Boomer Randomness

The Washington Monument as seen from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I love the open space in DC. I also posted more DC pictures on my photo blog .

If you're a regular reader, you know I love living near Washington DC. A few days ago, a very dear friend from North Carolina came to visit me and two other friends of hers who live in the area. It was her first time here. She got a taste of the enormity, beauty and history as well as museums, restaurants, bars, traffic jams and a Dave Matthews concert at a Major League Baseball park. Even though the three of us who she spent time with are not native to DC, we have lived here long enough to call it home and we love showing it off. Visit my photo site for more pictures. And visit DC some time.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This particular photo represents a thousand words or more about my recent 'staycation.' More pictures and words coming soon.

Someone born after July 20, 1969 has never known a time in their life when humans had not walked on the moon. Someone born after December 14, 1972, the date of the last moon walk, would have to view a lunar stroll as history not current events. The time span from the first powered human flight, the Wright Brothers in 1903, to the first human flight to the moon was just under 66 years. The time span from an American President’s challenge to send men to the moon and return them safely to earth to the day that actually happened was just over 7 years. The time span from the first to the last lunar flight was only 3 and 1/2 years and it has been more than 38 years from the last moon flight to today. The last American space shuttle flight is scheduled for 7 months from now; after that, American astronauts will have to hitch a ride to the International Space Station on Russian spacecraft. These numbers aren’t adding up for me. Humans are explorers, constantly seeking the new, boldly tryin...

So this is how far we’ve come, or not come … today was the 41st anniversary of a human’s first step on the moon. And I, geekiest of space flight geeks in my childhood circle of friends, forgot it. And so, apparently, did everyone else because I did not see one mention of it in any news source I stumbled across. It was probably on the traditional network newscasts; I didn’t happen to see them. But it was nowhere to be found on my daily and nightly channel surfing and web hopping. I remembered because a Facebook friend mentioned it. As a kid in 1969, I watched the launch of Apollo 11 on all the channels (there were only three channels then, really). I watched the endless, boring coverage of the four-day flight there; boring because there was not continuous live camera coverage from the space craft. I listened to the radio transmission from the astronauts as they were coming in for a landing, Buzz Aldrin calling out flight data, but had no clue till much later that they were nearly o...

This is serious old-school. A friend sent me this collection of glorious insults from an era before the English language got boiled down to four-letter words. The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison." He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it." A Member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress." "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway). "Thank ...

I own a very nice Nikon digital SLR camera and a very nice Canon pocket sized digital camera and both were home today when I saw this beautiful rainbow at work. So here is a so-so cell phone shot of an awesome rainbow, viewed from a balcony on the 6th floor of my office building.