[carp]

I don't see this game as a distraction. After my stroke, I used it as a learning tool, building the largest maps from the start, then putting together extensive scenarios based somewhat on a reality of some point in time. It was great therapy to rehab my longer-term thinking and memory skills. I was a semi-competitive she's player at one time. I never went to a ranking, but I played ranked players. I gave that up eons ago, but I just couldn't see playing a computer to try to bring those skills back, and since I've played Steel Panthers since the original 24-piece game and followed the upgrades through all of the DOS, the Windows versions, so I chose to stick with that I could recall the basics and the manual is much easier to understand if your prior knowledge is low-level.

It's still extremely hard for me to play a scenario I didn't design. My brain just refuses to look at an OOB on a roster and translate that information onto an existing mapboard. The units become all jumbled and the rally function becomes a crap shoot. Campaigns fall by the wayside as I can't quite relate pieces of the same units to each other, so decimation of every coy and company is quite normal and hard on moving on to the next scenario.

But if I put things together on my own, my memory processes very well, so I'm content. Considering I had to relearn to read and keyboard, SPMBT was a huge re-learning tool.

I'm 72 and have retired multiple times. But I've only seen what dying is like once. It does mature a fellow's thinking. I don't want to stress over things I have no control over, and I want to wake up early every day so I miss no time in our woods. I rarely consider any time wasted, but I do consider some activities and people a waste of my time, so I filter much better than before. I know I'll never be 23 and freshly discharged from the Army again, ready to take on the world. But I also know I don't need to cram living into living. Life is a good thing to have.