Tolkien on the Brain II

Originally sent 02/04/01

Mindela,

> Write back and tell me what's doing.

What's doin'? Let's see...

After lynching a Satyr, a contingent of temple guards from Hills Edge attacked us tonight looking for the set of Hoak's teeth, which were ensconced in Pud's jaw. I thought we were all goners but we, and some Centaurs, vanquished the dozen or so marauders, including a wizard and a high priestess, but they killed Pud with a staff that had turned into an anaconda and squeezed him to death before we could kill it.

The priestess, being chased by Topaz's tiger amulet and losing hit points, broke her wand in half killing herself, a temple guard, the tiger amulet, and nearly killing Topaz and Brenda. Topaz and her tiger were a pair of killing machines, destroying the wizard and several guards. Sylvanis and Brenda's deity were with me tonight as I could do no wrong on the field of battle. My flail was a most lethal weapon and I killed at least four guards single handedly. Without Brenda's "Bless" spell it could have gone differently for me.

Myshka's plight was very funny as he succumbed to a sleep spell while still on his horse and was driven right through the battle and out the other side. Eventually his horse threw him off and he lost sight of it completely. He woke up in the middle of the group of Centaurs who agreed to help us in our fight.

We extracted the teeth and buried Pud, and the lynched Satyr, with high honors. Tomorrow we will try and bribe Nimbus to let us pass the gate above the waterfall on our journey to find the Gate of Nightmares. We might try selling Myshka to him as a slave and then stealing him back afterwards. If we can't get him back then that's OK too because this half-orc has been annoying us all for more than a few rides.

Sylvanis advised me in a dream that I must be at seventh level before we reach the Gate of Nightmares or I will probably not survive. (I have 6,000 more points to go before I reach that goal.) Inside the gate is the skull of Hoak, which, along with the teeth, will aid us in our quest to free Hill's Edge of its evil personages and restore the temple to Tyr.

Wish us luck, Edrahil (son of Edrohil, 6th level druid)

- ahem -

Oh, you wanted to know what's going on with us, here on planet Earth; well that's different....

Donna's back still gives her pain, but it's better then what she was suffering through before the surgery. We'll be going back to her surgeon soon for our last visit and hopefully we can get some good advice on alleviating the rest of this pain.

My mother seems to have completely recovered from both her hip fracture and breast cancer surgeries. In case I didn't tell you, she broke her femur clean off her hip about a year ago and had a recurrence of breast six months ago. The hip ball was replaced and she was in PT for a while. With the cancer she had the combination mastectomy, tummy tuck, and breast reconstruction all in the same operation.

At the same time six months ago my father was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, which is kind of like M.S., only weird. He gets very weak and often falls and can't lift himself up. He's never had anything like this before and it make him feel vulnerable, so he compensates by being a stubborn pain in the butt doing things he shouldn't be. The holiday season was no fun as he got a concussion and ended up in the local emergency room twice before his doctor got him a room at Mt. Sinai. He's been on Prednazone for awhile to build up his strength for surgery to remove the thymus gland in his chest, which usually does the trick for M.G. sufferers. His surgery date is two weeks away.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I helped my mother go and see her dying sister in northern California. We had to get an earlier flight because she suddenly gave up trying to stay alive and started going down-hill very fast. We only wanted to stay a few days but we ended up being there a week because we couldn't get an earlier flight out because of Thanksgiving. She died on our last day there. It was very emotionally healthy experience for all concerned. My aunt was an alternative psychotherpist and at one time her practice included all kinds of therapists and their differing approaches. That house and its inhabitants were steeped in mental therapy for many years and this experience definitely had that kind of feel. The tears were healthy and welcomed. Quite a different experience from what I would have expected.

Our two cats still hate each other and must still be kept apart.

Did I tell you that we did some work on our house? New siding, new roof, new windows, new bedroom walls and a refinished floor. We got rid of the useless dormer and had a small barrel vaulted peek built over the front door.

Because of Donna's back we traded in her low-riding Acura Integra and bought her a VW Passat. She in that stage where she has to park it far away from any possible door dings. I keep praying she'll get a door ding soon so we can stop this nonsense.

I'm back and forth with my job and things. For several months I was doing web-type programming on an IBM iSeries server using Net.Data, but now I just got stuck with an EDI contract for the next 8-12 months. EDI is the most boring thing on the planet and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm currently teaching myself Java so I can get certified in a nine month time frame.

What's up with you and your family?

Love, Joe