Hello There Stranger

I’ve sat down to write numerous times this past year, and just never felt like finishing anything.  I just wasn’t mentally into documenting the crap I was going through.   I won’t touch on it too much other than I’m happy 2023 is about done. 

I will mention that nearly two and half years after we went into lockdowns and I started writing my COVID Diaries, my wife, youngest daughter, and I finally caught COVID.  It hit us around the fourth of July holiday so we were stuck at home, and I was hit pretty hard.  I can only imagine how bad it would have been had I not been immunized.  But it was inevitable, and now that’s something else checked off the list.  I just got my most recent booster, so hopefully I can avoid a winter strain.

The world is currently in chaos. We are around two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and there is no end in sight to that conflict. And now, Israel is trying to eradicate Hamas after its terrorist attack over a month ago.  There are hate crimes rising against Jews and Muslims around the world.   It’s like a holiday for racist white people.  It just sucks, because I don’t want innocent people to die on either side. I’m against violence of any kind, especially when attacks have a blatant disregard for innocent life.  There has been a recent pause in fighting while hostages have been traded.  Hopefully that is a sign there can be some negotiation, even though the cease fires just ended.

So the world is a powder keg and there is a possible super volcano ready to erupt in Iceland.  Yes, seriously.  So we have that going for us.

One thing I wanted to touch on is that I lost one of my childhood best friends this past year to a heart attack.  He was two years younger than myself, and in much better shape.  It really hammered home how fragile life is and how quickly things can change.  I hadn’t spoken to him in years, but we were inseparable during the summer months.  Playing baseball, basketball and golf while riding around on our mopeds… It was a shock to my system at a time where I was very low myself.  In fact, a couple week prior I had gone to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack, only to find out it was anxiety.

To recover from my episode to hear my old friend had died was fairly devastating, but it gave me a renewed sense of wanting to be healthier.

I finally got tests done at the doctor that showed I had been dealing with a stomach bacterial infection for the last couple years that was causing me a lot of issues.   I felt sick a good portion of the last two years and this was probably the culprit.   After finally getting the tests, we were able to attack it with antibiotics. In January I’ll get some additional tests to make sure it was fully eradicated. I’m already feeling a ton better, so I’m hopeful.

I’ve also closed my exercise rings on my Apple Watch every day this year. That is definitely having a positive impact as well.  Even on my sickest days I made sure to at least shuffle along on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  I’m feeling a lot better today than I have in a long time.  And that’s good, because I want to be around a long time.

In other news, we passed a milestone in September.   We marked 20 years of this blog. For the last 20 years, I have documented my life, shared technology, bitched about the state of the world, opined about music, gushed over gadgets and fell in love, and then out of of love, with social media.  This blog was always written for me, to document what was going on in my life and to share it with the world.   At times there were an unfathomable amount of people reading, and nowadays, maybe only a few. I hope I have enlightened, entertained, provoked or helped everyone reading this in some way.  No matter whether we were close, or we never met, I hope this place has given you something.

Thanks for sticking around, and I don’t just mean the blog.  I’m really glad you have.   Keep fucking going.