I was up at 4:30am when I heard the rain falling harder outside. I got dressed and went to check our leak and it is very wet, so it is the roof and that can be fixed and its still under warranty. Whew.  I am much less worried    worry worry worry   See? Much less worry 🤣😉    

Week 4 Monday Did gym cardio (+10 xp). Ranged attack is 16 to hit and 10 damage which finally takes care of this Needle Blight! Also did some bouldering (+3 xp) and got the V3 that I was pretty close to finishing on Friday (+2 xp) and also a V2 that I'd been struggling with (+2 xp)! It was a good session. And I did candles and teeth, so that's a short rest.   Needle Blight 4: 0 hp Short Rests: 18 Week 4: 17 xp   Finally, with a well placed arrow, Hal managed to take down the slippery Needle Blight. Now that that was taken care of, she started to look around. She still had a number of the arrows she brought with her, but with little experience making new ones, she would need practice as her first attempts weren't likely to be successful. There was plenty of wood around for creating arrow shafts, but she was going to need feathers. Noticing signs of a flock of nine turkeys, she began to follow their tracks.   Four weeks ago: “I know you weren’t planning to leave quite this soon, but we’ve had a number of reports of Needle Blights on the outskirts of the Veridian Forest. We need someone to deal with it before they attract even bigger problems. The Veridian was always a little dangerous anyway and most people stayed out of it, but we don’t need the denizens growing bold enough to attack travelers on the trade route through Kelton Junction. And while you’re in the area, there apparently used to be some sort of Ranger safe house near the edge of the forest, but many of the rangers from that area were lost in the war and I don’t think anyone has tried to use it for more than 30 years. It would be good to know if it still exists and can be used by other rangers as they travel through.”   Hal sat quietly for a moment before nodding. She’d hoped to get further in her studies in the city, but at least the travel would give her time to practice the new songs she’d learned. And it might be interesting to visit that area. Her uncle was one of those rangers lost in the war against the great evil, and although she’d never met him, she’d heard stories from her mother. She closed the journal containing all her notes and sketches and began packing for the journey.    She picked up a set of woodcarver’s tools and a number of arrowheads on her way out of the city. Given the amount of time she was going to be away, running out of arrows was a real possibility. She didn’t know how to use the tools very well, but maybe given enough practice she could teach herself to make passable replacement arrows.    I'm introducing a new mechanic for dealing with the blackberries around my house. Creating new arrows requires arrowheads (already acquired in the city), feathers, and wood. Hunting turkeys (maybe just one to start with, we'll see) will provide feathers (8d6 feathers per turkey, 3 required for each arrow). For every day I do any chopping of the blackberries (for wood to make arrow shafts), I can attempt to create arrows on a short rest. Not being proficient in woodcarver's tools, starting out, I need to make a dexterity check (DC 18) to successfully make an arrow. After making 5 successful arrows, the DC drops to 15 and I can attempt 1d2 arrows per short rest. After 25 successful arrows, the DC drops again to 12 and I can attempt 1d4 arrows per short rest. After creating 250 arrows, I will be proficient in using the woodcarver's tools to make arrows and can start attempting more interesting arrows (maybe fire arrows, maybe magic arrows once I have access to spells, I haven't decided yet).   Turkey stats: AC 11, 3 HP, 10 xp   I'm also going to start tracking the days I practice memorizing songs. I have some thoughts about using this to bump up Charisma to allow a multiclass into Bard (if I still want to do it when I get to that point), but I haven't worked out all the details yet. However, I can start tracking without knowing all the details.

Day 2:   ✅🔁 Goal 1 -- Planned rest day ✅✅ Goal 2 -- made the commute...and it started raining 5 minutes in. Luckily, it's only a 25-minute commute on average. 🔁🔁 Goal 3 -- Still no solution, but I did use a phrase or two today. I'm still doing Duolingo and looking up what I need, so it's not like I'm doing *nothing,* but the goal as stated lies dormant. 🔁🔁 Goal 4 -- No socials yet.    Welcome to Tuesday!

1. & 2. Done   3. I tried, but it was like my skin was rebelling and I just had constant itches pop up all over the place to distract me. Anyone else experienced this?   4. It was a lovely sunny day, and I used it to run some grocery-oriented errands.   5. So, there's an interesting story about this one today....   I finally made it to my son's dorm so that he could show it off, and he gave me a little tour of his college campus. It's really nice, and he's right around the corner from a kitchen, which is handy. Lots of little cafes and places to sit and everything just looks really fresh and new. He seems happy there and settling in really well.   After I got back, I decided to go out on the aforementioned grocery-oriented errand run. I was walking down the street with my shopping trolley and an SUV pulled over into the street parking and a woman got out. I assumed she lived there at first, but she seemed to want to talk to me, so I thought maybe she needed directions or something. Her English was not very good and it took me a while to figure out what she was saying. It turns out that her husband, driving the SUV, is the imam of a musallah that is running just up my street, not even a ten-minute walk from my house. (A musallah is an informal temporary prayer space that is not a mosque. In this case, it is someone's home.) They invited me to the WhatsApp group for this community that I didn't know existed, and now I have an invite to go this Friday.   I was stunned. My town only has about 4000 people in it. While it's probably more diverse than the average small US town, it's not exactly overflowing with ethnic diversity. I had NO IDEA that this thing existed. And I hadn't been seeking it out, it just sort of found me. I feel like I have to give it a try. I mean, how much clearer a message from the universe can you get?   I'm not going to pretend I'm not nervous. I'm not exactly what you would call religiously orthodox. And based on past experience, I'm fully expecting (and very much not looking forward to) questions about my family, my lack of a husband, encouragements to find one, questions about my personal history, and so on. It's all innocent curiosity, but it's also really intrusive and makes me feel like the token white woman that's seen as some sort of trophy prize, and I hate that. The prying is also pressing on things that I can't be fully open about, but they don't know that. The language barrier could be tricky too. So I'm not really sure how this will go. I'm trying not to prejudge it and just be open, meet people, let them show me who they are. They are opening their doors to me (literally), to give me a chance. Perhaps it will be wonderful, and I will make some friends in the fullness of time. Perhaps we will be too different on a deep level, and I will be uncomfortable or rejected as time goes on. Perhaps there will be some of both. And perhaps there will be some good I can do, bridges I can build. I won't know if I don't try.

I'm subscribed, but I'm so able to ignore newsletters, apparently. Next year. Or maybe I'll just read it.   I have tons of vampire TV lined up for October, though.   (Also, I'm in possession of a certain novella, and I'll be hunting for your review soon.)

Bit early, but I'm probably going to be pretty busy after work tomorrow, so here we go!   I dunno if it's better to copy/paste it, or just post the google docs link.... Opinions welcome. This one's not even a page so I'll copy/paste it for now (spoilered to avoid the big wall of text, though I suppose a link would avoid that even better...)      

Your solidarity encouraged me.   Two players down and out tonight, so I cancelled the session (which is too bad since we're not on next week). Cid and I made dinner - chicken with broccoli (and also cauliflower for me) baked with a seasoning packet to spice it up and served with rice pilaf. I had a glass of grape juice, too, and enjoyed it immensely.   I also used the oven to make some scotchies. I only made half a dozen, but there's plenty more of the mix in the fridge. XD   Afterwards, I had to work up my nerve, but I'd decided to at least sketch Ginny into the group portrait (so thank you again, Ever, for your brief but reassuring solidarity). Look at this Stuff! I was told her face is a little too light to see, so for clarification, she's looking to the right, and her black stripe is a bit like a cheekbone accent.   Other things that I gave half-assed effort to at least make progress: Took the stairs down, but not up Paid down my credit cards, but not all the way Continued answering questions for Critmas exchange, but only have 4/8 questionaires done.   I also did really well at training, and hope to maintain through the rest of the week. Leaving work 5 minutes early is consistently helping avoid the worst of the traffic. Tomorrow or Wednesday I need to also stop at the store for a couple grocery things Cid and I forgot or realized we're low on.   Hope you can get a little done for something important  Maerad 

Love your attitude and mindset!

Today I started a new workout routine. It is 15 minutes a day. Just two exercises. I am also doing some stretches. I picked it for this month because we are on vacation in the middle of the month. and we arealso at my mother in laws for a few days the end of the month.  My last workout was pretty intense, so I thought this month I would do something with less volume. Next week, I may add in some rowing.  Today I didn't because the weather was gorgeous, so I spent the time in the garden and walking. It's fall though, cold in the mornings, and chilly in the evenings, even with afternoon sun. Hubby and I did get an evening walk in though.   One of the exercises was Bulgarian squat. They had you take the back bent leg down so your knee touched the ground. I didn't think I could, but I managed it! I did it bodyweight. Though also had Romanian Deadlift. Each set I kept upping the weight, and it still felt easy, so next time I will up it more.    Started on time today.  Tracked my food. Working on the water goal.