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A Return from the Unknown

When I logged in this morning, I was shocked to see that my last post was on October 15, 2023. There I said that there has been change in my life. But as I start typing this post, it has been about eight months since I last updated the world on my comings and goings.

It was the Rush drummer Neil Peart who said that “the more things change, the more they remain the same”. However, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The More Things Change may refer to:

The internet cannot even provide a clear answer as I was able to find many articles on the phrase, whether it is in English, or in French. I still attribute my introduction to the phrase from the song “Circumstances” by Rush, since they sang the words in both English and French.

Today is early May. I have been up for awhile and went to the stables early to get ready for the return of Roman. After a semester at college with my daughter, he , and she, is coming home for the summer. I think the horse has been goof for my daughter to help her navigate the emotional ups and downs of college but we will see how she handled the coursework.

Son has about another month of high school. This year has been better with less absences, less bullying, but also less focus on the work. I am concerned as to what summer will bring for him. We shall see, but I hope that we can spend more time outdoors than in years past.

As for I, I continue to work but contemplate retirement multiple times a day. After all, it has been over 33 years, and I recently celebrated the 34th anniversary of turning 29 years old. That which was great about working at Los Alamos is no more. And it has been broken for a number of years. It has, in my opinion, become poorly managed in so many ways. It is not sustainable.

As summer comes, I see two planned outings in which I will cross paths with Pearl Jam. Vacation travel is planned as part of these outings and perhaps represent a view of my post retirement gig. Aside from some weekend hiking and car camping, working to rebuild the stables will be much of my effort.

Perhaps a few other trips are in the offing, as I see how the year will round itself out. And I see that we have an election in the fall. Our nation cannot stand another 4 weeks, let alone, another four years of Joe Biden. He and the rest of the democrats in government should be impeached, imprisoned and tried for treason against the constitution. The left are destroying our nation that so many have fought and died for, and that others continue to see as a better place.

However, I am not sure who I can vote for as the other side of the equation is not much better. And the other parties offer more of the old. Lock and load as the nation is falling apart. Looks like we will have another summer of lawlessness and protests that lack a proper moral direction.

Until next time, and lets hope that it isn’t as long as this time.

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Family Uncategorized

Change

Yes, it has been several months since my last post. I admit that I am lazy. It isn’t the thought that I don’t have ideas to expound upon, or that I don’t have time. I am lazy, or at least that is what I said in a recent survey as I logged into to write this post.

Much of my life has changed since that last post. I still work but think more and more about retirement. Since that last post, I have taken two weeklong vacations, in what has been about three months. Oddly enough, both were trips back east. No procrastination there. Planned weeks, even months in advance, budgeted and paid for.

Daughter has been off to college now for a little over two months. That was some time away from work. Of course, we had to make some fun time for son so that he wasn’t left out of this life changing event for all of us. To accommodate this change, I assumed the morning duties for feeding the horses (soon to be only the horse, but more about that change in a moment). This didn’t cause a significant change in my schedule, as I was always awake early. Just less time to procrastinate getting ready for work.

Of course, son is now 16 and the fact that his older sister is not around, introduces change in his life and how he handles school, work around the house, etc.

My first trip was planned for late August through early September as a return trip to New Jersey. The purpose was to catch Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing at the Meadowlands. And while I was there, connected with my friend from college and visited places that I checked out when I was there two years ago for Pearl Jam and the Sea Hear Now concert festival.

So here it is. I offer you Change, in pictures…

I originally planned to see the September 3 show, but, as fate had it, and luck on the part of my friend, managed to see the September 1 show as well. Some overlap in the song selection, but well worth the added expense of the extra ticket.

All I can say is that when I am 73, which is over a decade away, I hope that I look that great and can move that well. Outstanding performance. Played all of the old stuff, some newer things, and after 3 hours for each performance, I was happy to have been there.

And in typical nerd fashion, I also went to the beach, if only for a little while. No swimming, but sand and surf. No shorts. No tan. Just some quiet, barefoot in the sand and water. Water was warm but there were no lifeguards and so there was no swimming. Some people just relaxing in chairs.

The second trip, which just concluded a few days ago, was for Fall break. The local school has changed the calendar here and now has more breaks as they take longer to complete the school year. In this case, we took son to New York City for the week.

Ate too much food, visited the 9 11 Monument and Museum (right when they had their first pool jumper) and the MET, to name a few places (besides shopping). All illustrated in the photos below…..

Yes, I left New Mexico to see Native American Pottery in addition to the silver pottery from the middle 1700’s from America.

LEGO Steve from the New York City trip. One of the few souvenirs that I purchased. The other was a replica of the Wall Street Bull, and some books from a real bookstore.

Along the way, there were a few smaller trips. Took daughter to college, went to Amarillo (for work) but had a field trip to the Cadillac Ranch. All captured in pictures…

The picture above is the family, walking to our cars to say goodbye after we dropped daughter off at college. She is in Colorado so it’s only a seven-hour drive.

I painted the Zia on the car at the Cadillac Ranch. Found it interesting that there is so much paint on each car. Doubt that it is there should I return after a few months.

And finally, we said goodbye to Ruby, who left for a retirement ranch in southern Colorado, only 6 hours from here. I end this post with some photos of packing Ruby up for the trip.

And just like that…she was gone. Roman misses her very much and so we have had to spend some time consoling him. Our last report indicates that she has made friends and loves the open fields of the ranch.

Until next time.

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Uncategorized whatever

In the aftermath of COVID

I submit that we have returned to near normal after the past three years of COVID. That does not mean that it is gone. It is still out there, lurking in the shadows of everyday life as another virus that can interfere with us. I am hopeful that we have learned something as a society in the aftermath of COVID, but I am afraid not.

I was on travel the other week for work. Airplanes and airports are very busy. I am afraid that this is a simple fact that we have more people than our country can support, as much as it is of a return to near normal. Anyway, when I got to my work travel location, I was informed that a coworker had tested positive for COVID and was home. Of course, I, sitting in an office across the country, heard this and had to wonder if I too was going to test positive, get sick, or contribute to a new outbreak. As you see, as I was being told this, I wasn’t really feeling 100%. But I was on travel, and I always feel bad for a couple days after being locked up for hours in an airplane. It goes without saying but I always get ill after air travel. They claim that they have micropore filters and that they clean after every flight and that all is well. Doesn’t matter, I still get sick.

However, in my case, it turned out to not be COVID. The pollen count was up from the pine trees. Some loratadine and Flonase and I was back to my old self. And to be safe, a few COVID tests confirmed that I was not a walking typhoid Mary.

Conversely, my son missed most of February due to a sinus infection. It lingered for about four weeks after first not getting any antibiotics, to getting the wrong antibiotics, to just missing so much school and homework that he was suffering. Yet he didn’t have COVID either, although we had to test him multiple times for strep, RSV, COVID and the flu.

But it is still around. It will be with us forever they say. Biden still has all of the emergency aspects in place that were around with COVID. Pretty sure that he would try to spend billions more in COVID emergency aid if he could. The truth is now the subject of hearings, as to its origins. Perhaps they will have hearings as to how drugs were brought to market so fast, as the real complications of the vaccines emerge.

In my annual physical with my primary doctor, he had asked if I had all my COVID boosters. I said no. I had the original two shots, the 3rd shoot (the booster after the fact) but that I did not have the new COVID vaccine cocktail. I asked why since I managed to get COVID anyway. His response was that it probably wasn’t as severe, as I have a couple of health matters that would put me at higher risk, it would be advantageous. I argued natural immunity. In the end, we agreed to disagree. I keep looking for the data just to see how well things are since we have had inoculated millions, including myself. What health effects will we see down the road?

I’m guessing that the concept of masks will be with us forever. Every time I go to the hospital, I am required to wear a mask. The COVID aftermath created new litter that I see along the road, in the parking lots, all over. The mask! Whether it is cloth, KN95, something else, it now represents additional trash produced by our society and discarded without abandoned.

As we had mask, antibiotic, food and other shortages for basic good as they are no longer manufactured in this country, I would hope that we invest in returning the basic manufacturing needs for everyday life in this country. I’m not saying that we should make toasters, but there are things that we still experience shortages because of the supply chain.We go for the cheap but fail to understand the costs when we are without. They can be significant. Antibiotics is a key one. How many people would stay ill, or get worse, or die if we didn’t have access to antibiotics? I understand that we don’t make many of these drugs today here. We have drug shortages for many drugs important to our daily lives. The only drug that appears to be in unlimited supply and has Chinese origins is Fentanyl. We can thank Joe Biden for that!

As for now, both my son and I want to lose that extra weight that I attribute to COVID. The inability to go out and about, the daily sitting, has contributed to our individual BMI’s. As daughter got out every day to feed the horses, she didn’t suffer as much as we did.

However, the consequences of the COVID aftermath are all around us. Closed restaurants and other businesses that we enjoyed and shopped at; long lines in those places that remained open as there are fewer people to support the business. Lines are longer, waits are more. Shortages still exist as some of the isles in the grocery store remain baren. Small business is critical to towns and society. Sadly, our society continues to rot away. A frayed moral fabric continues to show our decline. Less civility has been replaced with more senility.

The tear of our social fabric is long and deep and will be with us longer than the mutations of COVID. I really do not care where it came from, although I believe more in the lab-leak theory. One of the lingering issues from the COVID years is that many conspiracy theories have turned out to be closer to the truth than the fake media wants you to believe! I do care as to whether it was natural or created by man and accidentally released. More to the point, what are we going to do to keep that from happening in the future.

The world is comprised of evil despots who want to destroy us. It would be nice if we could live together.

The whole inflation situation that we find ourselves in today, I am afraid, will be with us for a long while. I believe that the two separate issues of inflation and the COVID support are tied together. Free money allowed people the opportunity not to work. Yet, now that there is no more free money, where are all of the workers? They all did not retire. They all did not die or develop a health condition that keeps them from working. Did the free money allow people to unleash their rugged individualism? Allow them to develop self-sustaining farms? Unleash millions in investments so that work was no longer required? In all cases, the free ride that America has taken, since before COVID and continues to this day, is a bill that will soon be coming due. I am afraid that it will get worse before it gets better.

Sadly, our children suffered. They suffered way too much. Issues associated with their mental health are increasing. They lost critical educational years of school but will probably not be noticed given how bad the American educational system has become. Sadly, yet another indicator of our declining society. Yet another aspect of the simple truth that we are not leaving our country and our world, in a better place than what we inherited. I wonder, and I worry how bad things will become for my children.