Week 49, 2024

My vacations started last Monday, and as usual they made me remember that Sheryl Crow's song which says “all I wanna do is have a little fun before I die”. I was ready to have a little fun catching up with my late reading and TV show episodes, and playing some video games. Nothing fancy, all I anticipated was some relaxation before me.

But sometimes life throws its dice on us and changes our plans. Monday woke me up to my wife complaining about some neck pain and other nuisances I won't mention here.

Long story short, I took her to the ER way before 8AM, where she was examined, and from there sent to see a cardiologist, who requested an MRI and advised her to see a neurologist. She did the MRI on Tuesday, and the neuro appointment happened on Wednesday. Thanks God it was nothing serious in the end, but she'll need to go through some physiotherapy sections — at least 10 of them.

So you can imagine I've been coming and going the whole week with her. On the one hand I'm thankful for being on vacations, thus being able to assist her. On the other hand, my relaxation is obviously going to be limited for the next days, although I got to play some mobile Balatro and read some while in waiting rooms.

The most important thing, though, is to ensure my wife is well 🤗

By the way, in terms of reading, I have — finally, thank God — put The Overstory behind me, thanks to reading while in waiting rooms, as I mentioned above. This book started well for me, and I even loved it for some time, while I was at the first part of it. Unfortunately, it soon became a burden and a chore to read it.

The story, so well regarded by so many people, was too slow-paced for my taste, maybe because it seemed to follow the rhythm of a tree's growth. It's a fine book — just not my cup of tea. The link I provided in the previous paragraph will take you to a review I've written (in Portuguese), in case you're interested in more details.

The upside, at least, of finishing the book, was that with it I've completed 21 read books this year. And this is a lot of reason for me to celebrate — on with finishing more books before 2024 is over.

Last Wednesday, while I drove the car to pick my son up at school, I had the air conditioning on, as it was a very warm day and I usually suffer with any heat. I arrived the usual minutes early, turned the car off and kept the air on. A beginner's fault, I should have realized: this completely exhausted my car's battery.

Luckily enough, I reached for my mobile and, from the insurance company app, I could request assistance. I informed my problem and my location, and waited for less than 20 minutes until a technician arrived to help me. He reloaded the battery and set me up for the trip back home.

I have always paid for auto insurance and, though I need to say this expense is in the category of “things I pay for but I don't intend to use”, it was a nice thing to see how quick the service response was. I'm pretty satisfied.

Lots of fun this week because of Brotato, a very nice roguelike inspired by Vampire Survivors, which I've played for some time but decided to play with the kids, all thanks to the couch co-op settings. In it you control a potato assuming different characters, weapons and traits, facing a minimum of 20 alien hordes to beat a run and achieve victory.

The biggest surprise for me was to see how my younger son liked the game (he had never before played it, as he considers the kind of games that I play to be instantly boring 😅). I've lost account of how long he's played it, but I can say it has definitely been a lot.

I have also progressed through One Piece, now entering the Thriller Bark arc. It was a relief having done so as it marked the end of the (filler) Ice Hunter arc, to me one of the most boring ones to date in the anime (and, as I'm watching each and every episode of One Piece as I binge watch it, canonical or filler, I really had to make some effort putting up with this).

I'm still watching Thriller Bark right now, but it's been lots of fun so far — as I told my son, reminding me a lot of the Scooby-Doo cartoon franchise. I don't remember having laughed so much with this anime's episodes to date, but Brook, introduced in the arc, is really a very welcome presence in terms of humor.