Dear internet users... Chess forum
104 replies. Last post: 2016-11-11
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christian freeling at 2014-09-04
Afterhours
In 2014 in the Netherlands summer fell in the spring and autumn fell in the summer, with temperatures on average 5C below average, and double the rainfall. Bad weather matching the bad news.
I passed the time playing a lot of Pit of Pillars and where Havannah lured me into inventing abstract games, half a lifetime ago, PoP released me from the blessing or curse (depending on how it worked out). It's autumn now, which is my usual time, but there's nothing to indicate an impending outburst of creativity. I've finally reached immunity! Here's why.
After a couple of month of investigating PoP's unique strategical dilemma (which I will leave you to encounter yourself) I was convinced that the chances to ever top it were extremely low. It made any ambition to even try vanish. To go through yet another wave and coming out with a couple of tactical small affairs with no guarantee of striking a significant one, suddenly looked like a silly prospect. I've always felt that my final game should be a major strategy game, and here I am, playing just such a game. At 67 it seems the right time to call it a day.
As far as abstract strategy games are concerned, I love playing games at LG and Mindsports (currently Havannah, Symple, Ayu, Stapeldammen, Rotary and of course PoP) and I'm afraid I'll keep on haunting the halls of BGG too, as Rey put it so eloquently. I'll try to catch up on my reading, go fishing (got a large pond nearby, next to a coffee bar - a real coffee bar, not a 'Dutch' one, but I have my own weed), enjoy the wheather (if applicable) and suffer a general lack of problems.
And, of course, care for the animals. Five of them, barring the yearly litter of raccoon doggies.
Last summer Lyme knocked out my left knee (among other temporary inconveniences) which made carrying Kobus down the stairs somewhat problematic. He very well manages going back up the stairs, to his room, but refuses to go down. Since he's 40k+ I figured weight might be a factor so I lost 20k in about six month using a revolutionary concept: eating less. Moreover my knee slowly improved so I can move like Jagger nowadays and carrying Kobus is no longer a problem.
For the time being at least and hopefully for several years to come. He's currently catching up on sunshine because we got a gorgeous Indian summer to make up for the lost Dutch one.
I've had to move Snowy, a white raccoon dog that I've had for four years, to a zoo in Germany ([url=http://wordpress.solinger-vogelpark.de]Solinger Vogel- und Tierpark[/url]) because his father (the white one below) suddenly saw him as a rival. Raccoon dogs are exceptionally silent creatures, except when they fight. Then they're worse than cats, I can assure you, and fights are inevitable once the relation is hostile. To fill the gap I kept a wild coloured one of this years litter. He's already bigger than his parents now and always keeps his distance, which suits me fine because he's otherwise unproblematic. He's the one in the background.
Since this is both an update and an afterword of sorts, I'll include Flurry for completeness:
I found him some four years ago while walking the dogs on a wood path nearby. The first two days he could only fly at a 45 degrees angle downwards, but eventually he managed longer flights. He's lived in my living room ever since but has never landed on me. Nor do I invite him to. You see him here at base camp, a bird cage that he's never seen from the inside. He commutes to an outpost, a bookshelf at the other end of the room. He never lands anywhere else, which is convenient, guano wise. The pile in his cage is too fascinating to remove anyway.
So if and when I fade away into the background and someone asks, know that I'm busy living happily ever after, till the time comes that time stops and I'm bound face the same problems I had before I was born. I'm not at all in a hurry to get there, but I've chosen Afterhours for just such an occasion.
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