I have so many stark lasting memories of my dad, good and bad it’s hard to pick the one with the greatest impact.

Maybe the time I watched him have an allergic reaction to an ssri that ended in 6 cops beating him unconscious and dragging him to jail.

Maybe the time he unprompted pulled $800 out of his wallet and handed it to the lady at the laundry mat who was stressed about paying her rent that month.

Maybe the time my friends and I showed up at 2am with bath salts and he did a little toot with us.

Maybe the time he sat with me in the kitchen until the wee hours of the night playing chess while I cried about being broken up with for the first time.

Feels silly but I’m jazzed about my pen hitting the end of its ink life this week.

Also I can write my name super small.

I mean, this isn’t helped by the odd proprietary bolt patterns and specialty OBD communications required by some brands.

My wifes car has a bad pcv system, turns out it’s built into the valve cover and intake manifold so instead of unbolting a part and putting the new one on I have to take apart a heafty amount of the engine to fix what should be a basic repair.

I drive a golf and can’t even change my battery without updating my ecu to readapt to the new battery. If I don’t it starts frying sensors and the alternator because of voltage irregularities. Have to have the $80 dongle with the yearly subscription to access the necessary code input.

Car companies over the past decade have built cars that are harder and harder to maintain yourself. I don’t blame people for not knowing how to do some of the basic stuff when that basic stuff has become more complex, expensive, and unreasonably difficult for the layman to parse.

A pillow and a sweater that gets taken on and off unsure if you really need it

I see an Altima, I give them their space. Not trying to have my car missing a bumper too.

Total eclipse of the sun

I’ve seen a number of partials and lunar eclipses through my life but I drove out to see totality last year.

It was the textbook definition of awesome, it took my breath away in a way I still struggle to describe beyond the words doom and divinity. Took me months to shake it.

15/10 will absolutely travel for the next one if I’m not dead by then.