I can't go to the YMCA for 30 a month and I get the disability discount! Where did you find that?

I wish I could be bothered with gyms (never mind being able to afford them), it would be an easy way to get some of the exercise I desperately need. I just find exercise machines too much hard work...
Actually, scratch that, I wish I lived in the country instead. I miss having somewhere nice to walk. Used to walk for miles every day.. then I got a girlfriend and was happy XD

I love going for a nice walk in the country. I have never been a fan of gyms, the only thing I do in a gym is some for fun kick boxing with a friend of mine. Other than that I prefer a bit of walking or running in the countryside or swimming. I think it's the nice outdoors and fresh air that appeals to people over the stuffy gym.

It's -19C and snowing here, a nice stuffy gym sounds pretty good at the moment. :-)

First thought - looking at each organism, whether human or not, being a small thread, interconnected and woven into the larger, overall thread of energy that keeps everything going.
A person's thread frays, they die. No coming back. For gods, possibly strands that connect them to points that mortal races can't.
How did the gods go away? Most of their threads were cut, maybe to the point that they couldn't actively interact with the mortal world, but still bound sufficiently to still exist in some state that no living mortal could.
How does a demi-god work? Well, you get two mortals together, they reproduce, you get a new mortal thread.
A god and a mortal reproduce, you get a reinforced thread. Stronger the thread, the closer to divinity you are.
The tricky part would be how exactly the gods went away and what they have to do to come back.
First thought - someone managed to find a way to unbind the threads and did so. Why they did it? Who knows. Maybe the gods were complacent, omnipotent assholes that needed a good comeuppance so they'd stop abusing the world with their power. Or something. That's up to you to decide.
But anyway, as for how the gods come back? Well, they might have to sacrifice part of their own essence, losing connection with some things and redirecting the threads to essentially reattach themselves to the world.
Or maybe, mournful followers develop a way to ritually sacrifice themselves in order to give over their threads to their god, allowing the god to rebind themselves at the cost of their own existences.

It's not that cold here yet, I think it's usually about 0-5C at the moment (it goes into the minuses as winter sets in more). I work outdoors in all weather, so I don't mind excessing outdoors. I don't mind the cold or the snow, but it's the rain I like the least about winter. It turns everything into sloppy mud. The animals seem to love it though :-).

Well, I figure the game would have an ever-elevating sense of horror and shame as the prize, with a trip to the nearest forced therapy session and a spot on the local sex offender list for losing.
A place in town that's been open for a while. Honestly, the price worries me a bit, since businesses around here have a bad habit of dropping like flies unless they've been around for decades or are part of a chain (like, say, the blighted shithole of torment and despair known as Walmart).
-laughing hard- Glad to hear you're in such fine shape.
Well, aside from the combo of duct tape and staples you might need to deal with the whole detached genitalia thing....
Well, I could go out and walk, but frankly going for miles and miles seeing nothing but dust would probably get depressing and dull as hell in a hurry. A gym should help (crossing fingers here) to provide a structured environment so I can ultimately stop being a chainsmoking fat shit. -laughs-

They're promising us -30C by the middle of the week, fortunately we don't get much of that. I just have arthritis to the point that cold is not my friend anymore. Used to be the one out in a T-shirt in the snow and loving it but not lately. ;)
We live on a large, fast moving, river so swimming is pretty much out unless you swim in a pool, which gets expensive, and crowded, especially in winter.

Do you know how much snow you have on the season because everything else you mention is damn close to us.

Very little compared to you. I think the grand total last year was 60-70 inches. I've lived in Cleveland and Chicago and used to get 'lake effect' snow like you do now. We get zilch here compared to that. It's all in what you're used to though, here 8 inches in one fall stops everything for about 16 hours. I love cruising around in the 4x4 watching these poor people. :-)

Hmm. Apparently I was using my computer while asleep. Normal tabs shut off, new tabs with stuff I can't remember looking up being open, a bunch of discs on the desk that I can't remember what I was going to use them for.
I must have been really tired.

Kinda proud of myself, just spent 30 minutes outside and I can still feel most of my body parts, not bad for an old guy. :-)
I would say so. ;)

I do not envy you that weather for even a second. Used to do the whole thing, shorts in a blizzard, 20 below zero outside but let's go for a walk anyway....but at this point?
Fuck all that. -laughs- Too cold, too miserable, I've proven whatever point I needed to make to myself that I'm more willing to inflict self-harm than other people, so now it's time for proper heating and being able to feel my fingers, toes, nose and ears.

I like the heat too but, snow must be shoveled! ;) Actually kinda fun to go brave the elements for a bit, calms my nerves a tad. ;)
PS: I like spell checkers, they make me seem a genius by comparison.
PSS: I see you own "Rock of Ages", played it yet? Looks like a hoot. ;)