Well I suppose you’re due an update.
Ruth’s grandmother died on Sunday morning. The week, therefore, has not ranked in the “most happy fun weeks of 2007,” and, with the funeral tomorrow, it’s not likely to.
It’s been nine years since I went to a funeral. This is something of a new personal best. I’ve had to buy a black tie & everything. (Previously I used to borrow one of my father’s black ties, but I think I like this one better.) Everything else this week has really been the usual mix of people bursting into tears and worrying about everyone else. I don’t mean to sound callous, I’m just surprised by how I seem to have settled into the “bereaved” mentality again after so long a gap. Mind you, I have the dubious advantage of having been through it all four times before so I’m not so shaken by it and, of course, I hadn’t known her as long as Ruth, or Caroline and Jerry, so of course I’m going to take it less hard. It still bloody stings though. It’s very strange, I always think, how the human brain can be perfectly well aware that someone’s died & yet shove all the pain out of the way in little bursts. Given that it always seems to come back worse one wonders why it bothers.
I’m at home again today (I’ve been working crazily short days in order to not leave Ruth on her own too much and make sure there’s someone she can talk to) and Ruth has gone off to the doctors, so I’m killing time playing Nethack (again.)
On top of the usual one that comes free with every bereavement, I’ve just been given a valuable lesson in not taking things for granted in Nethack, as well as in real life:
My valkyrie enters the Dungeons of Doom. My kitten kills a newt as I snatch a bag of gold and try the door. It’s locked, so I kick it open.
Enter the next room, speculative quaff from a fountain, because I’ve not got too much to lose at this point, no dice. Not going to chance it so I move down the corridor, kill the jackal and open the next door.
This rooms got some gold in it, some steps down & a wand. I snatch the gold, and move over to the wand.
> “A trapdoor opens in the ceiling and a rock falls on your head!” Bastards.
I take the wand, and wonder what it is. So I attempt to engrave something.
> “What do you want to write in the dust here?”
Elbereth
> “Sorry no such thing exists in this world. For what do you wish?”
Uhm. I read the scrollback.
” > “You write in the dust with a wand of wishing. For what do you wish?”
Elbereth”
Crazy. So I’m now on level one with a whole bundle of goodies.
It’s not even a millionth of what I’d need to make the week less tragic, but I guess it could be a start.
Anyone know where I can get one of those in real life?