Logging in briefly

As the title says, I'm merely logging in briefly to say that I'm back. I didn't actually say that I was going anywhere, but I just spent the better part of two weeks exploring much of the American west with my daughter and my parents. I flew out to west Texas where my folks live two weeks ago, then we drove up north, past Mesa Verde and Canyonlands National Parks, through Arches, which we explored a bit, and then on up to Glacier National Park, which was ostensibly our destination. After a few days of hiking, horseback riding, and white water rafting (which honestly wasn't all that white, because the rivers were all so high that the rapids were somewhat smoothed out--but more on that in another post) we left and drove some more, this time through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and then home to southeast Michigan. On the way we stopped briefly at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, one that I hadn't thought to see until I inspected our route and realized that we could at least pop in and have a brief look.

Because school is out, my wife's work has wound down for the season (and she may not go back in the fall--still TBD) my schedule has somewhat freed up for a while. And the trip out west, the terrain of which I've always loved and which was somewhat responsible for inspiring DARK•HERITAGE in the first place, has gotten me somewhat jazzed about getting back into it again. Sadly, my woefully untimely attempt to run the game has run out of steam, since I went the better part of two months just barely able to eke out one session, where I punted and adapted a Dungeon Magazine dungeoncrawl just to have something to do. Both our return to Rise of the Runelords for one more module, and then the subsequent Star Wars game are both in the planning stages for a July 9th start. But, honestly what I'd rather get involved with is continuing to update this blog with setting details, and get back to work on my novel, which has languished untouched for months. Frankly, even when I had time to work on it, which wasn't frequently, I lacked energy. I felt mentally exhausted in the evenings this last several months, and doing something like writing just wasn't in the cards. Doing something more brainless, like streaming something from Netflix, or playing Street Fighter I could manage. But I have high hopes that things have changed in my life, and if nothing else I'm energized and excited about DARK•HERITAGE all over again.

Before that, though, I'll type up a trip report of sorts. It will be interesting to me, at least, even if to no one else, to put my experience into writing before all the details of it get jumbled and lost in my mind. The next two, three or possibly even four posts will be some details of what we did, complete with pictures. But first... I have to dive into the mountain of emails and voicemails and open orders that I need to deal with here at work. So... probably not much will happen today. Which is why I posted this brief update, in case anyone stumbles across this blog and wonders why it's been so quiet for so long.