Christmas – TheMcKeeSpot.

Happy Holidays everyone. I trust you all had a warm and Merry Christmas. And now your thoughts turn ahead to the new year. I certainly hope for COVID to be gone in the new year. I found myself up at my usual time today and practiced my same routine: shower, get dressed, make coffee, and take the dog for a walk.

Outside it is cold and windy. There is some snow on the mountains above Los Alamos and Santa Fe. And there is snow in the forecast for today. As I sit writing this post, I noticed that the sun is shining outside.

For me it was a very uneventful Christmas. I believe that this was the first time that I had the kids stay over on Christmas eve. It has been a short 9 years (give or take) since the divorce. My first Christmas in awhile that I did not awake alone in this quiet house.

And so we awoke Christmas day to open presents and then feed the horses. As I have in past years, son and I put the tree up about 14 days before Christmas. For the past 5 years we have always put the tree in the same place. Unfortunately, this causes us to displace the dogs bed, which causes confusion with Jewel. She thinks that she is somehow in trouble and it clearly upsets her visibly.

The tree…and the stockings. Christmas 2021.

I certainly go for the minimalist look at Christmas time in terms of lights and decorations. Especially outside where this year I think that it was bells, a wreath, some canes with lights and an inflatable Grinch (my personal favorite). Of course, nothing brings yuletide greetings better than a visit to the local Starbucks for some coffee…

Christmas is always another time for me to practice Chemistry. This year was Herb-Garlic crusted prime rib, a roasted Honey-root vegetable medley, baked potatoes, fruit cocktail and ice cream. The kids enjoyed the food, as did I, in terms of the preparing as well as the consuming.

On Christmas day, we awoke to a cold and windy day, with some kids sleeping in until 7 am. Presents were opened, and I find it interesting to note that the kids actually had a theme for this year in terms of the gifts that they got me…

They try to get me to tell them which one is my favorite!

Hopefully it will be a quiet week. Had thought long and hard about going somewhere but looking at the inability to get travel arrangements on airplanes and the spike in COVID made that an easy decision.

Thinking that maybe I’ll spend the week cleaning up around the house, and do some reading. Not feeling too inspired or wanting to get out.

Looked at the postings over the year. Yes my son has changed clothes and although he is wearing the same shirt at Christmas Ever dinner as he did at Thanksgiving dinner, I can say he was delighted that school was out for a couple of weeks. Daughter is finally able to ride Roman and they both are starting a conditioning regime. So that has her smiling of late.

As for me…another year is winding down. I am still reading Atlas Shrugged, but I might work on that this week. I survived another year at work, but I am pretty sure that this will be my last. Managed to purchase some additional Made in the USA blue jeans, and now I am looking to get some shoes and dress shirts.

Oh how I wish that I posted more this year. Alas, I did not. Clear that as I ponder the postings, I see that my life revolves around work, horses, kids and the dog. I certainly think about a great many thing, but few of those thoughts actually get posted here. Most of my political rants get posted on Facebook, often after reading about things on a variety of web sites.

It’s Monday and so I’ll spend some time looking for investment ideas for the new year. Themes to put my savings so that they may grow at a rate greater than the inflation that the year had brought upon us. It is now over $50 to fill the gas tank, which is up 20% since this time last year.

Until next time…

A little snow fell this morning. Nothing too significant other than covering the roads, trees, the car, sidewalks. It is cold and wet outside.

Happy Monday! It is that final week of 2020. The period between Christmas and New Years. As has been this period over the past 50-plus years (work, graduate school, college, etc), I have the week off. The lab is closed and I am home adjusting to a week without work, or not working from home this week. Unfortunately, travel is limited due to the pandemic. In general it is a weird week on the calendar, which has been discussed and commented on before. In searching the internet, I think this image best sums it up in my humble opinion…

From https://www.buzzfeed.com/terripous/tweets-about-the-weird-week-in-between-christma who borrowed it from TechnicallyRon.

Let’s face facts, the year 2020 just sucked. Here is hoping that 2021 is better. Plenty of memes out there talking about how bad this year was. Of course, many are spun off into signs, pictures, even t-shirts that you can purchase. Guess capitalism is alive and well. As long as you can make it, market it and such, someone may want to buy it.

Since my last post, I had identified many topics to write about. Not sure if we will cover all of them, but we do have several days until 2021. We can lament about the year later. We can critique my ramblings for the year much later.

Let’s start with McDonald’s, who brought back the McRib sandwich to help us through the end of this year. Why is the McRib so craveable? Start with seasoned boneless pork dipped in a tangy BBQ sauce, topped with slivered onions and dill pickles, all served on a toasted homestyle bun. When everything combines you have BBQ pork sandwich perfection. It’s only here for a limited time so don’t miss out. The previous words are straight from the McDonald’s website. I like how the adjectives just jump off the page. I can truly taste how delicious it is as I write about it here.

From the McDonald’s website announcing the return of the McRib for a limited time only.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the McRib sandwich. When it is out, I usually defer my Big Mac order, or my Quarter Pounder Deluxe order so I can have the McRib. Not my kids though, they have the usual, a Triple Cheeseburger with only ketchup. Do I see a trip for lunch in order?

Ah yes, which brings me to the kids and Christmas. Put the tree up a few weeks ago, stockings hung above the fireplace. A wreath on the door. I had great plans since I was to have them Christmas Eve, stay the night and here Christmas day. And in typical fashion, the best laid plans get ruined by the ex. The kids and I managed a couple hours on Christmas Eve. Had to rush the dinner and such. Take them back and then a few hours on Christmas Day. Still, it was good to have them, even if it was not what I had planned, or even less than what is required. They say that divorce is hard on the kids, yet I think it is harder on me. This too shall pass. I jump to my happy place and all is well.

Anyway, the kids came, we opened gifts, then we enjoyed our time together, playing with or working on the gifts received. Calling or texting with relatives and such. Truth be told I was never that much excited about Christmas since the late 70’s and my excitement wanes every year. Every year I think that I am becoming more like Mr Scrooge, or the Grinch. My preference is the Grinch because he at least has his dog Max to keep him company. It’s this time of year that I break out my Grinch coffee mug at work, giving the Dilbert mug a break. Clearly I am a curmudgeon as time passes on. Bah Humbug! That said, I have much to be thankful for this year. I probably have much to be thankful for every year. And I am thankful for my health and my children. That said, the kids and I did spend some time talking about those less fortunate and in need of help this time of year.

The week before Christmas was an anniversary of sorts for me. I have worked at Los Alamos for now 30 years. No fanfare, no parades, nothing of congrats from my bosses. I did get a few e-mails from former employees whom I had the opportunity to manage over the years. That was personally rewarding and brought a smile. I do not know why I expected more. I did, and was disappointed when there was nothing. Certainly gives me something to write about when I respond to my performance appraisal, as well as my performance goals for the next year.

I guess the big questions for me is whether I will have “a next year”. After all, after 30 years, I am 59 and a half (slightly more), and wonder about retirement. I wonder about it just about every day. This blog was my attempt to explore what the next 50 years has in store for me. I honestly do not know about tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, the next several decades. Some coworkers say I cannot retire because I have kids who have several years of high school before they venture off to college. I expect the economy to crater soon and thus that will cause problems with savings for retirement. Too many bills to pay, too much to do. Have you even decided what you will do in retirement?

In the last post I commented that I took the car in for repairs. Well the car is fixed and now, it will not start. Thought it was a dead battery so I replaced the batter. Now it still will not star. Probably the starter motor so I have some more car repairs in the future. The car is about 18 years old and has over 189,000 miles. Yet when it runs, I still get the same gas mileage. Over the 18 years, I have put about $10,000 in repairs into it. The kids and I have many fond memories in that car so I cannot see replacing it anytime soon.

Looking outside, I can still see some snow flakes falling onto the ground. Nothing too dramatic except the forecast was for snow tomorrow. High today is in the upper 40’s, but wind will put the wind chill into the upper 30’s. But as I write this post, and words jump off this page and cause me to search the internet, I come across a meme that can sum up today’s post:

Have a good week.