Friday, April 11, 2008

Riveting

Ya know, sometimes life becomes so routine that the truly bizarre stuff doesn't strike you a weird until you've, say, gotten out of the house for the first time in three weeks. Then you realize that, in truth, your family is, perhaps, a little on the strange side.

So when I read this from Jag, I was, at first relieved that there was someone else around who is following the day-to-day goings on at NASA besides Dirtman. I mean, someone has to, ya know.

Dirtman is addicted to the NASA channel. He even watches when all they are showing is, like, two people milling around the mission control room. He even watches reruns of two people milling around the mission control room. Then he feels obligated to tell me about it.

But Jag's post reminded me very specifically of this one exchange in the middle of the night when I woke at two o'clock in the morning and Dirtman has not yet come to bed. I found him in the Man Cave and on the TV screen was a shot of (once again) the mission control room where a guy was staring at a screen and another guy was shuffling paper off to the side.

Me: You can't function on this little sleep. You need to come to bed.

Dirtman (whispering): The astronauts are sleeping.

6 comments:

jagosaurus said...

Even I am not that dedicated, and I used to work for NASA.

jagosaurus said...

Also, if I am going to watch launches and landings, I always watch them on the NASA channel because [a] why not and [b] there isn't all that unnecessary chatter.

Sisiggy said...

Well, I'm certainly glad someone experienced is watching, even if on a limited basis. I doubt Dirtman would know what action to take if, say, the guy shuffling papers got a paper cut or something and was unable to fulfill his duties.

When Dirtman watched his first launch on the NASA channel, he actually panicked when he saw some puff of steam or something and wondered if anyone had noticed it. Like he should call it in or something...

Gwynne said...

I don't watch regularly, but I always stop on this channel if I'm flipping channels (which, honestly, is all I ever do when presented with a teevee and a remote control) because I'm intrigued by the quietness of if all. Like Jag says...no chatter. As reality teevee goes, watching astronauts sleep ranks at the top of the list. ;-)

Meg said...

I don't think we get this channel. :( We have some nice, weird Japanese game show channel, though, which is pretty hilarious.

He could choose worse reality shows to watch, though. At least he's not watching those future model shows. Or "What Not To Wear". The people on those shows grate on my nerves...

Darkgarden said...

He goes without sleep... for all of us that sleepeth not...

He holds vigil in The Cave, until all of us lost return home again...

...He watches... and....

... watches still...

for all us sinners out there.



dirtman