I received word this afternoon that Scott Glenning, who had barely begun to play in our Multiverser forum game, has died.  I do not know the details.  He was a kind and friendly person who suffered somewhat severe disability from neurological damage in an accident; I knew him through church locally, where he appeared perhaps a year ago, and felt that there was at least the beginnings of a friendship there.

There is a saying somewhere that runs I use to complain that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.  Life is hard here, and my bronchitis atop my asthma makes breathing difficult, which makes everything else difficult as well.  In some ways I envy Scott–he got to go home first–but then, his difficulties exceeded mine, and he lived with them usually cheerfully.  I only met his wife once; I hope the best for her.

I could talk about the work accomplished today–the disruptions of the routine and the impact this has on my schedule–but it seems appropriate at this point to let those things slide and allow Scott to be put to rest in our minds and hearts.

Of course, it also means I may have to find another playtester for that world; but that’s a problem for another day.

–M. J. Young

My wife is sick. I have been fortunate that my immune system usually wins against the diseases she gets from contact related to her medical profession, and so I am not also dreadfully ill. I am, however, dreadfully busy.

I lost yesterday to a long roadtrip, returning a young lady visitor to her home in the northern end of the state. While I was up that way anyway, I met over coffee with an old friend, who will be playing drums with Collision, and delivered to him a copy of that compact disk he has been eager to receive, along with many pages of song sheets and drum parts for his consideration. The time we spent together was both too long and too short–too long in that it was very late by the time I got home, and too short in that there was so much more to say.

Then this afternoon my mother called to let me know that my father was back in the hospital. No one is quite sure what is wrong with him, but they have half a dozen excellent doctors working on it.

Shortly after that I received the news that Ernest Gary Gygax, to whom everyone in the role playing world owes a debt of gratitude for his courage in publishing the original Dungeons & Dragons game and with whom I’ve had enough correspondence to feel that we knew each other, passed away early this morning. On the heels of the death of Larry Norman last week, perhaps the key figure in making Christian Rock acceptable and who impressed me in our one meeting thirty years back with his keen insight and discernment, this comes as something of a blow.

I am too far behind to try to do everything, and must make a trip to return another son to his work address tonight. More and more is being pushed into another day; may there be enough days to bring all up to date before I, too, am too sick to do anything.

–M. J. Young