Long ago friend

I’ve never had a boat load of friends, just a few true real ones. Yesterday I bumped into the guy who’d been my best friend growing up.

We came from a small town. We went to the same school and became friends in grade 7 because most of the other kids took the bus and we walked home together. Okay, obviously that’s not the real reason we became friends. We saw life the same way, were interested in the same things and were lonely.

He was heavily into hockey but he had a bad home life. His father was a beater and a drunk and smacked around his whole family. My father was a beater and sober – he beat us occasionally and mostly just shouted at us. Perhaps it was this common pain that drew us together.

We did all the normal things that kids do- explored nearby wood lots, played sports and games and stood up for each at school. It was grade 7 and 8 and things were just getting serious- girls were becoming girls...

I was at work today when my grade seven teacher walked in. I’ll call him Mr. Smith, thought that isn’t really his name. Of course Mr. Smith remembered me, for we had some difficulties. He’s only about four foot eleven and even in grade seven he was one of the shortest people in the class. He always had a chip on his shoulder and really I can’t blame him. It must have been a struggle to keep control over a bunch of young people who were just awakening to who they were and what they could accomplish, especially when they were all taller than him.

I was a problem student. Everything was too easy for me and I had a wicked sense of humour so I was constantly whispering to those around me and cracking them up. I was selfish and unaware- I enjoyed making others laugh and didn’t realize how disruptive it was. Mr. Smith responded by sitting me at the back amongst the fish tanks.

Smith was a plant nut. His room was filled with small trees, shrubs, flowers and...

The building where i work sometimes hosts art shows in a front lobby. Although poorly organized, it can be a nice thing – artists get exposure and we all get to see art work of varying quality. Honestly most of it is okay, just a few times was it really awful.

A couple weeks ago a young man- a down and out young man from the look of his clothes and hair and backpack- came in and gave a big envelope to the receptionist. It seemed a little odd, but she accepted the package and the young man quickly left. When she opened it she discovered it was full of sketches.

She showed them around. The sketches weren’t awful. They weren’t outstanding either. It just seemed it was a weird thing for the young man to hand them to her without a word and depart.

Every week after that he’s come in and handed over an envelope with more sketches. When we try to talk to him, he leaves quickly.

We looked at his art work and decided that the young...

For some reason I have avoided writing about this. i usually write about the medieval fighting camp we have in July. I was even excited for this one.

My eldest son had taken a job far away for the summer. He came back early, unexpectedly, and full of ideas about new things we could do.

We have a quest every afternoon- the pages and squires hunt creepy enemies in the big old building. It can be terrifying. But I’d always wanted to add something else- personal quests, I called them in my mind. I dreamt of one person struggling against the unknown, solving puzzles, fighting monsters.

My sons and I brainstormed a little and then I sat down to plan. Brainstorming is fine but really it’s just pie in the sky until you figure out exactly what you need and how you’re going to do it.

I dreamt up four big boss fights- a dragon, an etin, a tomb of undead, and a ghost. There would be five pieces, sort of mini-quests that you had to...

Our latest big game is an explorer’s game. We have a bigger map- the biggest one yet. I made a new board, glued cork onto wood and then drilled a couple holes so we could hang the thing on the wall to keep it out of the way and undisturbed. (We have a big white cat named Wolf who loves to pull push pins out and carry them around in his mouth He’s an amazing hunter, but only for office supplies.)

So we have this gigantic map. But the thing is- it’s all blank. Just white paper with a grid. The many, many squares can only be explored when an army moves into that square.

Armies and outposts are represented by push pins. When armies meet or attack outposts we play it out on our scape terrain.

An army moving onto a blank square of paper has only a 15+ chance of finding new terrain. Less than 15 it’s just the same as the square they came from. The terrains we’re using are: mountain, swamp, forest, plains, lava, lake, lake with island,...