Category Archives: KC Chiefs

September 5, 2024 · 23:53

The Quest For The Three-Peat Begins

In the NFL’s “Super Bowl era” teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls nine times. (Eight teams – the Steelers did it twice.) The most recent occurance, of course, was my beloved KC Chiefs winning the last two years.

No one has ever won three in a row. But the Chiefs have a chance now. They’re actually favorites to pull it off.

Tonight was opening night for this NFL season. We, of course, decorated for the season.

We, of course, also decorated the cars.

The Chiefs started the season well, beating the Ravens in a repeat of last year’s AFC Championship game. It was tight – on the last play of the game the Ravens thought they had scored a touchdown that (with the gimme extra point) would have sent the game to overtime, but video review showed that the receiver came down with just half a toenail on the line and out of bounds. Great fun!

And just before the game was over, there was a launch out of Vandenberg, which I livestreamed on Facebook. (Here!) The rocket shows up above Castle Peak at 2:45, and I think it was pretty much visible (I picked the second stage back up on camera at 5:11) all the way until it disappeared over the horizon to the south. (Here!)

 

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Filed under KC Chiefs, Photography

September 4, 2024 · 23:47

Think Cool Thoughts

As with much of the country (and the world these days), it’s been HOT this summer. Here in LA it’s getting up above 100°F for the next couple of days, and I was thinking that it would help to “think cool thoughts.”

That got me to thinking, “When did I last see snow?”

I’m not talking about seeing it on the mountains off in the distance – that happens a couple of times every winter here, even in SoCal. (Mountains going up well over 10,000 feet will help that process. That’s why there are ski resorts within an hour’s drive of downtown LA.) I’m talking about seeing it right there, where I can make a snowball.

The first thing that came to mind was April 2018, when we went to Toronto for the FilkOntario convention and I got inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame.

And then it occured to me that we had actually seen snow falling at a slightly more recent date, even if it hadn’t been enough to stick.

A couple days after Christmas 2018 we were in Kansas City for the Chiefs game (after having been in Seattle for the game there on Christmas Eve) and we saw some flurries. The rest of the weekend was clear(-ish) and just COLD.

So think cool thoughts, know that the snows and fall and flannel will return, and know that 2018 had a LOT of great adventures!

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Filed under Fandom, KC Chiefs, Photography, Travel, Weather

February 11, 2024 · 23:43

Superb Owl 2024

We were ready.

BBQ imported from Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City. So many appetizers and snacks and sides and salads and sodas and drinks and beers.

So many friends and family.

A good time was had by all. The game was close all the way, going into OT for only the second time in Super Bowl history.

There was tension, there was suspense, and in the end there was cheering and champagne.

There were a lot of lousy years for Chiefs Kingdom in the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s. There were only a handful of playoff appearances in a span of almost 50 years, and no playoff wins.

But we’ve been in the AFC Championship game for a ticket to the Super Bowl six years in a row. We’ve won that game gone to the Super Bowl four of the last five years. And we’ve won the Super Bowl three of those four appearances.

Next year will be next year. For now – it’s good to be a Chiefs fan.

Oh, by the way, Angels pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training camp on Wednesday.

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Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, LA Angels, Sports

January 28, 2024 · 23:57

Back To The Super Bowl

Yet another excellent day for Chiefs fans. We were underdogs, playing on the road against a Ravens team that had a better record, was the #1 seed, and on paper should have handled us handily.

That’s why they play the games. They made several mistakes, we didn’t, and we won 17-10.

That was our sixth straight AFC Conference game, and we’ve won four of the six to go to the Super Bowl. Four Super Bowls in five years? I’ll take it!

Now the preperations start for our Super Bowl party. We’re hoping for an eclectic group from family, some of my co-workers, and some of the Long-Suffering Wife’s former co-workers. It should be fun!

The Chiefs Kingdom flag flies at Castle Willett. This will be exciting, win or lose on February 11th.

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Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, Photography, Sunsets

January 22, 2024 · 23:56

Cutting It Close

Deadlines tomorrow, hours and hours and hours of head down, shoulder to the grindstone, nose to the wheel, not even sure what day of the week or time it is.

Thank god my watch beeps at me occasionally, so I can go, “Oh, shazzbatt!”

Fortunately, I have a steady supply of photos of me being goofy or wearing something bizarre or silly, be it an odd hat, sweatshirt, or a giant CHIEFS! onesie.

Having no sense of shame or embarrassment is the gift that keeps on giving!

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Filed under KC Chiefs, Paul, Photography

January 21, 2024 · 23:50

A Good Day For Chiefs Fans

If you pay any attention to American professional football, you probably know that we’re down to the last four teams in the playoffs and next week there will be two games to determine who will meet in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in three weeks. If you have been here any length of time, you know that we’re huge fans of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Somewhat unexpectedly, even to die hards like me, we find ourselves in next week’s AFC Championship game against the Ravens. I’m not sure that many folks gave us much of a chance a few weeks ago. While we started something like 6-1 (it’s really late, I had the Gala Friday and I’ve been working all weekend on the budget that’s due this week, I’m really tired, so I’m not going to look it up, you can Google it yourself) we went something like 4-6 in the last part of the season, including a loss to the hated Raiders. While we won our conference, for the first time in several years we did not have a bye the first week of the playoffs, and tonight we had a playoff game on the road for the first time in several years. (Other than for the Super Bowl, obviously, which is at a neutral site.)

Buffalo had several opportunities to win the game, but they’re the ones who had the dropped and missed passes and missed field goals tonight, so the Chiefs won and will have a shot next week at going to their fourth Super Bowl in five years. Not bad.

It’s nerve racking, and there are plenty of other things out there shredding my nerves to begin with, but winning is nice!

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January 15, 2024 · 23:30

Random Old Photo – January 15th

Yet another “proof of life” post…

In honor of the victory at Arrowhead by my beloved Chiefs in sub-zero temperatures…

It wasn’t from this weekend and it wasn’t sub-zero, but it was most certainly colder than I’ve been in many, many years.

This is from the December 30, 2018 game we saw at Arrowhead, a week after seeing the Chiefs play the Seahawks in Seattle. That was a great trip!

And we beat the hated Raiders to boot!

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Filed under KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports, Travel

December 8, 2023 · 23:50

What Shade Of Blue Is That?

I ran over to our office today and on the way home I noticed that this huge block of land, about a half-mile square, has been fenced off. It’s a huge vacant area with one big office building (12 stories? 15?) that used to be an insurance company office headquarters. (Anthem?)

Anyway, bordered by Canoga, Oxnard, Owensmouth, and Erwin, in the Warner Center area, that’s really valuable land and a LOT of it.

The fencing is a bit different – normally they’ll have these screens but they’ll be black or green or something non-descript. But this was a bright blue. A particular shade of bright blue, is my guess.

There was zero grafitti on any of these fences. That’s how I know that it’s only been up a day or two at most.

As for that shade of blue? Well, the new owner of that huge plot of land, and what they plan on doing there, is well known.

Traffic near the office is going to start to suck (even worse), real soon now.

GO CHIEFS!!

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Filed under KC Chiefs, Los Angeles, Photography

September 20, 2023 · 22:19

An Email Flood

First, the cars are now dressed properly for the season.

Secondly, I found out how to get six to ten emails a day from NFLshop.com. Once you indicate your interest, their marketing is “aggressive.”

Finally, when driving with these decorations, be prepared to return the cry of “CHIEEEEEEFS!!” from random, passing members of Chiefs Kingdom.

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April 29, 2023 · 23:17

Ten Years Of WLTSTF

It snuck up on me. It wasn’t until this afternoon that I realized that today is the 10th anniversary of my starting this website.

I guess this is sort of a big one.

10 years.

3,653 days.

3,745 posts.

8,921 images. (90%+ are taken by me. The rest are images from the news, from cell phone screen captures, and so on.) To be perfectly honest, some of my favorite images of those 8,921 were posted yesterday. Still just a bit gobsmacked by that.

72 videos.

10 audio clips.

2,978 total comments.

75,498 total views.

49,522 total visitors to the site.

11,438 total likes.

1,827 followers (730 from WordPress, 703 from Twitter, 280 from FaceBook, 10 from Tumblr, 58 from post.news, and 46 from Spoutible)

God alone knows how many words.

The last time I either was too busy or, more likely, simply forgot to post anything was April 10, 2020. Since they I’ve posted 1,115 days in a row.

In total there have only been fourteen days of those 3,653 days when I didn’t post anything at all.

I’m not only here (which is probably the most reliable source since I have the most control over the site’s existance) but also on:

  • Twitter (@momdude56)
  • Facebook (/paul.willett.56)
  • Mastodon (@momdude)
  • Post (@momdude)
  • Spoutible (@momdude)
  • Instagram (@momdude56)
  • Tumblr (pauljwillett)
  • Snapchat (pauljwillett)
  • Hive (@momdude)
  • BlueSky (waiting for an invite, but I’ll give you three guesses what it will be…)
  • Email (pwillett@ix.netcom.com)

I hope that at least a few of the 1,827 folks who get notified every day that I’ve posted something take a minute to look and/or read and get a moment of zen or pleasure from it. I enjoy creating it.

As always, I hope that in the next year there are many more occasions to share a pretty picture, a goofy story, or something clever.

As always, I hope that in the next year there will be many fewer occasions to descend into a venting rant about something stupid, annoying, or depressing.

As do we all, I’m sure.

As a lovely parting gift, couple of favorite pictures from the last year:

Stick around for the next year. It’ll be a slice!

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Filed under Airshows, Astronomy, Birds, Christmas Lights, Critters, Entertainment, KC Chiefs, LA Angels, LA Kings, Los Angeles, Paul, Photography, Sports, Sunsets, Writing