Not much of interest to write about lately. I’ve lost track of how many fires are burning across the state, and there’s nothing I can say about them that you can’t read in the news. High winds, low humidity, high fuel levels, little containment. Evacuations as needed. Little property loss so far but lots of beetle-killed forest going up in flames. A good thing, I suppose, as long as people aren’t losing homes and businesses. It’s killing tourism in some areas, though; not good for those that depend on the summer season.

In other news, Snowden’s on the run (in Russia at the moment), the IRS has been accused of targeting liberal groups as well as conservative, George Zimmerman’s trial has started, George Zimmer’s been fired from Men’s Wearhouse, the Food Network dumped Paula Deen because of her racism mess, mortgage interest rates are on the rise, Nik Wallenda did a wire walk over a canyon near the Grand Canyon, etc.

But I’ve mostly just been watching the headlines. I’ve been too busy playing Ingress — or recovering from same. Wearing out lots of shoe leather (rubber, actually), burning up lots of gasoline, and visiting and revisiting a lot of places across the north side of Denver that I hadn’t noticed before. Progress would be faster if I went on raids with other players in the area but I doubt I could keep up with them physically. Luckily for me, some of them are thoughtful enough to leave some unclaimed or partly open portals so that players like me can harvest the goodness and level up on our own. I made Level 5 today, after calculating less than a week ago that doing so would probably take another month, followed by two months for L6, four for L7, and eight for L8. Delighted to learn I was mistaken, but still figuring on a very long campaign.

My body and my battery give out at about the same time each day and then it’s home to recharge both. I’m tired enough at night to go to bed earlier than I used to, so I tend to wake up earlier each morning. That means I get out earlier and do my hacking before it gets hot. Apparently it’s also before most of the other players in the area get out — or get home from work.

I’m only posting now because there’s some problem with the game’s servers and the Intel map is out of commission. “Over quota” it says. Otherwise I’d be sitting here poring over the map and if I spotted some portals that needed hacking, especially if I could do a drive-by, I’d probably be out the door again.

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ALSO ON PIED TYPE:

• An Enlightened Colorado
• Grandma plays Ingress
• Enlightened or not
• Ingress at the Stanley Hotel
• Grandma playing Ingress stopped by cops