We had a fierce windstorm a couple of weeks ago (I think?), and it blew the leaves all around the front- and backyard. I think it stripped the ash tree in our backyard of the rest of its leaves, too, and of course we got some from the surrounding trees. I had hoped to be able to put away the lawnmower for the season, but alas! We did a bunch of errands Saturday but usually try to mix that with fun stuff. I did the yardwork Sunday. After our grocery run, I got the lawnmower out, fired it up, and set to work on crunching up the rest of the leaves. The mower has a “mulch plug” which you can install so the catcher bag isn’t needed; all I wanted to do was mulch up the leaves and cut the grass.

CWs: physical health, food, alcohol

I have been remiss in writing on here. Most of that is due to being obsessed with Silksong for the last nearly 2 months. I finally beat the game. 96% completion, just shy of 90hrs put in (Steam says 10hrs more, so the timer is strange). It was so incredibly good. I don’t know how to describe how much I loved it. I was all-in and I’m sure, if Team Cherry ever releases another sequel (one was teased, in a special ending), you know I’ll be there to get obsessed all over again. I pretty much spent most of my free time playing that, almost since it came out at the start of September. I loved my time with it, but in a way I’m glad it’s done, since I am moving on to other stuff.

CWs: nonzero Silksong spoilers, caveat legens

Well, if you’re a gamer, you’ve likely heard about Hollow Knight: Silksong being released on 04 September, after a wait of 5-6 years. I didn’t think it would ever come out; it seemed like vaporware for so long. But it finally came out, and wow, was it worth the wait. I was immediately enthralled and obsessed. I loved Hollow Knight; by the time I finally got around to playing it, everyone else had been recommending it for years. I explored everything very thoroughly, and completed basically everything, but couldn’t figure out Godhome and its ridiculous boss rushes, though I am in awe of anyone who can get through all of that. But I beat The Radiance and got a pretty decent ending, so I was happy with it. Now my gamepad won’t really behave with the game, so I haven’t played it since then, but I’d already beaten the game, so it’s cool. I moved on to other games after that, but Hollow Knight has stayed with me for years now; at very least I listen to the soundtrack pretty regularly. It’s funny, I kept confusing Shovel Knight and Hollow Knight for years, and I finally played the latter and ended up absolutely loving it.

CWs: food, drink, alcohol, errands, finances, ponderings

These days I feel like I mostly know what I’m doing in life. It’s not perfect by any means, but things are mostly OK, at least on a personal level. I’m in my 40s now and things are finally starting to mostly make sense. I feel like I know what’s important and what to shrug off. I wish it didn’t take this long to figure it out, because if I am lucky, I’m about halfway through the trip. Oh well. I am hoping the second half is an improvement, and just trying to enjoy every moment, howsoever I can.

CWs: physical health, food, alcohol

I came down with a cold Monday night. Started with a sore throat, then I was very stuffy (well, stuffier than usual), and when I woke up Tuesday morning, I knew I wasn’t going to be working. So I called out. Rested up throughout the day, played a lot of videogames, drank water. Still not feeling great. Slept, fitfully, still a sore throat and stuffy. Woke up this morning (Wednesday) and well, I didn’t feel well enough to work again. I feel bad calling out, but I keep telling myself, this is what sick leave is for, and I am grateful to have it.

CWs: finances, mental health, horror movies, EV rambling

Life has been a little weird lately. Uncertainty with jobs (my spouse’s, seemingly moreso than mine, but mine has been a little iffy lately). Applied for student loan repayment to start again. Haven’t heard anything. We’ll see how that goes, dies docebit. It’s been a hot, dry summer, although we’ve gotten more rain lately. Way too many wildfires in the state, but thankfully none near us at this time. I feel like we need a day off soon, but we have Labor Day off, and then next Friday off for a little getaway.

CWs: work, finances, mental health

I’m sorry I haven’t written in a little while. Work has kept me busy, mostly in a good way, but it’s always busy, just to varying degrees. We have had to deal with some house stuff too which is also (mentally/emotionally/financially) stressful, but we got some good news about one of the concerns which is good. Switched insurance around, which was nerve-wracking, but had to be done. I’m going to likely have to start paying student loans again, which is its own can of worms and will involve some radical changes to the oikos. But it’ll get sorted.

CWs: alcohol, food, physical health

We had a busy weekend and an eventful week. We went to the Rockies “Star Wars Night” game on Saturday, which is pretty much a tradition for us at this point. We try to go most years; I think the first year we went was 2018. Had a great time, got drinks and apps afterwards at Yard House, then stayed the night at a hotel in Denver. Got up the next day and went to the History Colorado museum where they had a cool ’90s exhibit. I got very nostalgic, especially for the tech stuff.

CWs: massive Battlestar Galactica (Re-Imagined Series) spoilers within, caveat legens (if you haven’t watched the series, watch it!!)

You know, sometimes I wonder what home is. Is it an actual place, or is it an absence we carry inside of us? Some kind of longing for something, some kind of connection?

• Laura Roslin, Battlestar Galactica S04E18, “Islanded in a Stream of Stars” (2009)

We just finished Battlestar Galactica (TRS, or “The Re-Imagined Series”). We ended up watching E18 and then the three-part finale (“Daybreak”), 2.5hrs with the extended version, right after that. And it was fantastic. I watched BSG for the first time in 2016 or so, right after we moved to Colorado. I don’t know what inspired me to watch it; I was telling my spouse that I couldn’t remember why, but I saw it available on Hulu and just went for it. (Now that I think of it, that was back when Comcast/NBC Universal had a large stake in Hulu, so it’s not surprising that it was on there; now it’s on Peacock, IIRC). A few years ago, I bought the Blu-Ray set when I found it on sale, and I was really excited to watch it with my spouse. One night, jokingly, while hanging out with friends, I said I’d watch The Bear upon their recommendation if they would watch BSG with me. They agreed, fortunately enough, and we set about starting the series, with the miniseries of course. I can’t even remember when we started it; it must have been late last year, or very early this year. It’s been months, but we took a little hiatus for a couple of months there.

CWs: politics, gloom

Well, we’ve reached the start of July. It’s been a weird year, and already a weird month. In the US, at least, evil has seemingly triumphed, with the passage of the GOP’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” I’m worried, not as much for myself, but for myriads of others. There are darker times ahead in the US, and I fear the world as well. I remember when George W. Bush got reelected in 2004 and I wrote something insipid in Greek (I was learning Greek at the time) about the country rotting and being corrupted, but I think I was about 20 years too early for the real event. That was just one more step in the blight.