Author Archives: momdude

momdude's avatar

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
December 27, 2024 · 23:48

Liminal Time

We all know what it is, that time and space between Christmas and New Year’s, when especially in terms of work and our daily lives and schedules, we’re all just sort of drifting freely and aimlessly.

What day is it? What day of the week? Do you know without checking your phone or smart watch? Even when it tells you, do you believe it?

Did you have one day off this week, two, or more? Did you have off last weekend, work Monday, off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, yesterday was a toss up, back at work for one day today, off for two more days this weekend, back for one day on Monday, then do it all over until next Thursday when the new work year smacks us like a wet mackeral across the face? Or did you take three or four strategically placed vacation days and end up with two full weeks off?

The pressure of Christmas decorations and cards and presents is all gone, but it’s days before we can celebrate the New Year. Even the old ways are gone, when we could lean on the NFL schedule with games on Thursday Night, Saturday, Sunday, Sunday Night, and Monday Night while the NBA filled up Chrstmas Day – all gone with games (including my beloved Chiefs) on Wednesday, Christmas Day, and damn near every other day all week.

Chaos, pure and simple.

Tonight I realized that the chaotic space-time continum disturbances were working in reverse, leaking upstream into the physical systems that I was using to keep track of my position in the timeline. I have my meds set up in advance for convenience, and I can also use them as a reminder of where I am in the week. Unless of course I’m so wacked out that I forget to take my meds, and then this simple system starts giving me inaccurate feedback.

I might be doomed.

I blame 2024. Stupid fucking 2024.

Leave a comment

Filed under Critters, Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography

December 26, 2024 · 22:44

You Can’t Take A Bad Picture Here – December 26th

There are places on the planet where it is damn near impossible to take a bad picture, no matter your equipment, skill level, or whatever. I’m sure there are folks who somehow do manage to screw it up, but they’re in a different class from us mere mortals.

For example: Brussels

I was here on my European trip that was part of my Pepperdine University EMBA program. (We also went to Prague, which I absolutely loved! See that “Search” box up there in the upper right?)

These first couple of pictures are from the Grand Place, filled with a zillion statues as well as a ton of great places to eat and drink, plus other shops.

I felt very protected from demons and devils here, lots of saints slaying them over most doorways.

There was incredibly ornate stonework and statues at every turn, which I was obsessed with.

The details and sheer number of these statues was overwhelming.

I found this lovely little plaza with a statue at the top for Cervantes (IYKYK) and below, Bela Bartok. (If you don’t know who Cervantes or Bartok are, or who’s on the Cervantes statue, go to Wikipedia and while you’re there, sign up to make a monthly donation, even if it’s only for $5 or $2 a month. I just did, for $25/month. Why? Well, check out who thinks that Wikipedia should be shut down because it’s “woke”…)

Interior of the Brussels Basilica. I might not be a church-going guy, but I’m a sucker for amazing architecture and stained glass!

St Catherine’s Cathedral exterior.  Spectacular churches everywhere.

Parc de Bruxelles. Lots of parks and green spaces, all with tons of statues (old and new, ancient and modern), busts, fountains, and lakes. I took hundreds and thousands of pictures of them all.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Critters, Photography, Travel

December 25, 2024 · 23:33

Merry Christmas 2024

Our Christmas was fine, filled with family and football.

I like this lower POV, wide angle shot a lot, especially with the clouds up above. I may have to play with that before the lights come down in a couple of weeks, making it look even more haunted and ominous.

My beloved Chiefs are now 15-1 with one game left and have locked up the #1 seed in the AFC playoffs starting in January. While nothing is guaranteed, they’re in a strong position to be the first NFL team to win a three-peat, three Super Bowl titles in a row.

Two of our three kids were able to be here along with spouses and in-laws, and we had BBQ shipped in from Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City, as is our wont. A good time was had by all, far too much food was eaten, at least by me. Tomorrow I start working on getting back down to my “fighting weight.” We may have some fights ahead of us in 2025 I’m thinking.

 

1 Comment

Filed under Christmas Lights, Health

December 24, 2024 · 23:52

Eclectic Ornaments

Yesterday I pointed out that we put hundreds of ornaments on our Christmas tree, from a wide variety of sources. Here are some close ups.

There are two UC Irvine ornaments here (both I and one of my daughters went there) and the blue one half seen at the very top is from UC Davis (other daughter). The clear, crystal ones on the right are the annual ornaments from Sporty’s, showing a different airplane every year. In the upper left and lower right are a couple of “stained glass” style ornaments that I got even before I had kids, from a “dollar store” back when my first wife and I were dirt poor for a first Christmas together. They’re among my favorites. Finally, there’s a big, fat ass, cartoon polar bar and cub from ghod alone knows where.

Three bubble lights seen here, a couple more Sporty’s airplane ornaments, another stained glass ornament, and at the top, a hand-made Pokemon ball that one of the kids would have made in school twenty-five-plus years ago.

Same as above, plus an ornament from an trip in the last couple of years, a moose from our Winnipeg trip last year, and a very odd little art deco space capsule with an astronaut on an EVA.

More all of the above, plus a gold foil Wright flyer aircraft that I picked up at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum when I was back there about five years ago for my fifth NASA Social.

Leave a comment

Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography

December 23, 2024 · 23:53

How To Assemble Our Christmas Tree

It’s a fake tree, and it’s probably 10+ years old, but it still is holding up at least as well as I am, so who am I to judge?

Stack the three sections. I don’t remember this many of the built-in white lights being out last year. I would love to troubleshoot and repair them, but fixing these light strings is the bane of my existance. Probably more on this some other day.

Start putting on strings of colored lights. Six strings of mini incandescent lights is something like 450 lights. Nice!

Add two strings of bubble lights. I do so love me some bubble lights! Reminds me a lot of when I was a kid. The ones today are (fortunately) far less flammable than the ones we used in the 1960’s.

Finally, put up the stockings and the skirt, and add literally HUNDREDS of ornaments of all kinds. Some are new – we get one every time we take a trip. Some go back to before the kids were born. A lot of them are the Sporty’s annual ornaments with a different airplane every year. Some are of the “baby’s first Christmas” sort of thing, some are just stupid and goofy.

It’s chaotic and insane looking, but it’s ours!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Castle Willett, Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography

December 22, 2024 · 21:56

First Sunrise After Solstice

It’s not totally true that I’m never up in time to see the sunrise, but you CAN bet that if I am, I’ll be heading back to bed ASAP.

Oddly enough (or NOT) you can also bet that no matter what the cause or my condition, I’ll be carrying my phone and/or a camera. (I’m okay with that…)

This being more or less a “PG-rated” site, I won’t describe my condition in detail. But it was just like five hours after the precise moment of the solstice, and it was mostly dark but the lighter parts of sunrise were pretty, so… Surprise!

Leave a comment

Filed under Critters, Los Angeles, Photography, Sunsets

December 21, 2024 · 22:52

Winter Solstice 2024

And now the Sun returns, slowly, day by day.

At the top of this image, dead center, just below the top edge, is Venus, the brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and the Moon.

And, of course, a slice of our Christmas lights, a tradition begun over hundreds and thousands of years of civilization, to celebrate holidays for many religions around this time of year, all having some sort of theme about light. Coincidence that they all have a theme of “light” and occur around the time of the shortest daylight hours and longest nighttime hours? Yeah…right.

We might know that Venus is so bright because it’s covered in endless clouds of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid and we understand its orbital mechanics as well as the exact reasons for the Earth’s seasons and the timing of the solstice, all things about which our ancestors would have been clueless, but it doesn’t change the way we feel about the short days and long nights.

Whether caused by something we did angering the gods or by the 23.44º axial tilt of the Earth, Happy Solstice!

(Please don’t anger the 23.44º axial tilt of the Earth! We have no idea where that path leads!)

Leave a comment

Filed under Astronomy, Christmas Lights, Critters, Photography

December 20, 2024 · 23:36

December Rose In Another Light

Yesterday I shared pictures of a beautiful yellow rose that had burst out, viewed in the bright morning sunlight as I was headed to the office.

Then when I got home, it was dark (winter solstice tomorrow!) and it was lit up in a different light.

The iPhone was unfortunately highly confused about what to focus on in that lighting, but this is an obvious learning experience for us all.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, Flowers, Photography

December 19, 2024 · 23:53

December Rose

As I went out to the car this morning to go to the office, I saw that the first (and only, so far) rose of December had exploded open.

We’re still in California, not Texas, but this one would do Texas proud!

Leave a comment

Filed under Critters, Flowers, Photography

December 18, 2024 · 23:36

Random Old Photos – December 18th

A week before Christmas. Where does the rabbit hole of old pictures take us?

2,500 miles and fifty-one years, apparently. And into a black & white world. On film.

My camera at the time was a very old Argus film camera with a fixed lens. I was playing with using a pair of binoculars as a telephoto lens, with a rig I had put together myself to attach to a tripod and hold the camera and binoculars in place. This is from the hill behind our house, looking at the roof of the rectory from the Catholic Church across the street, to the First Congregational Church at the lower left edge of the picture, to Stellafane Hill off in the distance to the southwest.

If only I could talk to that 17-year-old kid for five minutes…

Leave a comment

Filed under Critters, Paul, Photography