Another New Year.

Well, we are now inhabiting 2017, a year that looks, from here, to be foreboding and menacing. We will soon have a president who doesn’t have the first clue how to run a country, and has ruined most of the stuff he has run. An incompetent buffoon, a would-be dictator, and a man who does not understand that commercial negotiation is not the only kind. His stench is going to pollute the entire world for a while. We soldier on as we must.

Assuming he doesn’t destroy my livelihood (a distinct possibility), I will be laboring again at MECMC, and trying to build something worth preserving. I might. I might not. The progress toward my own fiefdom has stalled, and I am a member of a group that I am not particularly thrilled at being a member of. I like being in authority, but I don’t really care about (or understand) the goals of the group we oversee. So I’m feeling a little adrift. But I feel like I have good job security; I’m good at what I do and people see me as valuable.

But personally, 2016 was not a bad year. I accomplished a lot both personally and professionally. I finished my first triathlon and my second marathon. I also discovered some limitations: if I want to compete in hot weather, I have to train more in hot weather. I can’t rest long on fitness-laurels. My condition degrades rapidly. I need to keep up the pressure to keep up the capability.

I’ve set some big goals for this year: a spring marathon, a fall half-Ironman. I hired a coach and I will soon rejoin the gym where I can swim. I have new projects at work that will be challenging and exciting, including a high-pressure project that has potential to (basically) directly save lives, which is kind of thrilling and kind of terrifying. But it’s a good project and I’m eager to get started.

BB and I of course plan to travel again in the late spring as well. Europe, probably. We’re looking at flights and I have the $1,000 coupon from my hell-flight back in September. So we ought to be able to get a nice vacation in for not too much expense. I’m vaguely hoping we can rent bikes and ride the back roads of some small socialist nation for a while. Stay in places with good tea and green hills.

But who knows. All I really have is today, and today is the first workday of a new year. I’m sober, sane, healthy, and ready to go. So let’s go.