The beginning of 2020, for me, didn't start well. I found myself falling a lot. This caused me a huge amount of anxiety for reasons that will be written about another day. Today's story has a happy ending as of today.
The first tumble I took in 2020 happened in my kitchen. When standing up from my computer chair one night I found myself on the kitchen floor. I wasn't sure how I had ended up there. It had happened at 2 AM. Hubby wakes up at 6 AM each day. Lucky for me I was able to get up and sit back down in my chair.
I did not think much about it other than wondering how I ended up on the floor. Nothing hurt that night any more than it normally does. I didn't think about it too much and went to sleep not much later.
Upon waking I realized my knee hurt like all get out. Getting out of bed and putting pressure on my left leg had me seeing stars. I grabbed my cane, that was thankfully hanging from the dresser, and made my way downstairs. My knee was twice the size it should have been. It was going to be a long day.
Over the next month, I fell three more times. Once on my right knee because it was feeling left out? Another time when falling I felt the tendons in my left knee move back into place. I had no idea they were out of place but, let's just say now I knew they had been.
Even after my left knee fixed itself it was still very swollen and both knees still hurt like hell.
During all this, I had been slowly looking for a new game to play. The year 2020 found me without a game I was passionate about. I use gaming for pain management. I was seeing a lot of advertisements for the release of Nintendo's newest Switch game called Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I had not played any of the other Aminal Crossing games in the series but had heard good things about the older games.
The problem with the game was I did not own a Switch Console. They are not cheap. The game is not cheap either. I was looking at around 400.00 USD to get the Switch Console and the Animal Crossing game.
The world then decided to break. Hubby came home with his work computer. He set up his office in the spare bedroom upstairs. With knees hurting, Hubby home 24 hours a day, I was not resting at all. I decided to have a Switch console and game I could hook up to the television in the bedroom would help me stay off my feet.
Unfortunately for me, another 11.77 million people in the world thought Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a Switch console was also a great idea. I will not go on and on about getting a Switch Console from Best Buy in my cart THREE times, on different days, only to have someone purchase it faster than I could from my cart online.
I finally stopped looking. Okay, that is a lie. I only looked once a week and did not have my hopes up when looking.
Approximately one month ago hubby went camping for a long weekend. The first night he was gone I was thinking about how it would have been a great weekend to have a new game to play. This thought leads me to Google which leads me to GameStop. I almost had a heart attack when GameStop's website showed a Switch console IN STOCK! The GameStop website let me put it in my cart and OMGosh it even let me give them my money! I was still in denial until I received an e-mail saying it was shipping in a week.
The next day I realized I had to order a screen protector too. Everything I read about the care of a Switch said you needed one. How the screen became scratched from taking the Switch in and out of the console charging case. That was one item I did not skimp on in price. Buy one great screen protector and never worry about it again is my motto.
I received the coveted gaming console and game five days later. All was well in my world...kind of.
There was a slight problem with the fact that there was no room on my desk to set up the gaming console. I also had been wanting to turn my desk around. In doing so I cleaned up everything on my desk and made room for the Switch console. That took me two days and an order for a longer Ethernet cable.
The fun didn't end there. Oh no. To hook up the Switch to my computer monitor, so I could see the game, I had to unplug my CPU. A day of getting up and down to plug and unplug cords made me go back to Google to figure out what I needed to not have to do this.
My best friend Google told me I needed an HDMI switch box thingy. The first one Google showed me was a tad over 100.00 USD. I did not buy that one. I bought one that was a lot cheaper and still had great reviews along with another HDMI cable. I wasn't happy but nor was I happy feeling the cords loosen each time I changed my monitor from the CPU to the Switch. I added that and a memory card, that was on sale for half price, to that order.
The next night Hubby went to sleep. I was all excited to play my new game again. The console comes with a holder for the joycons to use when you are playing on a larger screen, like a TV or monitor. I turned the game on and my joycons ran out of power. I read the directions and was told it would take THREE HOURS to fully charge them again. I was not a happy camper. AT ALL!
Back to Google, I went. I mean how much could extra joycons cost? I was already way beyond the budget hubby and I had set for me to get this one game! Yeah, well, I could order another pair of joycons for a mear 78.00 USD. I was like NO! Not doing it. You have GOT to be kidding me! They were not kidding. I Googled some more.
I found the cheapest, most reliable, way for me to be able to play and keep the joycons charged was by buying the EXACT same joycon holder that comes in the box except this one charges your joycons while playing.
Yes, I know. I am not the only one upset about this. Reading the comments from other people that have purchased the charging joycon holder made me realize I wasn't alone in my upsetness but I had traveled too far into the Nintendo rabbit hole to stop now.
Finally, all my purchases came in and everything was set up and working great. One of the cool things about Animal Crossing: New Horizons is that you can play with your friends. You can go visit their islands, give them gifts or just goof around together while playing.........for the small price of 20.00 USD a year. This also includes your game(s) saved into the cloud in case your Switch dies. Yup. I paid for that too.
Now comes the horrible truth. Each time I had to spend more money to play one game it sucked the fun out of any enjoyment I had in the game. So on top of spending a fortune that stretched our budget to the limit, I wasn't having fun playing the game. It had its moments but overall I was just grumpy playing the game and soon to come to the straw that broke the camels back.
To record or stream any gameplay on a Switch, you need a capture card. Guess how much those are? It doesn't matter. I refuse to buy one. Each purchase had already sucked all the fun out of the game for me. You can not return electronics so I was stuck with a Switch and a game that made me kind of grumpy when playing it. I was not in a good headspace.
I took a friends advice and my own and just let the game sit. Let the frustration have time to ease a bit. Yet I found myself playing a short time each day. I liked the game just not all the memories of forking out way more money then I wanted to.
One night I just deleted the game from my Switch. It was hard to do because I loved all the villagers I had gotten so far but did it anyway. I started a new game and played through the intro and went to sleep. The next day I deleted that game too and started another one. The day after that I deleted that game too.
It turned out the fourth time of picking out an Island was the charm. I am in love with my island called Moonight. My villagers are not as fun as the first ones I had but villagers come and go. That is all part of the game. The island stays the same shape. I am finally happy and having a ball playing a too expensive gaming system and game.
Maybe someday I will get a capture card but it will not be anytime soon. I am just happy I am finally enjoying a new game again. That the frustration, while still there, has stopped taking away from my enjoyment from my natural pain medician I call gaming!
Help someone smile today. It can not hurt you.
Snook
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated.
