Here Comes The Rain Again

Blimey - when it decides to rain here, there's no half measures.

I have a scale I use when it gets moist :

Damp - this is most rain that's enough to get you wet, enough to keep the wipers on full
Unpleasant - visibility's starting to get a bit restricted
Dangerous - poor visibility, standing water on the roads
Nasty

Nasty is when you're driving and at any moment, you could get into the Aquaplaning thing. Which is never something that's going to end up fun. I had a trip up and down the motorway tonight, the way there was fine - just "Damp". On the way back though, I got the chance to see what happens when my latest car aquaplanes ...

The tyres on the front of my Focus are fine, there's lots of tread on them. The rear ones probably need replacing, so it's time for the tentative driving style when things get worse than "Unpleasant". We had a taste of what driving would be like during the gaming session ... When it gets to be really heavy rain, it can be tricky to hear people through the sound of the rain on the roof.

Erm - I said Aquaplane above didn't I ?

I must have hit a river going up one of the hills on the motorway - yep, it was raining that hard ! Car slows down as it hits the water, Orange Flashy Light comes on and blinks and I'm thinking "ooookay - time to let the wheel go relaxed and ride it out ..."

Orange Flashy Light being the traction and stability control ...

Hopefully it'll rain itself out over tonight and tomorrow - there's an England one day game scheduled for Wednesday. Did I crash with the aquaplaning ? Nah. Almost noone else on the road (apart from 2x PsychoTransit going at 80mph+) and the electronics in the car meant I retained control and didn't leave my lane. Went from 70 down to 50 though ...

I also had the chance to catch up with one of the boys from the Mercs while at work today. He's a good bloke is Charge, never really got much out of what he put into the Mercs as the times when he could get on to play weren't really compatible with the times when we would raid. It was good to have a natter - I've been fairly isolated with what happened with Mercs, ever since backing out of WoW about 6 months ago. What I have seen has come from the collapse of the Mercs guild site and a few posts that appeared before it died. Those posts resulted in a couple of rants on this blog, the most significant one being in May (archive link on the right should take you to it).

I won't be going back to The Maelstrom server, there's far too much historical baggage that came out of the "Iceangel the Enforcer" job that I often took on due to the other officers not having the guts to do it themselves. What I will be doing is remembering a select few :

Charge - thought I'd spotted him on my new server but - different Charge
Soul - one of the best people I know, used to work on the same project, great mate
Caira & Auraka - crossing fingers for their little one (dunno when C&A Jr is due ...)
Fubb - has gone to Eve now as it suits what he's after in an online game better than WoW does
Aella/Monkie - always a good one to have a natter with
And the various Violence Reborn people who I'm playing the game with on the Blade's Edge server.

There's a couple more ex-Mercs who might think they're worth a mention above but ... Nah. Their actions in the leadup to the guild breaking up and their actions immediately afterward disqualify them from a special mention. If you go from "we hate CiB and would do anything to stay ahead of them in loot tables" and then go actually join that guild that you were competing with as if they were the blood enemy, then the credibility goes through the floor. If you were the one in charge of the guild kicking everyone out and therefore breaking the promise made by a senior member that people could retire their characters and keep the guild tag, then I hope you don't get allergic to sleeping pills.

A guild officer's first responsibility is to look after the members of the guild. It isn't to steal everything in the guild bank and leave to join a different organisation, without doing what they could to ease the transition. Yep, I effectively walked out on the Mercs by quitting the game - I was sick of the game at the time. But what I did do after was keep an eye on the forums and attempt to ease the transition from functioning guild to Retirement Home for Old Characters.

Heh heh heh - That must be what I mean by too much historical baggage to think about coming back to the Maelstrom. Time to get back to watching NCIS before heading off to sleep.