Back at Beautiful Pele

Written 24 October, 2007

Back At Beautiful Pele

As grand as my time away was, it was comforting to be back home. Home meaning my house, and home meaning Pele.

I’ve learned to (and have vacation days enough to) take a day off after a long trip, and I’m glad I did, but my cold was dragging me down. I caught up on my sleep, washed clothes (10 days worth!), and unpacked and sorted through the things I had taken, getting them ready for the next trip (refilled mouthwash, new small tube of toothpaste, new package of cold tablets and container of vitamin C, since I used them all up. I still have to sort through my jewelry and makeup. I dealt with a TiVo emergency (the network connection had come unplugged and it had run out of programming data), changed a light bulb that had come unplugged, and went to the grocery store to replenish the larder. And I caught up with my friends.

I took my laptop on vacation, but I was in world only a couple of times, briefly, to say hi to friends and deal with the blue boxes which had accumulated on the tops of my screen. My cheap PC laptop was barely able to get in world, even through the LAN connection in my room. (I came to the conclusion that my wireless network card sucks and will be buying another). But I didn’t miss SL, not with so very many things do do.

It was nice just to stand in the Gardens at Pele and listen to the birds and insects and Harry the Humpback as I sorted through my accumulation of e-mail and unpacked my suitcase. But later I did do a little grid-hopping. I sorted a few landmarks (isn’t it funny how they accumulate? You have no idea wtf they are and have to go there to remember that was an ugly accidental tp into a bondage sex club or onto a red fenced area or boring suburbia. But then you find the gems, and you relabel them and sort them away into folders for future retrieval. Or at least you do all this if you’re me).

I spent more than an hour walking through the Virtual Starry Night display (need info here). No, it’s not the sim Robbie Dingo created for his machinima Watch Your World; it’s a display of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, complete with 3-D recreations of some of his most popular works (including Starry Night). The paintings are available for purchase for 35L, which is a bargain, to be sure. The display is very well done; I recommend it.

Today I have to go to (yuck!) work. I feel almost as if I’m starting a new job, it’s been so long. I am still a bit ill, but I am caught up on my sleep and my house is in satisfactory (if not perfect) order, and I’m psychologically prepared to return to my routine.