Step Back

Step forward, Step back, Step left, step right and right again...... what did that give ya?



Heck if I know.



Not a bad Saturday. The exterior house list was set aside. The inside got some attention but not where it really needs it though its not that bad. No.. its fine... I can get myself frustrated just trying to sort electronic cables and power chargers and camera equipment. I did get it done but didn't solve all the problems. Some....

Plan for tomorrow is ( Im laughing here ) remove everything from the trailer and get it put in the garage. Move all the cables and equipment sorted yesterday to the garage and stored, maybe get down and get a new vent hood, work on some pictures and videos... feeling like I am living with a low grade fever ( not Ebola sheesh! ) is not making me real happy.

Most of my friends are in Taos. Balloon rally up there. Not sure that if I went I would be able to get out of the hotel bed.. no I would.. I was not in the rally but thought of renegading it. Too bad I had no crew and half the balloon system is already in the garage apart. We are set to go to Gallup in December so there... we are doing something.

I edited a video of Phil's flight on the 10th. I had mistaken on the dates until I saw the time stamp. Andrews flight was Thursday and Phil's was Friday with Linda's being Saturday. Linda is going to get me a Cherokee Nation flag to fly on my balloon. Cant wait to put it on the crown line. Pretty awesome! Its time I set my flags on my system... just being lazy again.

I also took five pictures and panel edited them. All are Dawn Patrol shots. The hardest to shoot by hand, but I did get a few that were not fuzzy and out of focus. I will be tweaking fiesta pictures for a while. I did find an easy and quick way to expand my storage systems. Took heavy thinking to do it too. Lots of decisions on moving, saving specific space and doubling things. Very technical.. shhh!

Such a bunch of interesting things to do. These were selected for the frame. No really they just worked that way. Time to do some thinking and thinking. So much of that to do. Oh..and what are the thoughts out there on drawing surfaces? Worth it? I can think it would help on some painting aspects of editing, not full time using of it. I did looked at a writing pad that could be sent to my iPad.

I am a writer of massive amounts of notes. Little yellow notepads. I scanned in tons of them the other day or three. Lots of worthwhile information but no ability to easily move them to digital form. There are some pens and pads that will do it but the reviews are all over the place. I guess I could try it out and if it didn't work like it said return it... its a pain though.

Thinking.....

The link to Phil's flight.. fun times.

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e13729b7a

Side Stepping

Wandered away again to do other things... Seems I have lost my advertising... since they never paid me I am glad to see the back of them. If I want advertisers here it will be the ones chosen by me and perhaps a few coins in my pocket.

I was distracted by photographs and videos. I was editing balloon shots and got discouraged due to the poor lighting ( darn you sky! ) ( darn you having to fly when the sun broke out! ) and having to boost the contrast. Blah.

Then I was editing videos and got to one with my friend Phil in it and did it once.. and didn't like it.. then I did it again.. editing video is pretty crazy time consuming but still I didn't like how it came up. I started for the third time and stopped since it was now feeling forced. Maybe I can get back to it this weekend.

This has been a unsettling week. Instabilities, upsets, deaths of friends and then a friends dog.. dog as in family too. ( I am staring at my dog right now ). A sucky week. I know its been rough and its always something and I darn well will miss my dog when she heads out to the fields to run but I have to stand by my statement that I was better for knowing them. I am happy they are happy and at peace? Or barking? I know I will really miss Izzy meeting me at the door and trying to guess my tracking about the house and sitting with me like a cat but I will never get another dog because no dog can replace this one in my life... Same goes with friends and family ( except getting new ones cause.. well.. ) . Yes.. everything dies.. yes it sucks to be apart from them but yes.. they are happier I am sure... unless they are/were EVIL!...

Happy to have known you and enjoyed your company.. see ya soon.

That all has occupied my head.... today being Friday I was going through the work on my desk.. as it went up and down.. as I sat and stood.. stood and sat.... Oh... where was I.. yes.. It got cold in the office and I decided to make my rounds of the property and took the camera with me to warm up. I also decided to slap on a 4x and 10x lens filters on the front... What the heck... I took some pictures of the leaves and a few flowers and one .. amazing.. one.. walking... stick bug.... go figure! You can see the edits below. They will end up in our office foyer digital picture frames. I did crop for wide on these. Full size they are excellent. Seriously sharp focal range.

Off I go to calm my headache and not go to bed at 8pm on a Friday... so old.. so old.

Post Script... No I meant to spell like that.

F R I D A Y F R E A K O U T

It was a long time coming.
It was going to be a break.
Turns out that is not gonna
Be that type of break
Shoot On!

Not like I can stay asleep longer that 6 hours anyway without the brain deciding to play nut ball videos behind my eyelids. It would be fine if they made sense or we interesting but dang. Woke three times this morning just because it was so boring. Third time it was close enough to 6 to go to work. I still got there half hour early. Went straight to work when I walked in. It is a rare morning that I don't. Not because there is an emergency, but because there is always a list. Oh. I did have to catch someone before they left for the day and I just did that. Whew.

I did get a lot done. Every bit of it disconnected from everything else. I stood at my desk for 80 % of the day. My heels feel it the most. Cushion mat on the way. Might even get some inserts for my shoes. I can stand for everything but heavy calculations. If I have more than two thoughts going on I need to sit. Strange but it works.. I rather do that thinking sitting. Standing in the corner isn't working.

One of the things I would love to have, and I am copying a very cool guy, is a barber chair. B at the ROC has a chair in his office. I think its a great thinking place. Too bad the nice old chairs are upward of 2000 bucks. Its a thought though. I would also like a little higher wall on my monitor side. I can look over the wall standing and I get distracted easily but people walking past.... maybe I could have them duck.... naaa.... they would throw things at me instead. Have to think on that one.

I edited a few pictures and really could have gotten carried away with that but set a limit to it. I posted five to Facebook and I have a few for here, which I will post below. Click on them because they are cooler larger and the small size here sucks. I was going to edit a video but was having such a problem with it I saved where I was and gave up for the night. Its a river run and I want it to be a dual view but its not working right and I am too tired.

Here are some of the shots I worked on tonight... Nowhere near the amount worth working on.

Wides are so much fun

Farmers is a friends new Lindstrand.

Hoots cool. Place was stacked up for some reason.

North gate.

Puddles near Copper State.

Tomorrow I may do the racers and competition.. maybe

Tomorrow morning.. shoot shoot..shooooting

Skippers

Skipped yesterday

The computer was taking forever to process a dual video I edited. It turned out nicely though the original 720 is much cleaner and clearer than the version uploaded. Too bad for that. Full screen it is pretty impressive. Had to boost the contrast since it was a very low light day.

Link is here..

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e36b85236

A good piece of Enya in the back. It was much longer since we sat on the field for a while waiting to be launched. Also the view was more than excellent in 360 degrees but there is so much the cameras can capture.

I am going to try to edit all cameras into one video and speed it up.. its going to take ages to do but it might be worth it. Its a two pass splash and dash in the Rio Grande. The first was a miss but the second was excellent. I have another to do but I have to send some pictures to a friend in a moment and I do not have the time to do everything at once. I owe him some reverse pictures of him in the river in a kayak.

Off I go.. but here are some shots from the same day as the video adjusted for the hell of it.

The clouds were impressive...

Lindy in it.

FIJI! That is not touched. THe clouds were roiling.

Deep colors that I lightened a bit.

Patturns Highperactive and launch grid mate.

I wish I had time to take pictures of the clouds but I had ( wanted ) to fly! It was still impressive darnit!

Off I go to send some pictures

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..........................................

1st day of waking up late

Yeah! I get up later to go to work than I do for Fiesta... Whats that all about>!??!

First day back at work and it was a stack of email that seemed to never end but did.

First day back and a meeting that was fun because of the people in it.

First day back and I did a lot of number crunching, document finding, verification.

First day back and I really enjoy my job. Whine that I might sometimes about some of the goofier things.

Even the commute was fine there and back. No...not that it was light or no traffic.. I just didnt care about it.

I think I spent the drive home today thinking on what the last week was full of and what I would find once I started looking into the next days video edits.

Yes, I did edit Monday mornings flight with Aldis. It was just the front camera as its easy to do. Really like the music even if it isn't a great fit. It was a fun flight with a fun ending.

I wonder what the rest of the week will be like......

Some shots from the day that I grabbed quickly. There are some very nice ones and some of the below I want to edit a bit but that's for the weekend.

( addition... Found this band..Love this song... )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PURBm6kmMQ

My Lindstrand. Never get tired of looking up. Love the feel of the burners.

This shot looks so fake! Its like someone laid the red line over the picture. It isn't. Its real. Just my red line and black turning vent line in the way of the shot.

Overflight. Most days we were launched in a kooky way. The winds were kooky too.

Frank! No landing on other balloons! Just Kidding. But that face!

My great friends Eric and Holly in a special balloon with the city behind them... my favorite kind of shot.

That basket they are in can be broken down to about 1 foot high. It has a snazzy little burner too.

Yep.. I have to crop some of these.. they are that fun. Not tonight.. too tired.

I think I may just go do that now.

Back to the stack

Didn't think I would want to write more so soon. yesterdays blog on Fiesta was such a quick brush over the realities of it all.

Listening to Zero 7 - Swing.

Music affects much of my thought processes.

Off on a full left turn there. I had to stop and think about "it all" again. The people, the pressure, the procedures.

People. Many fantastic people circulating within arms reach. How can you talk to all of them and spend quality time with each one. Ya cant but you can try. I missed a bunch that I did want to talk to.

Fiesta field is so massive and there are so many hours in the day....or as many hours as you possibly can before your are falling asleep in your chair.

Next year I am going to pack a bag of clothes to change into. I usually wear black bdu pants for flying since they breath and are pretty baggy, making it easier to jump in and out of the basket. Sturdy boots are also a must. Landing in the field on Saturday proved that. Even with those boots I have deep rips in the back of my calf's from the thorn bushes. It would be very nice to jump into a pair of shorts and sandals. I did walk around in my socks for a bit but going to the portas without shoes is insane.

Thinks passing through the brains. HAH

I edited one video today. It is good but not what it could be editing all five cameras into one video. I didn't have the time for that. I do have all year to do that. I will do the quick and easy first, go back and edit a few other things, make a crew video, then I will go back and edit multi stream videos.

The pressure to fly was there but more in the background than years before. I think that was because I had an extra 10 gallons of propane. A good buffer if the winds picked up and I had to look South to land. Knowing a little more about my systems ability to drop into pockets and quickly deflate was nice too.

Procedures. I have to look into a different way of deflating the envelope on regular days though. Instead of having the crown crew work so hard to bring it down I want to see what just holding it and letting the envelope fall does. Just enough pull on the crown line to keep it from falling over the basket. Hmmm.. The setup is working great. Putting enough weight on the basket stops the envelope from gyrating in the wind. The crews speed and quick action helped Saturday also when we inflated against the light wind. The balloon came up and because of the direction of the wind it closed the throat. A swift 180 degree twist of the system opened it back up and we were golden.

Good and knowledgeable crew are what makes it easy to fly and protect the balloon from damage. There were a lot of burned panels and rips and tears on the field this year.

A very safe Fiesta this year. Lets hope it continues.

Lots of pictures still to look at and add in. Some more with thoughts.

 Morning Pilot brief at the tower. 500 plus Pilots. Think about that one for a moment.

 The Balloon Museum. Light and color in the morning air.

 The flames from a burner check are amazing. I don't think I'm a pyromaniac but danged if there isnt something beautiful in how the roiling flows.

 With 500 plus balloons of different sizes on the field and two waves it is still tight on the launch grids. We know our neighbors so its all good. My truck nose near Diamonds.

A quick liftoff after a hard inflation for this racer. Going up or down quickly over fiesta field.. and heck anywhere within four miles was a cautious thing. I had to do about three sets of quick ( 200 fpm )  up and down maneuvers over the field to avoid balloons coming up or down at me. Quite a trip.

So there you go, another quick glimpse of Fiesta. More as my brain processes it all. I dont want to type all night and things are hitting as I remember them.

Tomorrow I go back to work. Comfortably hectic. I cant wait. I would love someone to go through all the email that is in my in basket. I fear that..LOL. A good cup of coffee and a pop tart should see me through. I hope.

Talk to you all tomorrow maybe.

Dog days..... Lounging, resting...

Sitting....

After a total of ten days of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta I just want to lay up and rest.

I commend those that travel to New Mexico and have to travel back home. We do enjoy your visiting as family that just live elsewhere. We wish you could be here all the time to fly around in the skies over Albuquerque. Get home safely, get some rest, relax, prepare for next year.

Normally for those that are unaware of the events of the last ten days I can put it down here. First though let me say this. Normally we have a break somewhere due to weather. Be it rain, wind, snow, or other weather symptoms. This year... none.

Fiesta starts for me around Wednesday with the new evening registration. Thursday is the day to prepare by purchasing food and drink for four or so days. Ice is a three day thing.  Then there is the equipment and other items that have to be prepared. A very long list.

Friday morning at 6am we are off to a school selected by ourselves or AIBF to show the children what ballooning is and then fly off. Didn't happen his year. Had a turning vent bind so couldn't launch. Did talk to the kids for quite a while and fix the line. Saturday through Sunday we get up around 3am and leave the house about 5ish loaded with crew and equipment for the field. Brief is at 615am and we launch when we are told. Monday through Friday we leave the house a little later. Give or take waiting for crew to show up or forgetting them and having to return to pick them up.. woops.

After ballooning we normally return to the field to tailgate, swap stories of the flight and visit with friends. When we are just too tired to talk ( hah ) we head home to unload, restock and prep for the next day. In the years past there is a nap in there somewhere. None this year. Terrible!

Highlights of this year.

The winds were for the most part South in an arc of 90 to 100 degrees. It was so unpredictable as to be un-guessable. The first day ( Saturday ) I had picked out about 7 different landing places based on the wind flow. It ended up being the middle one and that only by quickly adjusting height and dropping like a rock towards it.

On Friday the winds changed and headed somewhat Northerly. We were able to get two runs into the river on Friday. One was a miss since the wind was quick and I didn't go out past the river far enough before dropping into it. Second try was after I saw two friends low and heading back to the river and decided I had enough fuel to drop in on them and try for the river again. We did. It was fun. Got bumped by the Annony balloon just over tree top level. We waved and took pictures of each other before heading through a gap in the trees and into the river. After we lifted back off the water I found a nice little level of Southeast wind to take me almost back to the field.

Saturday was more of the same but weirder. I took an experienced crew member because as I expected we would end up on the Pueblo and be there under less than fun circumstances for a while. That all came true. We did get past the river. We did get bumped off the river cycle by another balloon. They seemed to want a close look at my basket and I refused to let them get near enough. It was trying. I was glad I had two very experienced eyes because it was that close. I had my racers speed to remove myself from the area.

Due to that, we missed our window to get down to the river there. We headed North and the winds hooked us back to the river much farther North than I ever like. We dropped in.. Splashed.. visited with some wonderful kayaks and then found ourselves stuck over the Pueblo. We landed and for about forty minuted we swung and swayed while other balloons dropped in around us. We did visit with some nice cows but in the end had to lay the envelope down and wait for the crew to walk two fields to us. Overall we were out in that field for ages. The Pueblo police and people were fantastic as usual. Due to the amount of balloons in the same area and the tourists stopping on the roads it was forever getting off and back to the field.

Fiesta was overall fantastic. A few problems here and there. I only flew veteran crew who could take a bump or bruise or sit in a field forever without going bonkers and I did take two others. One very nice guy who could take a hit and walk away smiling and the father of a crew-member on probably the best and softest day possible.... I think that was Tuesday.

Of the 6 days flown five of them we were caught out of the sky by the crew. The one day we didn't it was crazy winds and a cow field. LOL. A few we were going to fly at the end of the week we didn't get to because of those crazy winds. Unfortunate but that's Fiesta. You can hope to fly but like the last day ( Sunday ) ( Today ) we are at the mercy of the weather.

365 days till the next Fiesta. Many things to do. Many modifications to our plans.

Some ( hahaha ) shots taken. I did take a lot of pictures... Lots and Lots.. and video.. let me tell you!

The Ram and Trailer on our launch grid.

Black Magic Woman glowing.

Dawn Patrol. Hard to get good shots of them.

Morning breaking.

Low baskets, Low flight.

Far too many flags for me to remember.

PITAS KISS climbing.

Seven quick shots not touched up but interesting.. from the FIRST day! LOL.


Done and done.. its almost regular bed time and I have to get back on my cycle or its going to be hell going back to work and I want to go back to work... I have MANY things to do!