– The Fall semester is off and running! I’m halfway through Week 2, taking only 2 classes: Telecommunications II and Advanced Database Administration I. It’s been a mixed bag, so far. Tuition is coming out-of-pocket, due to me having a bad last semester and being maxed out on Financial Aid (I have to appeal every semester for Aid). However, I got all of Week 1’s work finished and turned in, with time to spare; that hasn’t happened in a while! Week 2 saw a doubling of content and homework but I’m keeping up. Let’s see how September goes and where I stand at that time!
– Speaking of school, the University of Illinois has a program called “Illinois Commitment”: if you live in Illinois and your household is under $61,000 a year, you can attend college for free. HERE is a link to more info about the program.
– College football season started on Saturday! It wasn’t a great start for my current school’s team (Western Kentucky – blown out by Wisconsin, 34-3) or my 2 favorite teams (Purdue University lost, 31-27, in a boneheaded penalty late in the game; the University of Louisville was blown out on national T.V. by defending Champions, Alabama, 51-14), but they all should rebound this weekend. I’m hoping to get a ticket to a game or two this season, especially on September 15th, when Louisville plays Western Kentucky.
– The North American Drum & Bugle Corps seasons have ended for the 2 major circuits, DCI (Drum Corps International) and DCA (Drum Corps Associates). On the all-age DCA circuit, the Cincinnati Tradition jumped up to the larger Open Class, from Class A, made the finals of the World Championships, and finished 8th. The Atlanta CV finished 3rd, while the Minnesota Brass, based out of St. Paul, Minnesota, did not field a corps this year (they are in the process of deciding their future). I mention these 3 corps because I’ve decided that I, depending on getting cleared by my Cardiologist in November, will try out for one of those groups in January 2019. Cincinnati is in the lead (it is less than a 2 hour bus ride from home and their rehearsal schedule has very few conflicts with work); Atlanta has been a Corps on the radar; and Minnesota depends on what their Board of Directors, their performing members, and their Staff decide about the 2019 season. Plans for a possible Atlanta or Minneapolis tryout will come into better focus, once my last tuition payment is made at the end of September; Cincinnati’s plans are much easier to make and edit, due to their proximity to home. More on all 3 in a later post!
– Tributes, 2 national and one local, were held the last few days. U.S. Senator John McCain, legendary singer Aretha Franklin, and Churchill Downs Vice-President of Communications John Asher all were laid to rest, after touching tributes for all 3 (Asher’s funeral is scheduled for 2 PM today).
– That new Eminem album is pretty sweet!
– A friend of mine is walking/running a 5K in November, called the “Louisville Beer Run & Festival”, and invited others to join her. I may take her up on it! I’ll probably walk 95-99% of it, but it’ll be a nice fitness test. Plus it will be nice to see Rachael again – we had some really fun times while in UofL Bands together!
– I’ll save the thoughts about Manafort, Cohen, and the rest of the goings-on in the Trump Administration for ….
… sorry about that – I’ll save them for a future “Short Circuits” post. 😉
– We recorded Episode #100 of “Podicus Wrecks”! We discussed and recapped the famous Batman story, “Knightfall”. Enjoy! LINK
– Our “Game Night” crew have played quite a few new (to me) games, over the last 3 months. I’ll have reviews of some of them posted in the next few days.
– I did not know know that “incel” was a movement until yesterday morning. Yay?
– Health has been good. The heart beat is back to normal levels and ‘normal’ sounds. My INR was low (2.2) a couple of weeks ago, but I have a follow-up test on Thursday to see if a new weekly dosage of Warfarin boosted the INR back in an acceptable range (2.5-3.5). In weight, I haven’t dropped under 225 pounds, since early July, but I haven’t gone above 231 pounds – I’m still shooting for 215 lbs. by October. It’s still a challenge to eat healthy (to control/lose weight), while making sure that the food doesn’t negatively interact with Warfarin (Vitamin K and Vitamin E are the main culprits).
The Nexus 