Four people in the last four days have asked me about my blog. Perhaps it’s a sign.

Yes, I’m still here. Yes, I still plan to write and share but the last 4 weeks have been the most painful days of my life and blogging hasn’t been at the top of my list of things to do.

Several days after my last post, I contracted a particularly nasty case of shingles, leaving me in severe pain and unable to walk for several days.

Thanks goodness for antivirals like acyclovir.

The healing process has been even more difficult as I’ve suffered intense bouts of muscle pain and severe allodynia to the degree that anything touching me, including clothes, water, or even a light breeze from a fan felt like razors cutting my flesh from the inside out. My only peace has come in the form of ice, capsaicin cream, and a powerful combination of Pregabalin and Oxycodone.

I’ll spare you the remaining details (and disgusting photos) but will say that shingles aren’t something to fuck around with.

There is a vaccine available for it and if you’re over 60 (or have a compromised immune system like me), talk to your doctor about getting vaccinated because you don’t want to go through what I’ve been though.

[Thank you Anitra…for finding a a deep well of strength within you to keep the family strong and me in as much comfort as possible]

So yeah. That’s why I haven’t written for the last month. All the while though, the garden has continued to flourish.

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A hungry friend stopped by while I was making some minor repairs to my trellis this afternoon.

The 25MPH winds weren’t making the work go any faster and I was surprised to see a light snow falling for a little while. None stuck to the ground but it was nice to see the flurries come through.

Ayn and Anitra joined me for a few minutes and Ayn took it upon herself to dump several buckets of seed on the ground for our resident bird population before going back inside. A few minutes later, I heard the distinctive sound of a cardinal above me (cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer). I looked up to find one of the many male cardinals in our yard on the power line above me. He was staring down at the seed Ayn had dumped next to me on the patio.

As I finished up my work, his calls got louder and more forceful—as if to say, “hurry up, I’m hungry.”

I wrapped up my work, put the tools away, and came inside. Looking out the kitchen window, I saw him eating like it was his last meal and chasing all of the wrens away.

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Anitra and I spent 1/2 hour in the garden today harvesting about 10lbs. of garlic. We pulled it earlier than in previous years but it was definitely ready. In fact, some of the larger heads were just starting to split, so we could have pulled them last week.

They’re tied up and drying now and I’ve selected 6 heads for our fall planting. It shouldn’t be long before we’re enjoying roasted garlic spread over some crusty French bread.

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For me, co-op gaming offers some of the most fun you can have on an Xbox 360. While a title like Call of Duty 4 can offer an excellent single person, campaign experience, opening the game play up to co-op/multiplayer can make it shine, especially when the developers put considerable thought into the elements of team play and cooperation for in-game tasks or puzzle solving. It also adds a social element to the game, which is what play is really all about anyway.

Anitra and I routinely play local co-op games together, including our latest favourite Xbox Live Arcade title, Boogie Bunnies. I also play with an online cohort, Windchil, in games like Crackdown and Halo 3.

Lately, Windchil and I have been looking for another good co-op game. While searching this weekend, I stumbled across a great web site called Co-Optimus which is dedicated to co-op games. They have a great list of games for multiple gaming platforms including the PS3, Wii, and the Xbox 360. The site is fairly new (the domain was registered in Nov. 2007) and the forum traffic is still low but with over 350 members to date, I suspect it will pick up speed as others stop by to discuss co-op games with others.

One improvement I’d like to see in the site is a link from the game description page right into the forums for further discussion. Otherwise, it looks like the site owners have carved out a nice little niche in the gaming community.

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Ayn recently caught on to the meaning of the word “kiss”. Last night, she was enthusiastically practicing her technique with Anitra.

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