keithmosher2

[keithmosher2]

Doo Didily Doo Didily Doo

After writing a post on Hurricane Helene and Project 2025, and how that project and the GOP want to downsize and commercialize NOAA, National Weather Radio, and the National Hurricane Center, I had some interesting thoughts.

I began to wonder what it would have been like if, 249 years ago (1775), Paul Revere had been invested with the idea of COMMERCIALIZING everything. He was a silversmith, after all.

Let's take a trip back to one fateful night prior to the ride, shall we....

There in a pub sits Paul Revere, William Dawes, Samuel Prescott, Israel Bissell, and Sybil Ludington - later to be known as "The Five Riders", and fellow Robert Newman. Well, okay, Sybil wouldn't have been allowed in the pub unless she was serving ale or her fancies, but this is my trip down history lane.

Paul: Okay, once we get the lantern signal from (read in the voice of Seinfeld) Newman, I'll set out and tag you, Bill. You tag Sam. Sam, you tag Is, and Is, you tag Sybil.

Samuel: Sounds great.

William: What was it again?

Israel: One if by land, two if by...

William: Oh, yeah.

Sybil: Jeeze.

Paul: But, you know, we need to figure out a way to commercialize this. You know, make some money out of it.

Sybil: Make money out of warning our friends about a coming storm of British troops?

William: Well, we do need to make some bucks, ya know.

Paul: I got it. Before you tell anyone what's up, give them a sales pitch about my silver works. I've got some great sales coming up that we can push.

Israel: But some folk may get impatient, you know, having to wait through the ad to get the important news.

Paul: Okay. We'll create a subscriber program. They pay us 2 bits in advance, and we'll skip the ad.

The picture goes all blurry, and we are back in present day.

Would we have a country if they had thought like that back then?

[keithmosher2]

Heartless

After Jan. 6, 2021, I did some Facebook "friend" purging. After several months, I began limiting political commentary there. However, this Tumblr is my "personal" page. I have a right to speak out at times.

So here we are after Helene. Many people are still without power, and may not get power for more than a week after the storm itself. All of western NC is shut down, with almost no roads passable. Whole towns have been leveled.

Meanwhile, the GOP is basing itself on Project 2025.

In Project 2025, they propose the Breakup, downsizing, and commercialization of NOAA, the National Weather Service, and the National Hurricane Center. Think about that for a moment.

It gets worse...

Project 2025 proposes to Eliminate Funding for families and businesses for rebuilding after storms. Basically eliminating or at least greatly downsizing FEMA.

Every agency has its problems, but throwing out the baby with the bathwater is not a solution.

Every time I think about Project 2025, the current figureheads of the GOP, and their followers, I keep coming to one conclusion. They seem to have absolutely no compassion. No empathy. They seem to lack concern for their fellow countrymen. The ideas of "One for all, and all for one" and "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" appear to be absent in their thinking.

[keithmosher2]

Drop or Lift

Why do we say, “Down through the ages / years”, as if the past is above us?  Meanwhile, we count the years up.

Why don’t we “lift up” the valuables from the past?

2024/05/09

[keithmosher2]

New Ride

I thought I would let everyone know about my new ride.  To do that, I will start with an amusing story, but to do that, I have to provide a little bit of backstory.

I like TV.  I like cartoons.  One of my favorite cartoons is “The Jetsons”.  If you think all this is childish, then you are just an old fogy.  There isn’t anything wrong with some harmless, fun entertainment.

MeTV runs “The Jetsons” on Sundays.  While I do not always watch it, I do have an alarm on my phone to remind me.  The alarm is “The Jetson’s” opening and closing themes.  Heck, I might as well get up anyway.

So, today, I take my new bike out for a ride, to continue to get use to and learn about it.  I am on a typical county road, getting use to its medium-high speeds (50 - 60 mph-ish).  During my ride, my Jetson’s alarm goes off, but I’m on a motorcycle.  I’m not going to try to fiddle with my phone.  But it’s okay.  Just let it go.  About this time, the light traffic comes to a stop.

As often is on Sunday mornings, two police officers are directing church traffic, flagging egressing parishioners onto the main road.  After a bit, they block the church line and allow the main traffic to flow.  I begin to move forward slowly.  My new ride is extremely quiet, even at main road speeds.

I try to imagine this from the position of the police offer.  I swear, the timing was perfect.  I pass within a few feet of this officer, slowly picking up speed.  Blaring from my phone in my front pocket, easy to hear, is, “Help.  Help Jane.  Stop this crazy thing.  Help, Janeeee!” as I zoom off.

About the bike itself:  It is a 2014 Honda Forza 300.  While that is a decade old, it had only 2035 miles on it when I got it – the engine isn’t really broken in yet.  Technically, it is 279ccs.  Big enough to do interstate travel easily, with a top speed of 85mph.  I’ve had it up around 75, though it is most comfortable between 55 and 65.  It is best suited for the city, which is 80% or more of the driving I do.  My interstate and country high speed trips result in about 68 miles per gallon (it has an active mpg gauge), and my in city driving is about 72 mpg, so, a good 70mpg average overall.

Yes, that is a bow-tie.  It is my homage to Pee Wee Herman.  He had his “big red”, and I have mine.

Purchased 04/17/24

2024/04/21

[keithmosher2]

Through My Scope

A modest Newtonian telescope, with a cheap eyepiece digital camera, from the South Carolina midlands. Not too bad, all things considered.

[keithmosher2]

[keithmosher2]

10 Things About Me

In 2012, I was tagged in a social media game called “10 Things About Me”.  The game required people to write a post detailing 10 things about themselves, and then, in chain-letter fashion, tag 10 other people to follow suit.  Well, Tumblr isn’t quite fashioned that way, but I thought reviving this post would present some things about me – and how I have changed in the past twelve years.  If you are so inclined, follow suit and pass it on.

10 Things About Me:

1.  If the tagger is excluded, there are not 10 people on my watch list who have not been previously tagged by someone.  Yes, my watch list is very short. This is still quite true.

2.  I smoke cigars.  Never inside, except in really bad weather.  Never around anyone else, except outside in public areas. This is NO LONGER TRUE.  I quit in 2021.

3.  I am uncomfortable around people, especially women. Still true.

4.  I have a fetish/preference that makes me uncomfortable.  I will not discuss it. Still true, though I might discuss it with the right, trusted person, in a discreet fashion.

5.  The modern incarnation of the Republican Party pisses me off. Still VERY true.  Even more so now than then.

6.  I cannot enjoy sex in silence.  Words must be spoken and feelings expressed, not before or after, but during. Still true.

7.  I feel inadequate.  Yet at the same time, I feel many people are incorrect. Still true.  I have been told I suffer Imposter Syndrome.

8.  I like solitude, but I am uncomfortable being isolated, or not having a special connection with another human. Very true.

9.  I have a hard time being spontaneous.  Disruptions to a routine are, well, disruptions. Yep.

10.  At times I feel I am incapable of loving another in the traditional sense.  That is, I have deep feelings, but I also have an ability to control them.  As such, I have rarely experienced doing things I dislike or that I am really uncomfortable with, and yet enjoyed them because I was doing them for someone else.  If I dislike a thing, I dislike it, no matter that I am doing it for someone.  To steal from Meatloaf, “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.” Not wholly true.  I have learned that I do know love, deep love.  Emotion so strong it can be incapacitating at times.  As such, I cannot really control them, though I can often dial them down – but not out, and not for long.  That said, I do have a strong memory.  If I do not like something, I do not like it, and I will remember having to do it to please another.  However, I do not hold grudges.  Instead, the memories give me trepidation.

At this point, I was to cite / tag ten bloggers to follow suit.  Unfortunately, I could come up with only eight.

Your turn.

[keithmosher2]

The Greatest Hurt

I know I destroyed the love. It is a shame that also broke the friendship.

2024/03/13

[keithmosher2]

Carrying Burden

Leaving you was a mistake. A regret I will carry to my grave.

Between now and then, I have to find a way to live.

2024/03/12

[keithmosher2]

The Albino Skunk Groupie

(Written 2012/11/13, Edited 2024)

If you are introverted, shy, and you have low self-esteem, you miss things.  You do not learn necessary social skills.  You seclude yourself.  You assume you are not wanted or enjoyed.  You are always last to the party and first to leave, that is if you are invited at all, and the next day you hear about all the cool things you missed.

While in college studying Audio Engineering, I worked a lot of little jobs to keep myself going.  I was on the work-study program in my department, which yielded a small but regular paycheck.  From time to time, to earn extra bucks, I was a stage-hand extra at the Coliseum, our university’s basketball / concert / what-have-you venue.  It was, and still is, your typical thirteen-thousand seat, sort of semi-dome, where they present everything from graduations to “Monster Trucks, this SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!”

Generally I worked rock concerts but I did a little of everything.  I helped set the stage for an evening with Red Skeleton, and helped set up David Copperfield’s magic show.  I enjoy magic tricks and sleight of hand.  While working on the stage I poked and peeked into the, “Split a Lady in Three Boxes” trick and was caught by one of his Roadies who gave me a firm scolding, but it was worth it.

I worked big concerts too, from Foghat and their “Wall of Sound” to LTD and The Commodores, to KISS.  While setting up Foghat, I noticed a gal stage-hand.  She had long black and silver hair, tight jeans around curvy hips.  A sort of hippy air, which is a style I find enjoyable.  She caught my eye, not only because of her style, but also because she was right there pulling cables with us.  She was the first gal I had seen working a concert.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think that is because it was a guy’s club or anything like that, and it isn’t that women are not capable.  They are way beyond capable.  It was just that, in my experience, I had not seen any women working stage setups and tear-downs.  These jobs are entirely physical grunt work that goes on for hours, which may not appeal to women, or that may be managements’ failure, but that is another discussion.

Anyway, I couldn’t help shooting her looks.  That long hair, knowing she had to be into rock and roll, the hippy, cool chic look.  To cap it off, she was a little bit older than me, and I have a penchant for older women.  I guess she noticed my stares.  Heck, how could she miss them?  I shot glances her way every free second I got.

It takes several hours to set up a concert.  Pull in and build the stage.  The riggers have to climb into the rafters to get the truss wenches in place.  Assembling the lighting truss and flying it, pulling power cables, monitor cables, mic cables, placing set pieces and props and on and on it goes.  But it does all have to stop.  The show must go on.

This particular show’s set and sound system was so large it required more time than usual, so the stage-hands were broken into two shifts.  That was done mostly to keep them from being totally burned out.  Both shifts would have to come together at the end of the show for the tear-down, which had to happen fast.

My shift was given the all clear and the second set of stage-hands and Roadies started to come in and do their thing.  Much to my surprise the chic comes over to me and asks, “What are you doing until show time?”  I said, “Nothin’ I guess.”  She asks, “Want to come to my place and hang out?”

I am stunned.  I did not know what to think.  Maybe she wants to be friends.  Maybe something could happen.  These thoughts flash through my mind for a fleeting moment.  Then I remember myself.  That could not possibly be the case.  There had to be another motive.  I thought about my long hair, my appearance, and I realize she was probably thinking about some free smoke.  But hey, I get to smoke with this really cool chic.”  I say, “Sure.”

She tells me where she lives, which is nearby.  It is a bit unnerving to me because it is a motel.  I never knew anyone who lived in a motel before.  Regardless, I go to her room.  She invites me in.  The room is personalized, so she was clearly living there, not just spending the night.

Suddenly, out from under the bed crawls an albino skunk.  It has a big bushy tail.  It is not pure white, but a sort of light blonde, with the faintest hint of the two main white stripes down its back.  The eyes were pink, as with all albinos.  She tells me the skunk is her pet and that it had been de-skunked, and that he is friendly, and he was.  He acts like a cat, rubbing up against my leg and wanting to be petted.

The chic sits on the bed, and I sit on a chair playing with the skunk as we talk.  I pull out a doobie and ask if she wants some.  She eagerly agrees, so it all starts to make sense in this innocent geek’s mind.  After a bit, she pats the empty spot of the bed beside her, “Do you want to sit on the bed?”  “No, I’m good,” I reply as casually as if she had asked me the time.  I did not have a clue.

A little while later she places both her hands gently on her crotch and says, “Do you wanna, you know?”  It was like I had been whacked in the head with a baseball bat.  Little pieces of brick ‘n’ brock in the room suddenly have meaning.  There is no talk of money.  She wasn’t a hooker.  She just enjoys – sex.  That was something I wasn’t prepared for.

I didn’t say anything.  I couldn’t.  I could not utter words.  I let out a sort of, “Nnnaa mmm.”  I got up and sat down on the floor, my back against the bed, pretty much turning my back to her.  When I get enough courage to speak, I say, “I just want to play with your skunk.”  I pet the skunk for what feels like 30 minutes, but was probably three minutes at best, and then say, “Well, I better get something to eat.  Show’s going to start in a while.  Thanks for the smoke.”  Poof, I was out of there like lightening.  Not because I was afraid of her or offended by her.  Hell, I was attracted to her.  But I needed something more than Hello, Puff, Fuck.  It was all just too much for me to handle.  I had no experience.  I could not figure out how to turn something so straightforward and casual, into something that made sense to me.  I truly did not know what to do or how to deal with it.

Hey, I did get to play with an albino skunk.

[keithmosher2]

Meaningless

I had changed. I was no longer the person you met. I had changed, and I did not know why. I hated what that change was doing to you. I needed to find my former self. I needed to be alone, completely alone. I needed to bury the quarrelsome person I was becoming, and I needed to protect you from it. So I let go of you.

Now, years later, I am who I was. The quarrelsome agitation is gone. But it is meaningless without you.

2024/03/07

[keithmosher2]

Lament

Before I let go of you, I thought I could find happiness. When I let go of you, I thought I would find happiness.

I was wrong.

2024/03/06

[keithmosher2]

Yearning

While in a crowd, A smile would calm my loneliness. A wink, a nod, Would ignite my fantasies.