2021 is Dead, Long Live 2022

The last day of the year is a time for reflection and to think about what is to come. And I will pass on the partying tonight, I want 2022 to start with a clear head.

My Blog

It is hard to measure success for a blog such as mine. The subject matter that I cover is hardly going to attract a huge audience. But, then again, I am not writing this for fame and glory, if I was I would have quit in disgust a long time ago. No, this blog requires me to take detailed looks at thing that I think are important, cogitate on potential consequences and make predictions about how things are going to develop over time. Oh, and ultimately, periodically allow me to utter my favorite phrase; “I told you so.”

This post marks 762 posts made on Chemical Facility Security News this year. According to Google, I have had more than 319,000 ‘hits’ to date on those posts. With 2.36 million hits over the last 10 years, it seems that readership is up this year. That is certainly good for the ego, but it does not pay any bills, so I work part time in a grocery store. Writers frequently need day jobs; it is just that kind of profession.

I did start CFSN Detailed Analysis this year over on Substack in an attempt to monetize my writing. It is too early to tell how successful that will be, but I am earing money from my writing so I can justify calling myself a professional writer with less emphasis on the ‘free’ part of freelance. That new format means that I am shortening the average post length here. That has not yet adversely impacted readership here, so it looks like my original blog is going to wither away anytime soon.

My Life

I am fast approaching 70 years old, a milestone that amazes me as I never thought about actually reaching that august age. I am relatively healthy, actually much healthier than I was in my youth. I mainly attribute that to two things, stopping smoking and good genes. And that is a good commentary on life in general, you cannot control everything, but you do have some measure of control if you choose to take it.

The Future

As Doris Day (YES, I am an old fogey after all) once sang: “The future is not ours to see…”. But predicting the general range of the future is all part of a writer’s life. There will be fires and floods and great calamities. Computers will get faster and more ubiquitous and crooks will find more and different ways to capitalize on those facts. Chemical processing will continue on an ever-larger industrial scale and accidents and attacks will continue to happen and cause death and destruction. And the youth will point at the problems that continue to arise and blame them on their parents. And the parents will lament about the lost ‘good-old-days’ and blame the youth for being shallow and disrespectful. And politicians will stand on both sides of every issue and proclaim the other side to be crooks and bigots. And the earth will keep spinning around the sun and rotating about its axis. And this too shall pass.

But, then again, spring will come, flowers will bloom, and babies will be born. Life goes on. We each as individuals can only try to do better than we did yesterday and learn from our mistakes. And the same can be said for communities, cities, states and countries. The future is coming whether we want it or not. So, smile, pickup your load and let’s go see what comes next.