VR

This morning, Madison once again returned to Mustafar.  Of course, not really, but as you can see above, she was spending a good deal of time using a VR game system that is just super fun to try out.  In the past, these virtual reality games have been fairly clunky and more of a novelty.

But these systems that are out now are certainly taking things a huge step forward.  Daddy tried this a few weeks ago, and it was like entering another world.  The system is immensely more responsive than any Kinect game, although that may have everything to do with the handheld devices there.

The thing that's impressive, most impressive, is the ability to walk around large sections of whatever world you're in at the time.  In this case, it was going around Mustafar, or in this other pleasant world with a virtual pet.  Another game had us using lightsabers, swinging them to strike at rapidly approaching rhythm boxes, in time to a musical track playing.  It was like Guitar Hero, but with a lightsaber.  Anyway, it was a game the two of us were trying for a time, and it was a lot of fun.

Here's where we were, by the way:  up in north Habersham.  We were with Josh, and we were at Amy's house, spending a few hours.  The primary reason for the journey was to get footage of our upcoming KidPak service up there.  But while we were there, Madison was taking pictures for her "random picture" assignment, going outside to the steam out front and snapping pictures of plants, the river, and the surrounding mountains.

We had a nice lunch up there too, grilling hot dogs on an old grill.  We haven't used a charcoal grill in forever, so it took us a bit to remember the basics there.  But in the end, the hot dogs were nice, and the four of us were enjoying some hot dogs.

Actually... five of us.  There was Lincoln there as well.  He's Amy's dog, and he's learning to get used to strangers without barking so much.  We were feeding him hot dog bits, and just sitting out there on a beautiful day in the mountains with the stream going by.  It was perfectly pleasant, and Madison's pictures were nice as well.  Here's a sampling of some of her photos taken today, some on our way up to the house:

We did need to get back home, of course, where Mommy was waiting.  We picked up a rotisserie chicken on the way home, and Mommy was working on scalloped potatoes - we had a wonderful dinner later on.  She was shelling pecans tonight, and then coating them for a tasty sugary treat.  We got to see the penultimate episode of "Clone Wars," which got super serious with the infamous Order 66 taking place, after all this time. And after that, we started a Jumanji marathon with the first movie from 1995, which is such a fun movie.  We enjoyed that one again, and might actually bring out the board game soon enough - we have that one downstairs.  Many a joke has been made on social media about our current plague and how someone somewhere needs to go ahead and finish up playing Jumanji so we can all go back to our normal lives.  Of course, we haven't seen any rhinos charging down Riverstone Drive yet, so I don't think that person is quite done with the game yet.  We'll keep you up to date.

Anyway, we finally made it to the merry month of May.  And it may be merry, as we may be free once more.  We'll see.  But there is hope in the air, and as we prayed and read tonight, there's a feeling that this might be coming to an end soon.