Challenges

I'm engaged in a Fitbit Workweek Hustle, and for the second week in a row it looks as if I'm going to finish in a pretty strong second place.  There's one day left, so it's possible that it might all fall apart. The person in first place is quite a competitor, and I find it irksome that I've fallen so far behind. Be that as it may, the competition and the challenge of the event has been good for me. It got me out of my rut, and I visited the Capitol for the first time in quite awhile on my morning ambulations.

Capitol Hill - Spring Morning

Spring changes things, and I'm glad I made it out this morning to see the sights. I was better prepared for the doubling of my duties that came later in the day. Wait...how's that again....I don't get the promotion, but I get twice the work for at least the next quarter or so?

Color me confused, but there it is...the path that the universe has laid at my feet. I suppose there's really only one thing left to do with this situation, and that's to keep moving forward. Fuck these guys. I'm planning to bury them in success. 

I love a good challenge, and the upside of this one is that it would be difficult to make matters worse than they have already become. Tomorrow we lose two more folks out of a department of nine. That's on top of the two we lost earlier this year with no replacements on the horizon. I find myself in charge of production on two shipbuilding programs with five (including me) of nine staff remaining. Like I said, I love a good challenge. Time to work the problem.

There's no telling what tomorrow may hold, but I pretty certain it won't be boring.

Running on the top half of your gas tank and the bottom half of your bladder.

Rory Conlan gives quite a bit of advice.  Now he'll never tell you he's giving advice.  He characterizes his speeches as sharing insight or imparting wisdom.  Some of it's good, some of it a bit dodgy.  He calls it insight because as he likes to say, "He can't make you do what he wants."  The part he leaves out from time to time is that he sure can make you wish that you had done it his way.

All that said, one of my favorite little pieces of wisdom that he did pass along to me related to driving.  He suggested that I always try to run on the top half of the gas in my tank, and the bottom half of the pee in my bladder.  Now, it may take a minute to visualize this suggestion, but I promise that once you do, you'll see it as a solid piece of advice.  You'll also never be able to forget it.  We may get back to this little piece of wisdom in a bit, but right now I'd like to show you some of the monuments that I saw on my walks today.

Ad Astra by Richard Lippold at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
(Latin for To the Stars)

There are a number of different genres of monuments in Washington, DC.  There are aspirational monuments meant to hearken back to the heroic deeds of those that have come before us and inspire us to achieve greatness.  One of my favorites of this type is Ad Astra by Richard Lippold located at the Jefferson Drive entrance to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  The star topped monument towers over the building beckoning the viewer to (at the very least) imagine the trip into space like the heros of the Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle Programs that have gone there before.

Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress

Some monuments are embodied in buildings, both practical and impractical.  The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress is a monument to knowledge and learning.  The Library of Congress was established with $5000 of appropriated funding in 1800.  The collection was burned, along with a great deal of the District of Columbia by the British in 1814.  Thomas Jefferson donated his library to replace destroyed collection.  At the time, Mr. Jefferson's personal library was considered to be one of the best if not the best library in the country.  Today, this building is a monument to knowledge and learning and the value placed on it by the United States.  On an interesting side note, for visitors to Washington, DC who are 16 years of age and older, it is possible to receive a "library card" from the Library of Congress.  The official name for the card is a Reader Identification Card, and it provides access to electronic card catalog, the Office of Copyright public service areas, and are a minimum registration to access the Library of Congress Reading Rooms.  

Capitol Building, Washington, DC

The Capitol Building is a monument to the people of this country and the power entrusted to their representatives and senators.  It is an imposing edifice to the power wielded within the walls, and should also serve to remind the current occupants that the power flows from the people, and their tenure, however long it may be, will likely be shorter lived than the institution itself.

I passed all of those examples of monuments today while putting in some of my miles around the Washington, DC Mall.  They are imposing, exquisite, creative, and inspirational, but today, I came across a different type of monument.  This was a monument to the provision of things at exactly the time they are needed most.  It was a monument to the universe conspiring to make me successful; an organizing force looking out for me when I could not manage it alone.  Today, in a place that I least expected it, but had a very great need for it at the time, I came across this monument to luck and fate.

Porta Potty at the intersection of Jefferson Drive and 7th Street, SW

It turns out that Rory's advice, at least half of it applies to both walking and driving.  I was sorely in need of a facility to relieve myself when this monument to good fortune materialized out of the gloom in the early hours before dawn this morning.  No statue to the greatness of achievements, the artistic endeavors of human kind, or the inherent power that was manifest around me had held my attention and awe as this humble injection molded piece of heaven sent goodness held.  It appeared for me in my time of greatest need today, and I have no doubt that it will one day very soon be moved on to serve the same function for countless other individuals.  

When you're walking, it will always pay to know where the next drink of water is going to come from, and where you can get rid of the remainder of the last drink that you took.