I learned that Alby wont let you log into SN if your associated lndhub instance isn't running, and you cant get lndhub to restart without lnd synced to chain. So after I started trying to get things fixed, lnauth was unavailable and I couldn't post to SN my progress without going to a browser that was already logged in. This seems like an unnecessary dependency in @alby since it already has sufficient information to sign the lnauth challenge.

A node operator should always keep his eyes open over his own node. Otherwise is for nothing.