My Last Campaign?

It has been an eventful few months, which drew my attention away from getting back to posting here. Let me explain.

I was quite ill from December until just last week. Luckily, medication is proving to be helpful and my long-term prognosis is good. This issue caused me to become exhausted after a normal day of work, and I usually went to bed within a hour or so of returning home. As I usually am online in the evening, this situation made it difficult to keep up with this blog as I had fully intended.

Also, my computer issue has not been resolved. I am using my laptop, exclusively, for now. I just do not have the expertise to deal with the software conflict that is going on within the hardware.

Work has been good, apart from my illness, even though I did use up nearly four years of accumulated sick days.

In the meantime, my will was broken down by Games Workshop, with their re-release of Necromunda. Now, I have long been a fan, if not fanatic, of Bloodbowl, but I was able to resist the temptation of the new release, when it first came out. My next passion was Necromunda (Warhammer Fantasy was and remains my first love of wargaming, but it is now gone), and when I saw that it released, and then saw the quality of the new plastics being released for it, I could not resist.

On top of that, I, as I parenthetically mentioned above, love the Warhammer Fantasy world, which many now call "Oldhammer." The Age of Sigmar swept that all away, and I was able to close my eyes to the new world and new game....until, like Lot, I glanced back at the way I came. Instead of turning into a pillar of salt, I embraced the idea of the new Warhammer world and the models and game(s) that came with it.

Within the past three weeks, I purchased Bloodbowl, Necromunda, Shadespire, the Orlock Gang x2, and a variety of paints and hobby supplies. I spent far far far too much money on it all, but my friends and I are now playing Necromunda and Bloodbowl, with talk of twin leagues starting in the near future. We had a demo night at the local Hobbytown USA, last night, with several people showing up to either play or observe.

My Orlocks are assembled, and the first ten models are in the process of being painted. I hope to finish them by next Friday, so I can initiate them into a league game.

Yet, the title of this post is not related to Games Workshop or gaming at all. Instead, this week I was selected to the post of history teacher for the Bureau of Indian Education, with the position of 7th/8th grade history teacher. I will be teaching on a reservation, and also living there. Which is, to be honest, one of two dream jobs that I have wanted for a long time. I still have to pass a background check, which should be a breeze, and I am planning on flying out to the location during Spring Break, to see where I will live and meet staff and students. I intend to move there either in July or August, in time enough to get familiar and comfortable with the area.

Yes, I have not named it as yet. I will reveal that once I've gone there and back (again), as I do not want to jinx anything. I've had many promises made to me over the years, with a very few ever kept, so until I am there and have signed off on it all, I'll keep that part unmentioned. The image below is a hint, though.

I will be receiving the new hire packet within this next week, and also reserve my flight and pay for the tickets.

My best mate, Brent, will accompany me on the move, to assist with driving and unloading/unpacking, and then I will pay for him to return home. As I cannot keep him from his wife for an extended period, my hope is to get settled in and play a game, so he and I can share that experience in person, for perhaps the last time. Unless he and other friends can come up and visit me. The move distance, by the most direct route, is nearly 1500 miles, but it is also more treacherous as there's a long stretch through the Rocky Mountains, which is not a fun drive (I last did it in 2003, in the rain, in the dark). So, I think we will add a couple of hundred miles to the journey, saving a lot of stress on us as well as the moving truck's brakes, by taking a less steep route around the higher mountains.

It is my intention to remain at this new job either until I retire or until another federal job opens up, which allows me to make a positive difference in Indian education, such as principle, or a bureaucratic position overseeing multiple schools.

The downside to this is that I will no longer have the local friends with whom to play games. The nearest game store will be over 100 miles away, meaning any face-to-face games will have to be on weekends. I have major plans that will keep my actively gaming and also participating in the wargaming hobby, which I will reveal later.

However, the positives do outweigh this large downside. I am a small-town guy. I am impatient by nature and sitting at a stop light for 5-8 minutes, through several light changes, is really irritating. I prefer not to waste minutes of my life sitting in traffic. So, the town where I will live has less than 2000 residents and the county has less than 20,000 people. Some may look at this as a barren hell, I look at it as one step removed from Heaven. Peace and quiet, when I am reading or painting, are at the top of my requirements. Where I currently live, the only time I get either is between midnight and 2am.

So, I have much planning, organizing, and preparing to do before I move. I hope to work at both summer teaching jobs, to earn funds that will help ease the move and set me up in my new home. If I do, then I will not be able to move before the last week of July, at the earliest. I will learn whether or not I will be teaching this summer, by the end of April.

I do want to post more there. I hope to have pictures to share of my painted forces, sometime next week. I also have more things to post about, but this is already a bit lengthy.