Author Archives: momdude

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About momdude

Space cadet | Family dude | Photographer | Music lover | Traveler | Science fiction fan | Hugo Award nominee | Writer | 5x NASA Social participant | KC Chiefs fan | LA Kings fan | Senior Director of Finance & Administration for ALS Network | Member & former staff Finance Officer at the Commemorative Air Force SoCal Wing | Hard core left-wing liberal | Looking for whatever other shenanigans I can get into
February 5, 2020 · 23:28

This Reality Has Some Serious Continuity Flaws

Can’t make this shit up folks.

Trump got acquitted today, as expected. It’s incredibly disappointing and depressing and it sucks to be watching the death of the great American experiment as we sink into authoritarianism under a fascist, criminal regime – but that’s a rant for another day.

Here’s the thing…

Turning on the 11PM local news tonight, four stations (CBS, NBC, ABC, and KTLA) the #1 news story of the night, the lead, the biggest news that they’re ALL going to spend the first five minutes talking about was…

…the death of Kirk Douglas.

Okay, it’s Hollywood, La-La Land. We’ll cut them some slack, maybe? The impeachment will be second, right?

Nope. Some of them had the coronavirus scare #2 (a Korean air liner had to divert to LA because people on board had been exposed) and a local measles outbreak #3 (the irony is delicious and lost on them, running back to back stories about a panic over a 100% preventable disease like measles vs the coronavirus, which could be a humanity killing pandemic or just another false alarm that kills in ten years fewer people than die from car accidents in the US in a week), and some had the measles and then the coronavirus, but NONE of them had the impeachment acquittal.

Story #4 after the second commercial break seemed to be all over the place – a murder here, a freeze warning there…

This is how we’ve been worn down and beaten into submission by the Trump cult. Something that would have been the “Story of the Decade!” in another decade isn’t even reported in this one.

Geez, the LEAST they could have done is shown the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade as the #2 or #3 story! If you’ve done the measles story, just do “Coronavirus – ditto!” and move on to something good!!

6 Comments

Filed under KC Chiefs, Los Angeles, Moral Outrage, Politics

February 4, 2020 · 22:55

Not Super Back To Reality Tuesday

Back to that place where the traffic sucks, I’m short on sleep, the office is busy and hectic, the winds are blowing, it’s cold, and if I can’t be a the Chiefs’ victory parade tomorrow in KC then I want to be on a beach someplace warm and just sleep and watch movies and read books for about six months.

Which also isn’t going to happen.

And then you turn on the news…

So you try to escape into a classic, favorite, 1960’s comedy that was one of your Dad’s favorites and you realize just how awful and dated and sort of disgusting it is, and not in a really good Mel Brooks sort of way.

One foot in front of the other, I guess.

The only way out is through…

I hope your Wednesday doesn’t suck.

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Filed under Paul

February 3, 2020 · 23:30

Super Bowl Champions Monday

We won.

There was BBQ at our house because, well… Kansas City! BBQ! Duh!

(Click to enlarge.)

There was some tension being behind by ten points with only about eight minutes left – but you have seen us play, right? Like, really?

There was champagne that we had been saving for a special occasion, and they don’t get just a whole lot more special than this.

There was hanging out and celebrating and watching Andy Reid get his awards and Patrick Mahomes get his and everyone else looking at wedding pictures.

See you next year, same time, same place – back to back!

(And pitchers and catchers report in eight days…)

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Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, Panorama, Photography, Sports, Video

February 2, 2020 · 13:06

Super Bowl Sunday

I might be a bit busy and preoccupied later today, so let me get this out there for everyone now, an hour and a half before game time.

We’re ready.

(Click to enlarge so you can see the signed Len Dawson photo in the corner…)

The BBQ and the guests will be here soon.

It’s going to be a good day. I hope yours is too.

2 Comments

Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs

February 1, 2020 · 19:20

Super Bowl Eve

The Son showed up from Japan for our Super Bowl party tomorrow. He would have gone to Miami, but we were his second choice.

Since he was here, and since the Kings were playing the Ducks, we got tickets so he could surprise the Younger Daughter. (She figured it out.)

The area around Staples Center is insane right now with tens of thousands of people here for the Kobe Bryant memorials.

But we’re here for the hockey game.

We got great seats – now we need to win!

Go, Kings, Go!

3 Comments

Filed under LA Kings, Los Angeles, Photography

January 31, 2020 · 23:28

Waiting Room Observations

There are a LOT of hungry, cranky folks in the gastroenterology waiting room.

Snake, garden hose, and alien probing jokes are not so funny here. At least, no one’s laughing and this is some of my best material. Where’s Dennis Wolfsberg when you need him?

On the other hand, being decked out in full Chiefs gear is a great conversation starter. Especially great is one older, shy, Hispanic lady. I suspect limited English, but I catch her glancing over at me and she finally says only, “Mahomes,” and gives me a thumbs up. GO CHIEFS!

As always, the television in here is annoying as hell. At least they’re not playing one of the those truly horrible and soul sucking talk/reality shows that litter daytime TV, but this home renovation thing on cable is no bargain. Why can’t we get cartoons, like some Looney Tunes or something? This place could use some cheer.

Oh, god, they could have the Impeachment coverage on! I love this home renovation show, it’s fantastic, great, engaging, enrapturing! Don’t EVER change that channel!

In recovery: Apparently there was a memo that any staff who wanted to could relax the recommended dress code a bit for today if they wanted to wear purple and gold or something Kobe Bryant related. They’re everywhere!

And we’re good! Mission accomplished. It’s been a year (not me, I’m just on chauffeur duty) and with luck it will be another.

Back to the salt mines!

 

2 Comments

Filed under Health

January 30, 2020 · 23:39

That Feeling When – January 30th

That feeling when FaceBook pops up with a notice that it’s the birthday of a high school friend – and you remember that he died this year.

And it’s the second or third time that’s happened in the last month or so.

It sort of sucks.

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Filed under Paul

January 29, 2020 · 23:34

Before You Freak Out Over The Coronavirus…

…get your flu shot!

It’s indicative of how we’ve lost all ability to do any kind of sane risk management. The new Chinese coronavirus has killed 170 people, which could actually be ten times that – but it’s in a country of over a billion people. There are five, maybe six people in this country who have it and it’s front page news. They’re cancelling flights to China for weeks. Every news hour shows folks coming into US airports and being screened and quarantined.

Five, maybe six people.

And yet the flu kills, on average, over 8,000 people a year in this country.

Not five people. Or six. OVER 8,000. And in a bad year that can double.

Not sick. Dead.

Did you get your flu shot this year?

No?

Then STFU about coronavirus.

4 Comments

Filed under Death Of Common Sense, Health

January 28, 2020 · 23:35

No Context For You – January 28th

Kicking the bucket?

More like trying not to drop my phone into the trash can, I suspect.

Not today, Death. Not today!

(That’s death for the iPhone, not me. I’m fine.)

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Filed under Photography

January 27, 2020 · 23:58

A Tough Time Of Year

Fifty-three years ago tonight, these three men lost their lives in an inferno atop a Saturn rocket.

(Image: NASA)

Tomorrow’s the 34th anniversary of our losing Challenger.

Seventeen years ago Saturday, February 1st, we lost Columbia.

Even if I don’t initially remember, there’s something buried deep in my brain that remembers and knows. Then I see some comment and it’s, “Oh. Yeah. That.”

And yet…

We’ve still got folks living on ISS every day for over twenty years. We’ve got folks, men and women, who have lived in space for almost a year at a time so that we can see what happens to the body on a trip to Mars. We’re still out there doing EVAs and keeping ISS running.

(Image: NASA)

We remember.

But we keep pressing on.

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Filed under Space