I started to write about today and was beginning to type “Today is Sunday August 8, 2021”. Then it hit me. That is really kinda dull. Although a somewhat nerd-like title, do people actually care about what I did for the week? Probably not. Even more important, would one even get that from the title “Today is Sunday…” Kinda how the evening news either started or ended some 50 years ago. Of course, that title doesn’t really say anything other than it is Sunday August 8. It is a dull introduction. Really doesn’t excite the reader that “hey, maybe there is something interesting hear, something that I can spend a few minutes of my busy life to read, to laugh, to learn”.
After all, I am a rather boring human being. I admit that, otherwise I am not being open and honest. If this blog is to truly express… “The purpose of this blog is for me to explore things that interest me as I plan for my next 50-plus years on this planet. Starting out, I am writing about my family and activities, but as time progresses, it will be about anything. Stay tuned, check in often and enjoy the ride.”, then I am pretty sure that the next 50 years may be as boring as the first 50 years. At least on paper.
And so I leave the title with my secondary thought, which is “we need to come up with a different title format…”, not telling the audience, or for that matter, myself, what am I going to write about today?
Perhaps the unknown will carry the reader forward to at least review today’s ramblings. Clearly I may have found some new sense of posting on TheMcKeeSpot, especially since my record of late in terms of posts has been just awful. Well lets start with the usual and see where it goes. Maybe I can get into a rhythm and write more frequently. I found it interesting that last weeks post had over 30 hits in terms of people stopping to check out what I had to write about. Maybe we can keep the momentum and increase the visits.
This week was uneventful, like most weeks. Didn’t find my soulmate, the winning formula for happiness, or a bank error in my favor and millions in cash. I didn’t retire, yet, to start the next 30 years of my life, or is it 50?
Today started like just about most days. Up early, but I feel somewhat rested as I think that I may have gotten over five hours sleep. Rare for me of late, but I have been tired and afraid that being well off my sleep and not eating well, I will find myself run down and then sick. In the past, this was the cycle of sorts. Long work hours, get run down, then be out for several days. Sick, sick, sick. Recover, and then resume the cycle anew. Not a positive quality of life experience. However, as I have gotten older, certainly past age 50, the cycle has subsided. Still get the atypical 4 hours (on average) sleep, but the cycles of dog-tired sick happen less and less.
And now, welcome to the age of COVID. When I go out and about around town, I find myself wearing my mask indoors. But on the sidewalk, walking across the grass near Ashley Pond, no mask. In stores, I wear my mask. In groups, sometimes, whether it is indoors and outdoors. Are my civil liberties being violated? To quote others, it is simply “my body, my choice”. It’s that simple.
This weekend I find myself feeding the horses as the kids are on a mini-vacation with their mom. School starts next week. As you can probably expect, they are not excited. In the age of COVID, the new normal is not the same as the old normal. Not for the better, maybe for the worst.
AT THIS POINT, I LOOK AT THE CLOCK AND REALIZE I HAD BETTER STOP IF I AM GOING TO KEEP MY MORNING COFFEE CABAL WITH A FRIEND. CERTAINLY MORE TO FOLLOW…
On my stroll for coffee, I spy two local celebrities.
A typical Los Alamos Sunday at the pond. An older couple eating a McDonald’s breakfast on a nearby picnic table, a young family chasing their kids, a dog taking his owner out for a morning stroll. Of course, I know none of them but we all are obliged to say hello.
I have since returned…A supercharged conversation with a caffeine high on sunny, somewhat warm but pleasant day. Yep, by then I was into my second cup of coffee, having already had one earlier in the morning from feeding the horses. Wow, away for over two hours discussing the end of the world as we know it and the decline of the American civilization. How work was last week? The usual mayhem from the management ranks, retirement, the stock market, the future.
Of course, any conversation this week in Los Alamos would have to also acknowledge the 76th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb. My friend and coworker asked me if I managed to observe the dozen or so individuals protesting at Ashley Pond yesterday. Holding their signs, acknowledging that the bomb is illegal and immoral. My response is that “so long as the world remains an evil place, I can go to sleep at night knowing that we can also turn the world into an uninhabitable place in a few hours.” Just as global warming is destroying to ecosystem because of the log-term actions of man (maybe), so too can man decide to end it at the push of a few buttons.
How is that for a positive, a healthy view of the future? Neither positive, healthy or an exciting view. But then perhaps my negativity is a characteristic of what I have been reading for the week. Soon, people in California will not be able to get bacon because of a statewide vote a few years ago on a particular proposition related to the inhuman way hogs are raised. Then it is on to the ongoing debate as to whether the 2020 election was fair, free, correct. Of late I find myself reading about the preppers. Those are the people who are preparing for the end of the world, the next American Civil War, the zombie apocalypse. The Luddite in mean enjoys reading about how to prepare for tomorrow.
And then my mind really starts racing. What if COVID is god’s answer to overpopulation? What is wrong with America? I no longer understand this country, or is it I no longer fit in this country? Has it changed for the better, or for the worst, or I just didn’t see it as it passed me by? Did I care? Should I care?
Yes I care because I have two kids who will be returning to school this week. One in high school, the other in middle school. Sadly, it is clear to me that my generation will not be leaving a country and a planet, that is in better shape than the previous generation. We can change that but it will require much cooperation across the planet. As my friend commented on earlier this morning, we humans are like the COVID virus. We mutate to prolong ourselves, but we leave the host, whether it is the virus attacking the body, or humans on our planet, we leave the host in a condition that is worse than it was in when we started.
Today we are under a polluted air advisory for the area. It is the smoke from the western fires, but you cannot smell the smoke. But the haze is consistent with air circulating from fires. As the photo above shows, it is very hazy. If in doubt, look at the photo below. One cannot see the horizon, let alone the mountains across the valley. looks worse than those years when the fires were actually burning closer to home.
And so I leave today’s ramblings much like I started. Unsure of a title, unsure of tomorrow, unsure of what is next. Until next time…
TheMcKeeSpot. 