam heal here . . . high-cost, fast heal here . . . Insta-cast, always-keep-up heal here (shield in the case of Kaminoko) . . . cleanse here . . . heal which requires some kind of condition be met before you can use it here . . . you get the picture.  Makes sense to me, anyway, which is what counts.

The big difference with pally healing, of course, will be that it has to be reactive, for the most part.  You can't pre-HoT someone.  At my level, you can't pre-shield them, either.  It's an adjustment in thinking.  (I might have to set up some PowerAuras for her . . .)

The fun thing lately, has been watching my little girls play WoW together.  As I'm not quite as savvy as my husband is on the WoW sound stuff, they've been calling to each other between the rooms as they play.  They've been playing their Gorgonnash characters, which means I've dragged them into one of the little guilds I inherited when a friend left the server, to prevent them accepting an invitation to some random guild full of people I do not know.  At least they can sport a guild tabard, even if there really aren't any benefits.  (I hesitate to bring them into Tempest.  Then again, maybe I could just have them leave Guild chat, along with Trade . . . To be frank, the Tempest Guild chat usually wouldn't be a problem for them, especially with the profanity filter on, but I think it might make some of the other guildies uncomfortable if they are always wondering whether or not that particular "Ana's daughter" is one of the elementary kids.)

But having younger daughters keeps the smile on my face.  When things are hard, the hugs and kisses at bedtime help brush away the world's ills.  If the teenagers are there, no matter what has happened that day, they usually want a hug and kiss, as well.  For just a few moments, all is right.

That healing magic is more powerful than anything a Druid or pally can do.