The Raven's Roost

Ordinarily right now you'd see just Jupiter in this view, but the smaller, bright objects are all pieces of debris. I kind of wish we had better cameras, because I saw this on one of the news channel's sky cams in color, and the sunlight made rainbows in that trail. It was amazing.

Space stuff! One of the perks of living in Florida. Almost makes the daily 178% humidity out there worth it.

- The Library Book - I finished up this volume by Susan Orlean recently. I enjoyed it, but I realize it's not the kind of writing everyone is going to like. Orlean begins with the Los Angeles Central Library fire that destroyed much of the collection and part of the building in April 1986. The fire occurred the same day that news was beginning to trickle out of the Soviet Union and neighboring countries about a nuclear incident at Chernobyl, and that story almost entirely eclipsed the library fire outside of L.A.
The book swings back and forth between the fire and its aftermath, the history of the Los Angeles Library, about libraries in general, biography, and some autobiography. I felt that using the fire as a cord to hang all the other stories from worked quite well. But some readers might find it disjointed, or that Orlean puts herself too much in the story. I gave it five stars on Goodreads, and it's a good semi-light read. It was hard, as an avid reader, book lover, and former library worker, to read about the fire and destruction and all the materials that were lost. But the tone of the book overall was a positive, hopeful one. And without going too much into current politics, it reminds you that despite having Google, we need libraries now more than ever.

- I filled up another journal and started a fresh one. When I went to shelve the finished one I realized I've filled six journals so far.


I've managed to pick up a lot of beneficial habits over the past few years and keeping a written, private journal is definitely one of the better ones. I think I might have talked about it before, but my journals are more like commonplace books in that they aren't strictly about my day and my personal thoughts, but have quotes, passages from books I'm reading, occasionally pictures or maps, and some of my fictional work.

So actually, even though I'll keep writing it out longhand, I'm considering starting a "world building" tag here. I'm not going to make it a friend-restricted thing or make people do anything extra if they want to see it, but I'll have the entries tagged so you can search for/skip them depending on interest levels.

- In my Anxiety Closet this month, doctor visits! I made a checkup appointment for next week and I'm waffling about asking to get my bloodwork done early so the doctor can discuss it with me at the appointment. My liver enzyme levels have been high the last couple of years, but each year is lower than the previous one, but he still keeps bugging me for a liver ultrasound, which I obviously have not done. I'm also anxious about my blood glucose and A1C because ... because me.
See, last year Fox had the idea that if we did blood sugar testing it might help with eating and fueling for long runs. I thought that was an excellent idea. Until I started testing my sugars and routinely getting high readings, no matter when, no matter what, all the time. Like 120s and 130s when I get up in the morning.
Fox says that my response to food isn't remotely like an actual diabetic's in that I don't experience the spikes and crashes, I can eat high-sugar foods without feeling exceptionally good or bad, and I don't have the awful dietary habits that most prediabetics or type-2 diabetics have. That doesn't stop me from worrying about it though. I mean, it's entirely possible the meter is calibrated wrong but the sheer amount of constant, high-level anxiety it was provoking made me stop doing the readings. I'd cut out all the carbs and sugars I could and still get stupid-high readings, so I was convinced I was going to die at any moment. So that anxiety is back now, whee fun.

Because, anxiety.

- I hope this embeds properly.