We were ready! First light for the new flag as well! (The old one had been shredded to bits by the high winds last month.)
We had a good crowd, as expected, about 20 friends, family, and co-workers.
Sadly, the Eagles’ defense was on their game and completely shut down the Chiefs’ offense until late in the third quarter, by which time the score was seriously out of reach. The Vuvuzela of Victory sat sad, silent, and lonely.
Filed under Critters, KC Chiefs, Photography
The Super Bowl is tomorrow, my beloved Chiefs are in it for the fourth time in six years, and trying for the first “three-peat” in NFL history. We’ll be having a party, as we’ve done the last several years.
The cleaning crew has gone through, furniture has been re-arranged, the banners are up, the Chiefs memorabelia and sacred icons are all on display.
The dining room tables will be covered with BBQ (imported from the legendary Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City), a salad bar, and the appropriate side dishes for a BBQ tailgate in the finest Arrowhead traditional style.
So many appetizers – nuts, fudge, cookies, vegys, fruit, pretzels, chips, shrimp, etc. So many desserts – cake, pie, ice cream, etc.
The kitchen fridge is stocked to overflowing with food.
The porch fridge & freezer is stuffed with sodas, beer, wine, water, and fudge. Let’s hope that the raccoons haven’t figured out how to open it up!
It should be an excellent game tomorrow. Enjoy it wherever you’re watching!
Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, KC Chiefs, Photography
I’m going to assume that it’s bright red like that in celebration of the Chiefs win yesterday and their upcoming Superb Owl appearance with a chance to become the first team to win a “three-peat” in that event.
Right?
No?
Filed under Critters, Health, KC Chiefs, Photography
It’s been a good weekend for my favorite professsional American football team, as we won yesterday (with room to spare, a two-score lead at the end, which we haven’t done a lot of this year).
Making smart ass comments to the family (as I am wont to do occasionally, like, on days that end in “y”) I noted the weather for Arrowhead Stadium for next Sunday night, just in case anyone was making plans to attend the game in person. My son asked if I was (I am not) and I was a bit set aback and slightly depressed to realize that it’s not money that’s the deal killer here, it’s the time and critical deadlines. (Not that the money would be insignificant, and we’ve got a house to buy this year, but it wouldn’t be a deal killer.)
Nope, the only way I could go, even with a winning Lottery ticket and fundage to incinerate at will, would be to fly out on Saturday, spend Sunday in KC for the game, then fly back. Even if I had the hypothetical “wealth of Midas” and could take a private jet to minimize time screwing around with TSA, the airlines, and the usual cross-country travel fandango, we’re still talking 24-36 hours, and with the commitments at work and the annual Board Meeting at the end of next week, I simply couldn’t take that 24-36 hours off without failing on those tasks and letting a whole lot of folks down (folks who I like and admire and enjoy working with).
So if those six magical tumblers align and the bank has to hire new staff just to keep adding zeroes to my bank balance, I can go to NOLA for the Superb Owl in three weeks, I guess. By that time, win or lose, succeed or fail, the deadlines will be in the rearview mirror and I’ll have some time.
Unless something else comes up then…
Meanwhile, I got to thinking about past trips to Arrowhead, a holy place, sacred ground, for folks like me.
My first visit was Thanksgiving, 2006, a surprise plotted by my wonderful wife and kids. It was the first time there was a third, Thanksgiving night game in the NFL, and the Chiefs were hosting. We already had a trip planned to the St. Louis area to have Thanksgiving with my son, who was in the Air Force and stationed at Scott AFB in southern Illinois, so they got tickets, surprised me, and we drove across Missouri to see the game. Ausgetzeichnet!!
For the holidays in 2018 we had an opportunity to go to Seattle to watch the Chiefs play the Seahawks on Christmas, then fly to KC for a week to see them finish the season against the Raiders. Given the season and the fact that both stadiums are open and roofless, it was appropriately freezing cold for both. We stomped on the Raiders and had excellent seats, so that was a wonderful experience.
In September of this year, of course, you’ll remember that I flew in to meet my son for this year’s Week Two game. We won a close one (we’ve had a ton of close ones this year!!) and it was another great experience.
When I was a kid growing up in the metro KC area (on the Kansas side, over by Wyandotte County Lake, very near where the huge race track is now) and learning to love the Chiefs and A’s, both of them played at Municipal Stadium near downtown and that’s where I saw my first Chiefs game (with Lenny Dawson at QB) in 1966. Now we have Arrowhead, and while I’ve seen the Chiefs at a handful of other stadiums (San Diego, the LA Coliseum, the LA Galaxy’s soccer stadium that the Chargers used for a couple of years, Seattle), nothing compares to Arrowhead.
Filed under Critters, KC Chiefs, Photography, Travel
The first night when the Christmas lights are off are always sad and dark, figuratively and literally. Taking a picture
from the same spot as last night shows that the camera still sees plenty of light, primarily by taking a 30-second photo, where my regular, old eyeballs see the scene as being MUCH darker. With the Moon just rising over behind the house and the big, backyard tree, it’s just the porch light, the street light over my head, and a couple of neighborhood porch lights. In the end, that’s more than enough so that the darkness isn’t complete enough by any means to see many stars at all, while also not being bright enough to be of much good.
We’re caught in the middle.
My beloved Chiefs prevailed today in the AFC Division Championship game (whatever it’s called – the second round of the playoffs) and will move on to host the AFC Conference Championship game next Sunday evening. I’ll take it since I am nervous about next week’s potential to be a complete and total clusterfuck.
As a side note, while I try to keep this site more or less PG-rated, I do notice that certain pithy four-letter, Anglo-Saxon terms have started getting more relevant and more frequently used in general by me, and could end up sneaking in here more often. I disagree with old maxim that use of those words shows you have a limited vocabulary. I have a wonderful vocabulary, and I think I have pretty good command of it, but the Universe seems to be deteriorating rapidly, and sometimes those words are the most appropriate ones.
Just a heads up…
Filed under Christmas Lights, Critters, KC Chiefs, Photography
People stared. Children pointed. I got attention.
Most Sunday mornings early I’m at the grocery store, and in the fall and winter I’ll usually be wearing a Chiefs hat and T-shirt or sweatshirt of some sort. But then when I’m at home and the game’s actually on, I change into the “sacred vestments.”
The official jersey (#10, Isiah Pacheco), the “lucky” hat that I’ve worn for every game for probably ten years or more now, the beads (most of which came from Red Lobster when I order a Lobsterita and need to have a designated driver, but hey, they’re red and gold!).
Today I was running late and it was an early (10:00 on the West Coast) game, so I just went to grocery store in full regalia, with the radio coverage of the game blasting out from my pocket via the SiriusXM app on my phone.
People stared. Children pointed. I got attention.
I prefer to think it was just jealousy. Folks wished they were as cool as I was.
Filed under Critters, KC Chiefs, Paul, Photography
I came out of the office after work today (yes, I’m still working in-office, training new staff, more new staff coming just before Thanksgiving, so this may last through the end of the year) and found the final “supermoon” of the year rising over my well-decorated vehicle.
Filed under ALS Network, Astronomy, KC Chiefs, Photography
Another deadline hit today. (Payroll – and there was much rejoicing!) Like my favorite NFL team, I’m “winning ugly.” But I’m winning.
Filed under KC Chiefs, Paul, Photography
It would be nice to get back again this year, but that’s unlikely. One trip a year is about all I can get away with.
Enjoy the full-sized file – click on it and blow it up. My son’s truck with the flags is over to the left.
For this weekend, there’s more work, more deadlines (I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel? Ish?) and taking down the Halloween decorations.
It’s also getting close to decision time and I know where it’s going, I’m just not happy about it. (Just add it to the list…) I had really hoped to be putting up a ton of Christmas lights at the Forever Home this year and setting the place up to make it easy to put up a ton of lights every year in the future. That’s also very unlikely to happen, so in two weeks it will be time to start decorating here, at the rental house again. I’m also coming up on the end of my current set of weight training lessons, which I was also hoping would be the last one because I would be living elsewhere, but again…
So frustrated. So tired. It’s that whole middle-of-the-marathon feeling and the only way out is through.
One foot in front of the other. You too?
Filed under Christmas Lights, Forever Home, KC Chiefs, Panorama, Photography
Wandering into the kitchen just before 21:00 tonight I looked out of the windows into the back yard and saw the honkin’ huge Moon, orange as a pumpking, rising in the northeast.
It’s a couple of days past full moon, but still really bright, and being so close to the horizon and shining through Los Angeles’ haze and light pollution, it was far, FAR from white.
Further out in the yard the color became more prominent.
I stood out here for a while, the owls hooting in the trees, the orange moon rising, and some occasional fireworks going off in the distance, presumably in celebration of the Dodgers’ win over the Mets that sends them to the World Series against the Yankees next weekend.
If the weekend has to end (and it really SUCKS that it has to!), this (and the Chiefs’ win to put them at 7-0 and the Kings’ win over the Ducks) isn’t a bad way to enjoy it.
Filed under Astronomy, KC Chiefs, Los Angeles, Photography, Sports
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