1. Two months ago I forced myself to finally stop drinking diet soda. Not touched a drop since and only hated myself for the first two weeks. I've not had any candy, chocolate, baked goods, sweets or other high-glycemic index foods since the day of the eclipse.

2. I went to a funeral for a good, dear friend's dad who died peacefully in his sleep. The dad was a good guy, gruff, hard, surly, but under all the abrasive exterior was a guy worth knowing. I'm glad I got to meet him.

3. I missed attending a funeral for someone, the only purpose for attending would be to piss in his open grave. Turns out his life did not end up happy and wonderful and drugs and poverty and being an asshole catch up to you in the end. Fuck you high school bullies, I do not feel sorrow or pity for you. If not for the item below I'd have not though of you in three decades. Revenge is living well.

4. Random message on Facebook found me, wondering why I never went to the 30th year high school reunion a few years back. I did not reply. Fuck everyone and everything about high school. If I had a better school experience... not sure what I would be. I got to hang out with NASA people, several of whom asked where I went to college, and when the inevitable answer of "none" comes up, the look on their faces was almost one of sorrow. Nothing like finding people you admire commenting that you have the smarts to work with them, and that they are happy about the work you do "out in the Heartland where you need to be." Then that anger wells up that your life could have gone in a different, better direction where you can work your dream jobs. Which leads into...

5. I feel like shit. Physically beat and exhausted. I'm having issues sleeping and Irma brought in a fuckton of shitty Florida air with her. The thing about medicine is that there is a numbers game involved, and that the numbers tell a story. Little more than a year or so ago, my numbers were " HOLY SHIT HOW ARE YOU NOT AMBULATORY!" Then they wee "High Normal." Now they are "showing signs of repairing damage" as the paper says. The meds that made theses numbers move also made me gain weight; but the reality is that I blame the meds and the work, and the hobby, for not making time to get this shit fixed. No diabetes, no hypertension, no signs of stroke risks other than being fat and sedentary and unfit. Numbers are good, but still feel like shit. Now to get off my fat ass and fix the fat ass problem.

6. I've not had a chance to play D&D in a year, not had a chance to go play with the new telescopes in our observatory, not had a chance to go and do nothing but vegetate with friends since March.

7. Still working with lawyer on the car accident now two years ago. The law moves slowly.

8. Mentally, I'm in a "meh" place. I sat down and sorted out a bunch of shit in my head a bit after the eclipse when I had a bit of downtime. Lots of balls in the air to juggle, and 5-6 more major doctor visits left in the year, but I could be so much worse. Mom and dad are alive and healthy and have enough money to live comfortably a very long time. Friends local are all in good health and employed. Unemployment out here in Banjostan is shrinking; you can always tell in a place like this when the economy is doing well as all the 24 hour big box stores start closing overnight because they cannot find enough people to staff the place a full day. 4-5 big stores are all ending 24Hr operations, and some of the fast food places are no longer open when I come home from astronomy shit at 1AM. So if I decide to change jobs, not that I am looking or need to, the IT unemployment rate is somewhere in the range of .1% for non-entry level work here. And Google Fiber is deploying to some parts of town, but I'm fucked as I live outside the city and won't get any of the benefits unless I move in closer.

Also there is something about Amazon wanting to move an HQ and Kentucky is being mentioned as a potential bidder. If they move in, I'm going to be shocked. But.. wow would that change Kentucky from a Red state to a Blue State in an election cycle.