Today I’m not going to talk about Warcraft, roleplaying, tanking, or even another game altogether. This last Sunday afternoon my father passed, and I’m going to take this space here to leave a memorial for him. Please feel free to comment.
When I was just a kid in kindergarten (or maybe first grade- it doesn’t really matter which), my dad took off the entire day from work to stay home. After I left for school, he snuck into my room and pulled out my Lincoln Log building set. When I got home that afternoon, the entire kitchen table was a huge “Old West” cowboy fortress being attacked by Indians and we spent hours playing through the battle.
Another time, a weekend in February, there was going to be a blue moon; a second full moon in the same month. It was special because February is a very short month, so the odds of it happening in February are extremely slim. He set up his telescope out in the backyard and taught me not only what a blue moon is, but about the craters on the moon and how he was watching when the first man walked around on the surface. How things in the sky always move across from East to West so we had to make sure to keep changing the telescope so we could see things.
Almost every summer we’d go camping, and when I got older I could even help back in and level the trailer. I always thought it was “soft” camping (and still do) but you were right that it’s nice to have pancakes in the middle of the woods in the morning. We never did have to argue about whether campfires were better built “pyramid” or “cabin” style though, because with enough beer and propane anything will light, even without kindling.
I think it was in Starved Rock campground where you took us and I remember seeing sandstone for the first time. I couldn’t even imagine how all that sand could have gotten there to make a rock out of, but it stuck with me and now I’ve gone off to college for Geology. Illinois was under the ocean! Who knew!
Things didn’t always go smoothly between us, but I’ll always love the black & white version of The Day the Earth Stood Still (the new one sucks), and I’ll always prefer and old, solid, durable tool to a new, cheap, and plastic one. I hope all the best brands of beer are in stock for ya, Dad. I love you.
So once again Etsugal and I were musing about aspects of Azeroth that are probably way to deep for anyone to muse about… except that we’re roleplayers and that’s just what you do. This time, it’s about elementals and the Elemental Plane.
A cheerful orange glow issued from the coals as a stocky dwarf pumped the bellows three more times and wiped her forehead on a rolled-up sleeve, grinning. Between the clanging of hammer on iron and the roaring of the wind over the top of the chimney, Aeodh and her father weren’t able to speak, but they did share their excitement in identical expressions of glee as the last piece of heavy-tank armor plating got its final shaping. Tomorrow, the piece would be heaved up against the side of the great war machine being built in their shop and bolted into place. Technically, there were still some minor things to clean up, aesthetic modifications to make, and the final check of all the fittings, but effectively this project was done.
