Through no fault of anyone, my July game challenge has ground to a halt. I’ve already decided to push it through to August when I can, perhaps, focus on it again.

Several folks out there already know, but I may as well be up front here. Late last week my father had two sudden heart attacks in quick succession and was unresponsive. The doctors put him into a medically induced coma and he is still in the hospital. We don’t know how this is going to go yet, so, currently, we are playing the waiting game.

I haven’t been sleeping much, or sleeping well, even when I can. I’ve often found myself staring at a blank television screen, watching nothing and not sure how long I’ve been doing it. I’ve not felt much like playing anything.

Subsequently, I don’t have much to say on the gaming front. I’m sorry. I try to have moderately interesting things to say here for anyone who comes by, but this week I’m afraid I’m a bit of a dud.

I suppose I can report on my new phone, which sounds odd, but does have something to do with video games.

Some of you are aware that I’ve had a nearly four year old Windows phone that was in desperate need of replacing for well over a year. I’m weirdly stingy about phones (I’m not keen on cell phones), and I’ve never had a relevant smartphone. During the past week, I’ve been using my phone more than ever, as my father (and the rest of my family) is states away from me, and it’s been the only way to keep in touch with my family and the hospital. All this activity made it even more glaring that my phone needed to be replaced.

So a couple of days ago, I finally accepted defeat and went to the T-Mobile store and picked out a new phone. I settled on the iPhone 6s. While I was still at the store (which, incidentally had some of the genuinely nicest salespeople I’ve encountered), they were showing me the features of the phone and asked me if I wanted to download anything, so I said, “Sure. Let’s download Pokemon Go.”

So we did and they were full of tips to help me get started. It was a high point in an otherwise bleak week. The next morning I went outside and walked around to obtain my Pikachu starter. It made me weirdly happy. I then immediately caught a Meowith next to someone’s Jeep.

We happen to live within a handful of steps from a Pokestop, but other than that, it’s a veritable wasteland out here. Even so, I’ve still managed to find nearly 30 Pokemon in two days. That is strangely satisfying. It’s also been a nice thing to temporarily focus on instead of things outside of my control.

So there you have it. I have barely been gaming. I just can’t focus. I am also sleep deprived and that doesn’t help me do, well, anything really. I have no idea what the next week will bring, but I don’t want to worry about failing my challenge on top of it. The challenge can wait, and pushing it through to August takes a bit of that stress off.

Cheers, friends. Take care of yourselves.