Crashes

 That was an impressive storm last night; I woke up at midnight to hearing the wind -- it was a sustained gust, very hard, and I was like "gee, this isn't good," so I got up and put the TV on.  It appeared I had missed the big stuff as the tornado warnings had passed, but I stayed up to watch the storm and honestly, around here it didn't feel like it had passed; we had high winds and heavy rain until 12:25 or so, at which point I went to bed, but not sleep, as I tossed and turned for a bit.  To be sure, I slept through the alarm this morning but was up at 7... so I skipped the AM gym (and chance at a double) to get to work.  Very depressing, honestly.

I finished a book a few days ago:  Rampage:  MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle for Manila.  It was quite good -- MacArthur could be quite a moron at times -- but one thing that struck me was... in addition to being very depressing to read about the Japanese war crimes, we have to consider this when looking at the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.  Namely... if they were willing to fight like that for Manila, how on Earth would they have fought if we landed on Japan?  Certainly GIs, the generals, and Truman weighed this when they made the decision; I think we avoid these facts at our peril when we cast aspersions on the decision now.   Currently I am reading a book about the dispersion of Austria-Hungary in WWI; the author is looking at it politically -- not that the war is absent, but he looks at it as how each minority in the empire went from loyalty to ethnic separation.  It is good but slow going; I remember one of my college professors telling me you always need a current map of Europe and one from 1913 when reading about the Hapsburg Empire, and... he was indeed correct.

Back to today, I took a lengthy lunch break to stop at Holy Name school to get their school supply order, and... usually the principal there was... adversarial, to say the least.  This time... complete 180.  Polite, helpful, someone you WANT to help.  Then I crossed the parking lot to help with the pickups (it does go faster when I am there, as three work better than 2) and BS with the volunteers about OC issues (always useful in many ways).  After that, I got out my Quikrete and filled the last (I hope) hole in the floor; it was a dark and dusty corner, so I can see why it was not filled (we have racks there now) but once I had the stuff and shoveled/threw it on... well, as always, I was like "Why wasn't this done before?"  

Anyways, all of these labors really hit me this afternoon; that and the lack of sleep, as I just crashed -- and hard -- this afternoon; I even laid on the bed for a bit and demi-napped.  I guess I am sorely deficient in sleep, but... it was quite disheartening that I cannot remain awake.  I guess tomorrow I will hit the gym harder to invigorate my metabolism.

The Rejected Bet That Launched a Gambling Scandal in College Sports - WSJ
These things always fascinate me, mainly in the "how can you be so dumb" way?

Biden’s Twisted Idea of Empathy | National Review
I think it is obviously three, but you would think the press, or, better yet, any Republican would point this out and hammer him about it... I think a non-Trump candidate would do so in this debate, but.... one should never assume the obvious with our GOP, should we?