...and this is Friday

Up for no good reason at 0600; couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and did the breakfast thing. Blood sugar was very good, down to 144. You'd think I'd had a full night's sleep or something. Also, the legs are continuing to heal up nicely. At this rate I may be able to hit the pool soon, which would be a Good Thing.

I guess today I'll go out and get the paperwork started to transfer my medical records from Kaiser to the VA. It's pretty annoying. If I want a copy, it's about $25 for the first 50 pages and $0.25/page after that, and of course it's not available in electronic format, even though that's they way they store it. Bastards. On the other hand, if my doctor asks for it, it doesn't cost anything. This is the sort of horseshit that makes people wonder how things could possibly be worse if the Feds were running the system.

Also on the agenda today is refueling the Sportage, filing my unemployment forms for this week, checking in with my agencies, and staying dry, which is going to be an achievement since it was raining when I woke up and is expected to keep raining all day. No idea yet what I'm doing this weekend; hopefully getting the Failbox whipped into shape will be part of the goings-on.

...and this is Friday

Up for no good reason at 0600; couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and did the breakfast thing. Blood sugar was very good, down to 144. You'd think I'd had a full night's sleep or something. Also, the legs are continuing to heal up nicely. At this rate I may be able to hit the pool soon, which would be a Good Thing.

I guess today I'll go out and get the paperwork started to transfer my medical records from Kaiser to the VA. It's pretty annoying. If I want a copy, it's about $25 for the first 50 pages and $0.25/page after that, and of course it's not available in electronic format, even though that's they way they store it. Bastards. On the other hand, if my doctor asks for it, it doesn't cost anything. This is the sort of horseshit that makes people wonder how things could possibly be worse if the Feds were running the system.

Also on the agenda today is refueling the Sportage, filing my unemployment forms for this week, checking in with my agencies, and staying dry, which is going to be an achievement since it was raining when I woke up and is expected to keep raining all day. No idea yet what I'm doing this weekend; hopefully getting the Failbox whipped into shape will be part of the goings-on.

In memory of the greatest Civil War historian

John Miller of National Review pens a gorgeous little essay on the life of Bruce Catton. Catton, obviously, is one of my favorite historians, and I think is responsible not only for the shift in military history from generals and admirals to privates and seamen, but also for the spread of "popular" military history - the stuff written not as a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, but to inform and amuse the public. Catton and others like him (for example, Samuel Eliot Morison and S.L.A. Marshall) are the reason that military history is thriving even though academia has turned up its nose at the subject. People want heroes.

In memory of the greatest Civil War historian

John Miller of National Review pens a gorgeous little essay on the life of Bruce Catton. Catton, obviously, is one of my favorite historians, and I think is responsible not only for the shift in military history from generals and admirals to privates and seamen, but also for the spread of "popular" military history - the stuff written not as a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, but to inform and amuse the public. Catton and others like him (for example, Samuel Eliot Morison and S.L.A. Marshall) are the reason that military history is thriving even though academia has turned up its nose at the subject. People want heroes.