Mid 3rd Quarter, 2020; Quo vadis?

   Yes, I have been painting some Romans, and no, this post is not about the book or the film (opening scene above) of the sane name. Quo vadis literally means where are you marching to, or where are you going? Usually by mid August I have recovered from Historicon and am ready to consider where the end of the year will take me, hobby wise. This year of course, Historicon, like almost every other convention after Cold wars this past March, was a casualty of the damned Covid-19 pandemic, and any of the usual conventions this Fall seem more or less out of the question. Tim Couper from the UK and I are already planning to attend Historicon 2021, although even that us far from a sure thing at this point. Ergo, Quo Vadis, Petronius? (with simncere appologies to anyone out there who actually understand Latin grammar!)

    First of all, given the continued relative dearth of gaming, the accelerated assualt upon the famous Lead Pile is likely to continue through the end of 2020 at least. Napoleonics and Ancients have seen the bulk of the action thus far, with a smattering ECW unist for spice. The same trend is likely to continue, with the refurb and rebase project on Bill McHugh's Chariot Wars figures obtained, sadly from his estate,  last year being already well underway. Other possible additions would be some additional Renaissance troops, and making a start on muy small Darkest Africa/Congo project.

    Second, I have been doing quite a bit of Zoom gaming ()to be covered in a later post) with Tim Couper and David Knight (both located in Scotland), play testing a new set of rules for the Wars of the Roses and related conflicts that they have been working hard on developing. I expect that to continue for some time. My one attempt at hosting a Zoom game was less than successful when I discovered that the never used camera in my laptop was non functional. A webcam has been obtained, but I have yet to tackle setting it up. To the Strongest would appear to continue to be a good candidate for Zoom games.

    I hope to hold a small FTF socially distanced game or two, probably in the garage, in September/October if the Covid-19 pandemic remains pretty quiet here in Connecticut (after a very harrowing Spring, we have had among the lowest rates of Covid-19 in the US for several months now). That could change quickly, though, with the return of kids to school in various fashions happening soon.

    Certainly, some continued solo gaming remains a high probability. I continue to have quite a few rules sets that I want to try out, including FoB3 for the ECW, Grand Fleet Actions for the Age of Sail, and several Sci-Fi naval sets. Then there are Mark's 123 Napoleonics, General d' Armee, and Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cells on the Napoleonic front. Fionally, late in the year, some Congo scenarios might appear.

   On the professional level, I am slated to decrease my (nominal) office hours from 4.5 days to week (about 60 - 70 hours worked per week) as of October 1st. So what did I do?  I accepted a new job as Family Medicine Clerkship Director for our Network, starting October 1st! Am I dumb, or what, LOL! Actually, I've been teaching 3rd year medical students (as well as a few NP and now PA students) in my office since about 1985, and at one time or another have held appointments as an Associate Clinical Professor at 4 different medical schools - The University of Connecticut, Quinnipiac University, American University of the Caribbean, and the University of Vermont. The job entails supervising the 3rd year students clinical rotations (called clerkships in the odd terminology of medical education... don't ask me why!); making sure thety all have a place to go for training, overseeing the process and quality of experience, some formal teaching sessions, and doubtless other annoying duties that I will be learning too much about shortly, I fear !  :-) I will continue to teach individual students in our office, which is really a high point of my work life.

    Of course, as anno 2020 has so amply demonstrated, no plans ever survive the encounter with reality intact! I hope that all of you stay safe meanwhile!