One Year In – New Features Unlocked

This Friday will mark 1 year since the worst day of my life (so far), the day I lost my big brother. He was also the third personal loss in frame of about a year, and while all 3 were certainly close to me, he was the closest.

New Features Unlocked One thing I didn’t quite expect was the emotional fallout; while what’s done is done and life goes on, I still get triggered by the smallest, most insignificant things; seeing something on the web or on TV and wanting to share it with my brother. Working on cleaning up the yard for a party that he used to be so anal about (and we hilariously fought over), and not hearing the “demands” and “you’re doing it wrongs” lol. Hearing a weird song I think he’d like, and hey let me just…oh…yeah. Going to hamfests are certainly lonelier.

I can confirm something I shared from a Redditor in a previous post I made; they mentioned that loss tends to act like waves: at first there’s a big splash, and then the emotions come in waves afterwards, with each wave getting a little less intense. I feel that was a great description, although unfortunately the waves do keep coming and perhaps will never end, but things are a little easier to deal with over time. Good memories certainly help, and lots of funny moments to chuckle about.

One other “feature unlocked” I think was a good thing: fire. While I feel like I’m still dealing with a certain level of depression or “something”, I find that now if I want to do something, I’m just doing it, no hemming, hawing, thinking about it, etc, just GET ER DONE. Life is short, nothing is guaranteed, so strike while the fire is hot.

My brother woke up one night apparently had dozed off watching music vids on Youtube, and found this German Rapper “Sido” that he INSISTED I watch. While the one below isn’t the version I wanted to embed, this song, “Der Himmel Soll Warten”, or “Heaven Can Wait” represents what I mean. The song talks about all the things he wants to do, and Heaven will just “have to wait”. (And no I can’t speak a lick of German)

I’m shouting it to the sky, heaven will have to wait
’cause I’ve still got plans, heaven shall wait
When it is all over, take away my breath
But now I stay here, heaven will have to wait

There’s still a lot going on both personally and naturally with the country and world being in such turmoil, at this point I’m just keeping my nose to the grindstone and dealing with whatever comes my way. Volunteering, mentoring, and trying to have a little fun along the way keeps me above water for now.

MISSING YOU JOHN.

January 2025 – My How Time Flies

In coming in to post this, I saw some old drafts, one of which was from late 2023, talking about how my life was reduced to commuting between work and a hospital to visit my dad (he’s since recovered and back home!). In that draft I mentioned a quote by Winston Churchill:

If you’re going through hell, keep going!

I can certainly say that I think I was certainly there. Over the last 2 (nearly 3) years, I’ve experienced a major medical event myself, then lost now two family members and a good friend, all under the age of 60, and nearly lost my dad. I’m not out of the weeds yet, I certainly wouldn’t even blink if a meteor landed in the parking lot of the restaurant I’m at, but at the moment, I’m at the “keep going” part, for better or for worse.

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Whirlwind

Figured I’d put up a personal blog post, as I think one is due.

To say the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions amongst other things, would certainly be an understatement. While things could have been worse, it’s just been a whirlwind of stuff going on, starting with a trip, continuing with a funeral, and other “life” things.

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New Year – Same old $hit?

Figured I’d try to keep up with the blog posts – things are going OK here in 2023 (as good as they can anyway). I’ve gotten nothing but good news from follow up doc visits, so I can at least be thankful for that.

Towards the end of last year, I realize just how much different my take on the holidays are vs years ago. As an adult, the magic is just…gone. I just see it now as the busiest, craziest, most overloaded month of the year.

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Like MA BELL…I got the ill communication!

Bell System Logo

So I guess this will be my first test of my Junknet > Mastodon integration. Hopefully it works!

Life has certainly been interesting lately, at least in the social media realm. With Twitter potentially circling the drain, I have set up an account on Mastodon as a backup. While the performance is a little lacking yet, which I totally expect from the likely-unprecedented number of Twitter orphans looking for a new home, I’m really impressed with it so far.

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Health Update

Just wanted to put up a quick post; after seeing a couple docs for follow-ups so far, while I have to have more tests done yet, things seem to be OK and no cause for concern. Whew!

Since my last update I’ve improved a ton, to the point that I’m more or less back to normal, save for the bruising and weird leg yet.