As the season turns into Fall my hay fever kicks into high gear. I’m a bit of an extremist- I’m extreme in everything I do. I commit 168% percent. My hay fever allergy is no different. I have the worst ragweed allergy that the allergy doctors have ever seen. Twenty seven separate symptoms. None of their treatments worked. Anyway, that is not the point of this blog.

One of the side effects of my hay fever are strange and unsettling dreams. Nightmares really, but they’re sneaky nightmares, that start off normally and quietly and then get increasingly weird and upsetting. And unlike a lot of my dreams, I remember them clearly when I wake up, so I get to enjoy the horror all day long.

So in this particular dream, I was at home, though it wasn’t my real home but in the dream it was- you know how that goes- when suddenly it wasn’t my home after all. The dreams like to play games with my brain. I was in some dark gloomy room decorated with spooky paintings and...

I just finished my first Scape game by Email. I lost, of course.

I know there’s some great software for playing Scape, but if you recall, my Scape game is different. Also I am working four jobs just now. The pandemic has idled some people. For some reason, I’m much busier.

My eldest son came down to visit this summer and we played every single day. He was kind and generous because he’s a much better player than I am. He said it was fun just to play again. He suggested a point system that gradually increased. We started with 800 vs 800 points. We decided to play a game with objectives. Our game- nicknamed SylvanoScape- is more of an army game than a squad game. On your turn you use your entire force. There is a lot of shuffling for position and trying to trick the opponent before the fighting gets heavy.

We decided to play an objective game we call scouting. You simply must travel over five preselected hexes to win the game. Usually the selected...