We’re almost halfway through 2025 already! Time flies when you’re having fun—or not—whatever it is for you.

It won’t be long until my wife finishes with another school year, and will be home for the summer, while I potentially will have to go to the office more per week. Talk about a bummer. But hey! We’ll get weekly ice cream and build that company culture!

While I still have my weeks working remotely before the added office days, my wife convinced me to make an appointment with a doctor for a physical checkup. It’s been almost ten years since my last checkup, and leading up to the appointment, I was worried about what I would hear. I’m not a kid anymore; my body isn’t going to work as well as it used to, so I had two concerns that I wanted to bring up: the bump on the side of my head and my dry hands.

The bump was the bigger concern. A not-so-ordinary bump I thought would lead to only one thing…Cancer. Fortunately, after my visit, it wasn’t that, but a fatty lymph node. My doctor wasn’t worried since it doesn’t bother me or hurt when I touch it. So, I can breathe a little better there.

For my dry hands, I need to lotion my hands more often and use sensitive skin soap. The colder weather probably has an effect on my hands, but they have been much better over the last few weeks.

All-in-all, getting old stinks!

With all of that out of the way, I can now focus on what has been taking up more of my time over the days and weeks: solitaire and Clair Obscure: Expedition 33.

I’m currently subscribed to Apple One, which includes Apple Arcade. And for anyone unfamiliar with Apple Arcade, it’s a curated list of games in their library you can download and play on your Apple device. Whether it’s your iPhone, iPad, or even Apple TV. The benefit of it is that they’re full games with no ads. No added costs, just play as it is. You’re already paying for the subscription; they’d probably shoot themselves in the foot if they thought to include ads in the games.

But in that library of games, solitaire is one of them.

This has been the longest I’ve kept up with a game daily. My end goal is to reach level 1,000 and just call it there. I had a good run in the game, so I might as well end it at a milestone level for myself. Then I could say that Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 is the only game I am currently playing.

I’m a sucker for turned-based roleplaying games. I enjoy not having to rush on my next move, setting up my party the way I want, and eventually being powerful enough that the rest of the game is a cakewalk. Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 has everything I love about video games: combat, an interesting story, and an amazing musical score.

I look forward to playing whenever I get the chance. When it’s not interrupting family and writing time, that is, they take priority for me. So, this game will take some time until I eventually beat it. Might as well enjoy the ride!

The writing has been fine. I’m still writing on my blog here, so that’s something at least. But I’ve been on a few-day streak where I haven’t picked up and continued where I left off. I have short stories to edit and chapters to write for my novel. It’s right there waiting for me, but I have not taken the time to sit down and work on it. It’s because I’ve been feeling tired at night. Around the time I would normally sit down to write before going to bed. I’m exhausted right now, but I wanted to finish this draft. So, I’m chalking it up as an off week.

We all have those, right?