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01/28/2006
Airplanes and Acrobats
So let's see... what have we been up to?
I've been very busy at work. It's that time of year for annual employee benefit statements, which means hours and hours and hours and - well you get the point - of data entry. Mind-numbingly complicated and overwhelming spreadsheets and a mail merge that I hope works just one more time. Next year, I'm going to start with a consolidated database. I sure am.
In the midst of the mess, I took a vacation day Thursday. I had a day left over from '05 that I had to take by 1/31 or lose, and Eldest was going on a field trip, so along I went.
And where did we go? Glad you asked. Whiteman Air Force Base, Knob Noster, MO, home of the world's only fleet of B-2 Bombers (didn't see any. Well, there was the wooden model in a display case at McDonalds. Does that count?). We had fun. We didn't get hurt, but we still had fun (You out there, Sis? For the rest of you, that's an inside joke.)
For me, the most amazing part of the installation was the de-commissioned Minuteman launch control site we toured. Besides being really fascinating, it was the only time we got off the bus except to eat. Where was I? Oh, the control site... buried 60' underground, cased in concrete and steel and secured behind an eight-ton and a six-ton blast door was a pill. Take a giant concrete and steel Contac capsule, dump the medicine out, and put some 707 pilot's chairs in it, and you have Mission Control. You should also suspend it from huge springs in case "the big one" hits directly overhead. You wouldn't want the vacuum tubes in the computer to get busted, would you?
So what was so amazing about the vacuum tubes? How about the fact that this dinosaur-age (in computer terms) stuff worked! That there was multiple redundancies both of security and of ability integrated throughout the system in a way to keep our country secure against MAD. It just boggles the mind.
Last night (Friday) we had tickets to see the Red Panda Acrobats at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I was a little disappointed that there were only two acrobats (and one didn't do any handstands, etc.). On the other hand (on which the main performer, Wayne Huey, was standing), the tricks they did perform were pretty amazing. The girls were enthralled. Okay, I enjoyed it.
After, dessert at Winstead's on the Plaza. I've got a cute kid story. We were ready to order. The waitress was going around the table, taking our requests and when she got to Youngest, the little tyke spoke up and said "Me and my father are going to share a Brownie Sundae."
Way too cute. If you don't see it, I guess you had to be there. Wish you could be.
That's all for now. Long, long day ahead.
07:49 Posted in About Life | Permalink | Email this
Comments
Bruce, it sounds like you picked the right field trip to go on. Very cool. Beats the ol' pumpkin patch. : )
Posted by: Scott Lyons | 02/01/2006
Scott:
I did notice there were quite a few parents there...
Posted by: Bruce L. | 02/01/2006