Category: whatever

Time just seems to be just flying by. Soon I will have eclipsed 62 years on this planet. Of late I have focused on the end of my second act and the start of my third act. Wondering what come’s next? Wondering when I start that next act of my life. I believe that I have much left to explore, to accomplish, to act upon and comment on.

I find myself up early on a cold Sunday morning in January, trying to decide what to do today as I finish off that second cup of coffee. A month has flown by already, and this represents my first post for the new year. The getting up early is normal, regardless of the day of the week. The list of things that I should do is rather long. The list of things that I must do, not so much. Outside it is just 14 degrees, as the sun begins to shine over the mountains. The ground is covered with upwards of four inches on the ground as it has snowed several times this week.

The thought of snow has been on my mind of late. For me, it identifies the season. It cleanses the air, the ground, the surroundings in some unique way. Others might suggest that it tells us about climate change (or not), global warming (or not), or it’s the end of the world as we know it (or not). I’m not planning on writing about that topic today. Save it for some future post. As I get older, the presence of snow keeps me from going out and doing things. It’s just too cold and as I get older, I mind the cold more and more. Clearly, I have a risk aversion to the cold weather. So does Jewel, who goes outside more than I. When there is snow, she does not travel as far in order to do her business. I have a shovel on the deck to clean up after her.

Snow on the ground is an indicator of how risk averse society has become. Many, many years ago, like when I was growing up, delays and cancellations for school or work, were very infrequent. One had to experience several feet before such actions were taken. Now an inch falls and there is a two-hour (or more) delay. Work is suspended for the day, but if you can work from home, please do so. It is hard to manufacture things from your kitchen table if you work requires specialized equipment. Oh, that’s right, as this is America, and we don’t manufacture things anymore.

I think delays are a response to how litigious our society has become. Work was suspended for the day. There was very little snow outside. I went out and drove around the neighborhood. Roads were snow packed and icy. Others were also out and about. A local restaurant was open and staffed for breakfast. I stopped and got something to eat. Small businesses here suffer the most when things like this happen. And with many small businesses going under after COVID, or unable to find enough people, or pay a decent wage because of runaway inflation, I was glad to stop in.

What about those people who are out there to plow the roads? What about those who have to travel long distances, to show up to work, or to school, in order to plow the parking lots, drive the buses, clear the walkways?

I see this aversion to risk everywhere, particularly at work. The fear of making a mistake, the fear of something not going correctly. It’s the fear of well, fear. It adds time and money to accomplishing even the simplest of tasks. We have procedures for everything. And if it is a task previously performed, albeit not very often, we cannot just resurrect the original procedure, we must start with a clean sheet of paper. We no longer value the skill of craft. We no longer value experience. Here’s to the two months of planning for the two-hour job!

All of this pre-planning, followed by planning, followed by replanning, on and on. Less gets accomplished and the cost of doing anything only increases. Obviously having more people review and comment makes the final product better. No, it does not. It only adds to the time to build the product. Yes, the consequences of poor planning can be extensive. But my god man, it isn’t rocket science.

So, as I close, welcome to TheMcKeeSpot for 2023. Hopefully I will write more frequently and hopefully more and more of you will check it out. Stay warm. Stay safe. And hug your kids.

Sitting here this Friday morning having a cup of tea, not coffee, I cannot believe that the year will soon be over. In my opinion, this year, 2022, has been very much a downer. Nonetheless, the year has flown by quickly. In my mind, the past 360-plus days is largely a blur. Some good times, some not-so-good times. The not-so-good times outnumber the good. Looking back upon my limited postings that I have put up over the course of the year, I come to the realization that I am glad that it will soon be over.

I would characterize this year as one in which a few good things happened, woven into the thread of bad times. The loss of friends, the loss of coworkers, the belief that tomorrow will be better than yesterday, uncertainty as to the path that I am to follow. Much of it not part of my plan, nor embellished in my posts. At least I am still standing.

Christmas has come and gone. The tree was put up, the stockings were hung over the fireplace. Presents exchanged. Presents unwrapped. Outside the weather was dreary. Cold days and nights, some rain, very windy, and a little snow. I was able to spend some time with the kids. Several hours between exchanging gifts, cooking a meal and eating it. Prime rib, beets and mashed potatoes. Alas, another holiday meal this year where I did not drink wine.

Another year in the bank in terms of work. I have eclipsed my 32nd year at Los Alamos. I have been calling this period as the second act in my life, unsure of what comes next or which direction to take. For a while, I have been thinking that it has been time to lower the curtain on this act, to move on, retire and decide “what’s next?”.

I had dinner last night with a coworker who reminded me that I have been saying that I will retire as long as she has known me. It has been and endless set of three bad days and then I am out. While this is true, I guess that I don’t move forward because I am torn between the idea that there is more to accomplish versus, I don’t know what is next. What is in this second act that remains unwritten?

Professionally, I have come to the conclusion that 2022 has been the least productive of my career. Goals not achieved. Work not completed. Old problems continue to linger. New problems all the time that lack solutions yet need to be addressed.

Personally, I have not seen much growth in myself. Change is hard. I can hope that 2023 will be better. I can try harder, but I am not optimistic. So Happy Holidays to one and all. A New Year will soon be among us.

Today should be a day to reflect. From the National Archives, here is something of historical importance to reflect upon. I was reading that we have too much Thomas Jefferson in our lives. I’ve concluded that we don’t have enough.

In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.