Last night, I ended August with a 90-minute bug hunt during the fireworks. It may sound like a long time, but it went by so quickly! I was even a bit surprised when the clock struck midnight, and everything abruptly ended.
The fireworks stopped, the festive music switched back to the normal sleepy tunes, and the bugs turned into pumpkins. Well, not pumpkins, but they basically turned into worthless crickets. ð That wrapped up my favorite time of year in Animal Crossing, and it’s kinda sad when it all ends in the blink of an eye.
Outside of town hall, Tortimer was still standing there, but now without a purpose. He said he’s too excited to sleep after fireworks shows.
I made about 310k in my final bug hunt of the year, and that brings me to the main topic of the day…
My Summer Goal
Just to recap, I made a summer bell goal at the end of June. At the time, I had 67,650,000 bells in the bank. My goal was to earn 2.35 million more bells over the summer, so that my total balance would reach 70 million bells by September 1st.
Throughout July, I averaged about three bug hunts a week, generally playing at least an hour and often more. I reached my goal of 70 million bells saved…
…on July 27th. I still had over a month to go though, so I set a new goal for myself (even though I didn’t post it publicly): 72 million bells. That’s roughly double my original goal. By August 13th, I had met that goal as well. ðŊ
I didn’t make any additional goals, and my bug hunt time slowed down (slightly) for the 2nd half of August. But I still kept playing at least twice a week. When I started up the game today, my balance sat at 73,630,000 bells.
So I made nearly six million bells in that two month span, which I’m pretty sure is my personal best. That’s more than 2.5 times my original target. My long-term goal of 100 million bells (to earn the green feather) is actually starting to look achievable in the next few years if I keep this up.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to do this every summer. If we get a new Animal Crossing game soon, I probably won’t be playing City Folk as much, for example. But that green feather no longer seems decades away. ðŠķ
Labor Day
In other news, today is Labor Day in the U.S., so Tortimer was standing outside of town hall once again.
He gave me a picnic basket for the occasion. When I spoke to him several more times, he eventually gave me a surprisingly encouraging pep talk.
Up by Nookington’s, Felicity was talking about Tom Nook’s popularity. She said even the people in the city have heard of him, and she wondered if it was true that he had a shop in the city a long time ago.
Some of this stuff goes back to Wild World, but it’s nice to see it referenced in City Folk as well.
I’ve had two recent bug requests: Nana has been looking for a darner dragonfly, and Biskit has been seeking a longhorn beetle. Unfortunately, both of them are only out in the daytime, and I’ve been mostly playing at night lately. I did play in the day today, but it was raining, which kept away the dragonflies. And the longhorn beetle seems to be pretty rare, and only appears on stumps. I didn’t find either bug, so Nana and Biskit are both going to be disappointed in me.
I ran into Felicity again by the museum, and she was grossed out by the rain. She even compared herself to a swamp with legs. ð
Did you all have a good summer? Did you do lots of bug hunting and make lots of bells? Let me know in the comments!
I’ll see you next time. Never Stop Crossing!