Well, it was a very quiet, peaceful day here today – apart from his morning walk, even Julian didn’t have to leave the house today! The lawnmower man came this morning, and with one exception, I can honestly say that that was about the most interesting or exciting thing that happened all day! I rang the x-ray place this morning to make an appointment to go in and have my feet (it appears that Dr. B. wants both of my feet x-rayed!) and my full mouth x-rayed – but they said to just go on in – no need to make an appointment! So I suppose I should have gone in today, and got them all over and done with, but I wanted to have a day of Rifting for a change! Well, I did have my day of Rifting, and things were going very well indeed – until I had to put some things in the Guild Bank, and then I spent the rest of the day re-organising and sorting out the ruddy Guild Bank! The trouble is, we either don’t have enough room in it, or we’re trying to keep too much in it! This is the problem when you have about six reasonably low-level characters who are bringing back low-level ores, herbs, and skins, all of which are needed for their reasonably low-level Crafting recipes – and about six high to very high-level characters who are bringing in high-level ores, herbs, and skins, all of which are needed for their high-level Crafting recipes! I can tell you from bitter experience, too, that attempting to cater for both low and high-level Crafting needs in one five-vault Guild Bank just simply Does! Not! Work! On other “Guilded” shards (shards that have a Guild and a Guild Bank) where I’ve managed to keep experience levels fairly stable and uniform, I don’t have these problems because as the characters and their skills go up, I shift the really low-level items to a “third-party” – a character specially created to look after the Guild Bank “overflow”, because you never know when you might need those low-level materials to make a few low-level items that you have on your list of Crafting Recipes. Anyway, it all took a while, and by the time I’d finished sorting everything out my eyes were beginning to cross and I’d wasted a considerable amount of valuable playing time 
But I can report that playing a Primalist seems to be working out alright, even though I don’t have a pet to assist me (or stand right on top of loot that I’m trying to pick up, or right on top of the quest giver that I’m trying to hand a quest in to! *grr!*) Mind you, the highest level that I’ve managed to (read: had time to!) get a Primalist up to is 14 – so nothing’s been terribly hard or dangerous, so far! We shall see how we go – I’ll know if I’ll want to, or be able to, play a Primalist successfully by the time I get them up to about level 25… It’s quite interesting really, looking at their soul tree – I have no idea what Trion are doing, or trying to do, or what they have in mind for the Primalists, but their soul (or skill) tree is less than half the length of those of all the other Classes. Normally you end up with 66 points to “spend” on your way up the tree, putting points towards better and more effective spells, fire-power, speed, agility, or whatever attributes and abilities are most pertinent to your Class – Primalists get only 31! Fewer, but far more powerful attributes and abilities? At this stage of the game I can only guess… In the beginning, in the starting-out area, I’ve noticed that Primalists get points every time they go up a level – until they get to about level five – then they seem to only get a point about every second or third level (I really must count them – and keep a record of how many points they get, and more particularly, when!) they still go up levels normally – they just don’t get a point (or 2 points, every third level) to spend in their soul tree the way every single other Class in Rift does! It’s most strange, but I think I like the Class… so far, anyway! 😉
Weigh-in this morning. Was surprising, seeing as I didn’t do any treadmilling yesterday! I went down another three points, from 71.8kg to 71.5kg! Amazing! Please, everyone, be very, very quiet! Tippy-toe around, and speak in whispers, please! I don’t want my body to wake up, yawn, and stretch – and then think “Hey! I didn’t do any hill climbing yesterday – or today, either! What gives?! I’d better stop shedding the weight so quickly! In fact, I should probably put a bit more back on – pass the rich, dark chocolate layer cake and whipped cream, please!” In fact, I probably shouldn’t have even written that – you do know that writing something about what you want, or don’t want your body to do is akin to shouting it in their ear, don’t you! Now I’ll probably be back up to 73kg or something equally as horrible tomorrow!
Speaking of bodies and such, I’m so proud of myself that I just have to tell you all! 🙂 Last year, before I started this weight-loss program, and I was at my heaviest – 134. something kg – I fell over getting out of the shower. I didn’t hurt myself – only my dignity – but what with my arthritis and my enormous weight, I couldn’t get up off the floor! Julian couldn’t get me up off the floor either! It was really horribly embarrassing, and I cringe with shame just thinking about it In the end we had to call the Ambulance to get me up off the floor, which they did with surprising speed and very little effort, and I was very grateful, as it was most uncomfortable on the floor… That, I’ll remind you, was just last year. Today, while Julian was off on his walk, and the lawnmower man had just arrived, I dropped one of my pain killers on the floor and it rolled under my desk where I couldn’t reach it. I said a few rude words, and thought “Blast! Now I’m going to have to wait for Julian to get home to rescue it for me! (*fume*)” For a split nano-second, I contemplated asking the lawnmower man if he could come in and get it for me, but I rejected that idea almost before I thought it, and so I sat there, staring gloomily at that horrid little tablet lying just out of my reach… I did think of getting something long with which to pull it out, but we have a large sheet of Masonite under our desks for the chairs to roll on, and even if I’d had anything long enough to reach the pill, I wouldn’t have been able to get it off the carpet and onto the Masonite. I looked at it a bit more, trying to will it to levitate towards me, but it was most disobedient, and wouldn’t. I found myself thinking… “I could try to get it… there’s a couch over there that I’m sure I could pull myself up with… and if I can’t, Julian will be home soon…” In the end, I got down on the floor (which was actually a lot further away than it looked from the chair, but I managed, without mishap!) I got my bloody stupid little pill! And you know what? I got up! By myself! The only thing I hung onto, if you can call it hanging on, was I put one hand on the desktop, just to steady myself! Ladies and gentlepersons, I don’t think you can possibly realise how overwhelming that was for me! Just the simple act of getting up off the floor! I’ve been so overweight, and so badly affected with the arthritis, that getting up off the floor unaided hasn’t even been a possibility for about fifteen years! But I did it today! And if there was even the slimmest possibility of me ever putting that weight back on again before, there sure ain’t now! 🙂 Give getting myself off the floor up?! No way! 🙂
Tomorrow my favourite eldest daughter will be over and I’ll be able to see what her newly coloured hair looks like properly – she sent us a selfie, but the lighting wasn’t that good and it was hard to tell exactly what colour it was (she said it was “frosted”!) Anyway, I’ll see it tomorrow, and if I think it’s suitable, I might consider it as a “cooler” colour for my hair, if the lovely people at the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages allow me to have the “Winter” on the front of my name (I should know by the end of next week!) I’m not sure what we’ll be watching tomorrow – we started watching “How to Get Away with Murder!” last week – it’s a bit “dark”, if you know what I mean, but it’s certainly interesting – and of course, there’s always “Arrow” 🙂 But that’s about it from me for tonight – do drop by again tomorrow night and see what other exciting things have been happening! I won’t have played any more Rift, but I might have picked up something else from the floor that I didn’t think I could reach – how ’bout that! 🙂 and hopefully my weight won’t have heard my comment about rich, dark chocolate layer cake with whipped cream, and eaten a few virtual slices! 😉 Anyway, I’m sure there’ll be lots of news for you all, but until then, please try to bee good, always remember that knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens, and never forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep warm – and above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 