Good morning, friends. I had some odd, vivid dreams last night. Robots, space ships, my late grandpa… There was one point where my son figured out how to walk and ran off down the street in just his diaper, and when I found him he had stolen a random toddler’s jacket and tricycle. My dreams rarely make sense, but this night was especially interesting. 

I tried to stream yesterday. Well, technically I did stream, but the sound was being weird and then the computer mouse was being weird, and Fletcher was especially needy because now he’s constipated, poor thing, and so I stopped the stream after twenty or so minutes. We’ll try again today once I’m done here. I’m going to play Fallout 4, because my mind can’t get over an idea for my own post-nuclear apocalypse story and I need ideas because I’m not as familiar with the tropes and traditions of the genre. I write magic and fairy tales, not science fiction or dystopian. 

I’ve tried Fallout 4 before, on the Xbox 360 probably four years ago. I didn’t make it past the first or second mission. I can’t remember why. I was interested; I think I just wasn’t in the mood at the time. For the record, I have spent hours upon hours playing the silly game Fallout Shelter on my phone over the years, though I know that doesn’t have much of anything as far as a story goes. It’s been a while since I’ve played that, too. 

One of these days I’ll game more, when I finally, eventually, get my own PC. We thought that would be in the next few months, but… well, our bank account has proven otherwise. Oh well. 

When that does finally happen, one day, I have lots of games waiting for my attention, many of which I intend to livestream on Twitch more regularly. I’ll also live stream writing sessions regularly, for accountability and productivity, and to start, maybe, building an audience for my stories. 

For now, we’ll stream occasionally from Keston’s computer. Maybe writing, maybe Fallout. We’ll see. I was going to hold off streaming again altogether until the new PC but that was wishful thinking, and I need to do something to break up the day to day and connect with the wider world outside of my close friends and family. That’s part of why I’m doing this too, though I know only a few people have been reading these check-ins. Once I’m sure I can be consistent with these, I’ll start sharing them on social media to draw in more traffic. For now… Hi mom. How’s it going?

Speaking of my mom, she made the hard decision to say goodbye to our cat yesterday. We’ve had him for roughly fifteen years, I think, and he was three when we adopted him, so… he was OLD. He was a good kitty, though. I grew up with that cat; I was nine or ten when he came into our lives and he has outlived so many other pets, traveled with my family through multiple moves, played with a few of the grandbabies… He started losing his patience and drive before my little Fletcher came, but they still got to greet each other. 

Old man Riggins got a good year in my mom’s nice new house, and now he’s moved on to reunite with the cats and dogs (and a few fish, hamsters, and a hedgehog) that have gone before him. Rest in Peace.