Jousting at Windmills. . .

Oh no!  It's Windmills 10 -- Don Quixote 0. . .  Kind of how I fell, er, feel at the moment.

Have you ever had one of those days when you planned some kind of wargaming related activity, and then real life intervened?  Of course, you have.  We all have.  And such has been the day so far this morning here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen.

I woke far too early for a Saturday -- 6am -- and couldn't fall back to sleep, so gave up the ghost and rose quietly at 6:30.  A short while later, safely ensconced before my computer here in Zum Stollenkeller, I realized that I did not feel quite right and returned to bed.  Since I volunteered last night to get Young Master Paul up at 8:00, I informed the Grand Duchess that she might need to bell that cat after all.  I then fell fast asleep for another 3.5 hours, though that was interrupted intermittently by. . .

The dreaded Terrible Twos!  Yes, although Young Master Paul is only 19 months old, the routine screeching and tantrums have begun in earnest, which has turned our once pleasantly calm way of life here at Stollen Central upside down the last several weeks.  Making matters worse is the fact that these behaviors do not happen with yours truly, dear ol' Dad, but poor Mom seems to get the brunt of it.  While the two of us do our best to handle Paul in similar fashions, he seems to choose to "go ballistic" with his mother while remaining pleasantly calm and happy with me, which has caused my wife considerable distress you can understand.

Needless to say, the combination of my mild under the weather-ness (really just extreme fatigue), our son's current bouts of anti-social behavior, and how this is clearly affecting the Grand Duchess, plus dinner guests planned for this evening, kind of gets in the way of planned wargaming-related activities for the day.  I don't know about you, but I need a fairly clear and relaxed mind, to sit down to the workbench for a productive painting and/or modelling session.  The slightest bit of upset and tension tends to throw things off track for a day or two.  Blast!  Maybe I should suggest to my wife that we call our friends and reschedule this evening?


Later. . .

Thank you for the words of encouragement, everyone.  We went ahead and had our friends over for dinner, which provided a few hours of much needed escape through good food and fun conversation, although we were soundly beaten in Scrabble later by the husband of the couple.  A most impressive player, who used all seven of his tiles not once but twice during the game!  Even better, I had a couple of hours in the afternoon to complete (almost) the complicated  vain/sail assembly of the windmill I'm finishing up, using tiny strips of balsa wood along with strategic drops of super glue and beads of Elmer's wood glue for added strength.  Should easily be able to finish everything up this evening after Young Master Paul's bedtime.

Finally, here is a recent photograph of the Young Master at work, "reading" one of his favorites, The Mitten by Jan Brett. . .