Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!!

To all of you who I have not said Merry Christmas to.. Merry Christmas!

And the New Year is around the bend. To this I say.. Please bring stability, happiness and less stress to us all.



A blurred shot of the Christmas Eve Glow at Arroyo Del Oso Golf Course which in the past has been also for breast cancer awareness.

It was fun... Cold... but not windy and my Son was able to do his first glow as a PIT Solo ( Pilot In Training ). He soloed that morning. Did a good job of it and landed right at a place I have used before. Nice cul de sac. So we glowed our old balloon Kiss A Hoy. I got 15 minutes of it. I still remember how to keep it bright and on the ground even with the paravent. The pictures below are from that evening event.

We had lots of crew and lots of food and fun at the pot luck after. Ray and Carol always throw a good after glow party. Sorry no pictures of that as I refuse to shoot people eating. Its rude. Id not like anyone taking my picture stuffing my face so......

Christmas was nice and quiet and just the kids. It was nice. We did get to put luminaria out or I should say my Son did it before we got home from the party. Very nice.

Most of the remainder of the five days I had off was playing Fallout 4 or watching Mo play Halo 5 or black ops... Oh those undead are sickening. Yeah they ghouls in Fallout are in your face more often but they are not as .... nasty. I spent way too much time on Fallout 4.

Between setting up settlements and getting supplies and buying wood, steel, gears and stuff you need to put up houses, make beds, gun turrets and walls..... well... Its a lot of work... Plus with so many settlements now visiting them all gets boring. You have to visit them or they get attacked and you get a fail on helping them survive. I gave up tonight when I was sitting at a settlement and it said it was getting attacked and that I failed to help.. I was standing right there and when I turn around one of my settlers was dead on the floor.... What the hell is with that?!

I have started just building footings and walls out of huge cement blocks. It wont stop raiders or synths as I have found out. Two settlements are as secure as a solid cement block and they still popped seven synths in and two raiders who played hell with my people. The game is great but if I have no doors into a place how the hell are you getting people in game? Bad on the game makers.

Well it is a game. A silly but entertaining game.

Work starts back up tomorrow.... No calls over the five days so I am hoping everything is working.... I know some sensor sites have taken a hit but in the blizzard conditions out in places they cant hang in there. It will be busy tomorrow but a good busy. I like being busy.. I do not like being overrun though.... I dont expect that though... If I can navigate across the river in the dangerous icy road ways tomorrow morning I can hope to have a full day of sorting things out.

Hoping...













I keep editing and playing around. There are 617 shots to fool with.

I did get my office/computer room returned to where it was before and the guest/daughters room back to being a guest room.. No.. really... I did.. it took one whole day to get everything switched out and the spare mattresses sealed in plastic but its quite done..... The computer room is working but the cable needs to be rerun to this room and the computers need to be placed and connected up correctly. They need a shelf of their own and a spot for all the drives that I can get to easily as I swap drives frequently. I was not going to brave the icy roads today to get a shelf unit. It can wait for my return trip from work tomorrow. Then I can route cables and such to where they should be. I can work from home easily though. Nothing stopping that.

Fingers crossed for safe trip in to work tomorrow for us all....

Full up.

Many things to be thankful this Sunday....

Parents who love each other.... Friends and family family's ballooning family family.... many other things in this referent....



Staring out on Wednesday really. Two day of work on Mon and Tues... Wednesday I took off in the truck to visit the parents for almost two days,. Had to fit it in between work and my sons flight off of Fiesta field for the first time. Ill get back to that but the above picture is of Kiss A Hoy in all her air flying super... back in the air glory.

Went up seven hours North with fingers crossed the snow that had fallen across Colorado Springs and Denver was gone enough to make driving through it workable. I was worried when I saw the video from the highway cameras but was resolute that I would try and even if turned back at some point I would try.

I made it. Colorado Springs and Denver were wet but very passable. I even drove through Denver on a Wednesday afternoon... known to be one of the worse places to drive in on said day at said time... No problems... yeah a little slow but much better than Albuquerque at rush hour.

When I got off the highway at Longmont the story was quite different... They had 11 inches of snow in places and slightly less in others... They only plow the bus routes... oh yeah.. fun.... In a truck with a light butt.. fun... Tires are pretty new so it was only starts that were a trouble.

I got to see my Mom and Dad bowl...which was excellent and I spent a lot of time with my mom watching her favorite television shows. It was quality time indeed. Dad, I helped disassemble his light awning which the snow had collapsed. It was so biting cold ( 4 degrees ) that it was easy to snap the supports and break it down. Over the side of the deck it went until the snow was gone. That and look at a program for my Dad that was not working right.. turned out to be incompatible file systems... No luck fixing it. Needs to be pulled off old computer and run and copied. Didn't get to a few things but it was a quick trip.

I did also get to visit quickly with my little sister and kids but they were off to the first showing of Star Wars so there was no holding them back. It was a good visit.. a short visit. My mother has advanced Alzheimer's. She is getting on very well with the massive care and love of my father. He is amazing. Compassion and humor. Really loved watching them both. Sorry Mom and Dad.. I watched. You guys are amazing. Mom loves westerns now and Hogans Heroes and MASH. I kinda miss them even sitting and watching them for a few hours. Like my older sister I plan on visiting every month now. Next time.. January for more than two days.

The drive back was without a problem other than the harsh winds South of Pueblo. My average MPG went down to 16.2 but came back up on entering New Mexico. Slipped over the 70000 mark at the same time. Time for the Preventative Maintenance on the Ram.

So yes, the trip was fine going back until just East of Santa Fe when all the serious morons came out to play. One thing that is nice in Colorado.. they get out of the freakin left lane unless they are passing. New Mexico drivers.. not all.. by any means... but the dumbest always park their stupid butts in the left lane on the highway and drive at 5 miles below the speed limit... usually when you cant pass but as soon as there is a break and you can pass them they speed up... some sort of brain dead "cant let you be in front of me" zombie-ism.... I hate them for it. But I did get home and it was all good.

Saturday, the Jingle Bell Non Rally went well... I got a lot of pictures in the crappy light and some of them was neat. Mo flew and did a fine job.. his trainers are great.. Jess was excellent. I do not care to fly off of Fiesta field unless there is a good West push. Its boring...unless you can get to the river and play. Watching the son fly though is very difficult... I worry. He flys fine. I still worry.

Here are a few shots that are worth showing...

Elliptical throat of a new Adams envelope.. Interesting but a little too little nomex for me.


Four good tries. They were all almost swept off their feet as the balloon rose. Funny as all get out.


A "looks like" close flyby.



A happy trainer and a Kiss A Hoy flight off Fiesta field for the first time in around ten years.



You see the strangest things while chasing balloons..... Very strange....


And now its Sunday and my blog is done. I left a whole lot out but there is no time ( space ) and there is not talking about stuff.... But hay....

Dog is on my lap.. Keyboard is laid on top of her as she wont move.. she cares little... she just wants to lay on my lap>?!?!?@

Fallout 4 is still going on. Spent a lot of time getting to rescue people and clear out buildings many times over and try and figure out how to defend or build defenses around settlements that have no level ground and over watching rocks.. stupid. Every time I start getting enough supplies to build nice cement footings and / or walls..they want me to clean something else.... its a royal pain in the butt to try and set this stuff up. I didn't want to set up more than a few settlements but there is a constant request from the dingle berry in Sanctuary to clear this out and set that beacon up.. yeesh!

Okay I am going to play a little more before bed time.. sigh.. damn these people making these games.

Sunday pre Duex

Since I was so late on last weekends post I wanted to get this out on time.



Lots of interesting things this week. Mainly... was the invitation to shoot a part of the Elevation to the Supreme Court in New Mexico of a friend and fellow balloonist Judy Nakamura. Enjoying it from the left side was great as I counted two official photographers or professionals and two news cameras. I want to think I got some very candid and un-visible pictures from my side. I am sure I missed some good shots from the right but with the venue and the massive amount of people who came out to watch... well it was impossible to run from one side to the other though I did run the left side.

It was the first time I have been in such company other than one visit to a congressman's offices and he seemed to be nice too. To my eye I thought every Justice was very nice and approachable. Did I? No. I loved the smiles and went for every one I could see as well has hugs and other hand gestures... Not really faces and handshakes. There is a difference. I didn't want to push my way in and grab hands.. I didn't even want to get in the way ... I dunno.. I thought it would be... I dunno...  I left after the ceremony and all the great speeches and left it to my fellow balloonists to have fun...

I was incorrectly dressed and my sciatic had had about enough and I didn't want to fall on the ground like I did before at headquarters. Its never fun to just fall down. Better to shoot and run. It looked like a lot of fun from the pictures posted on facebook.

Where are my shots.... out of the 900 plus shots I processed what I thought were the good ones... but since they were very direct shots I have asked Judy first before posting them and I am giving her the option to veto any before I do... So .. what do you get tonight....RRBR Sunday flight shots... just a few..... I did say I would post a few so here they are... One favorite too..

One thing I did love hearing was Judy's comment, and I am going to write this badly.. She said that she would always interpret the laws even though she might personally not like what that meant. Okay my words.. she said it perfectly... Impressive. Ill try and get her to give me the exact words when she has a chance.

Its a lift off... Spun around like a top as usual. The spectators on the ground next to us loved it.

Those in the throat of the canyon were getting some up.. I got some North West into the side canyon.

Spectators on the top- edge of the first rock formation as we came up.

Stalled in the side canyon we watched as the penguin has a very swift level where we could find none and came to us and boped us and slid away.... we still stayed right where we were... So weird.

My fav for the day... Contrasts and the awesome view of people on the top edge of rock between the two balloons.... Love it.

An Adams decides to drop its dress... hahahaha.... Pop A Top.. and down it goes.

It was a fun Red Rock Rally and I have to decide if I want to do it again next year.....

So besides the ballooning and the cool view of Judy donning that black robe..... well its been Fallout 4.

This weeks findings of the game... Companions who decide to stand in your way and mane me eat three grenades.. yeah.. fun..... Or.. when you are getting a nice bead on a head shot on some mutant they stand in front of you.... Or when you want them to carry stuff and they wander off and the game will not hold the option.. That is frustrating.

Fun things.. I figured out a nice barbican or killing ground on the entrances to all my Minuteman supported homesteads... Its a four box making a U. Door way opens and you face a wall and you have to turn left or right to go around that wall to get to the doorway to the homestead but on that wall you turn to face there are three or four gun turrets....which you have to walk past to get in... Great huh! So if raiders or mutants blow the upper gun turrets away they still have to get past the gauntlet in the barbican.

It is bloody murder and pain in the head with forced perspective setting up walls and buildings in this game. The ground is not level and the walls  want to be... They either float off the ground too much or bury into the ground too much. So I have to set separate walls up to try and follow the terrain... most times it works. I did cheat a bit on two places and used pre-made housing units. I like my groupings of cubes and extensions... I am laughing at how many cows show up as soon as a bunch of settlers or wanders arrive.

I have eight homesteads running as well as my private area at the first Red Rocket station. Got tired of people sleeping in my bed in Sanctuary even though there were beds for everyone elsewhere. Its irritating to have people wandering around your place once you have it set up. SOooooooo... Even though most of my stuff is still in my main tower in Sank City my smaller tower at the RR is nicely set up. No space for all the suits of power armor there though... Should I make a second tower to house them all and drop the size of the S City one to standard size. I would like to have towers in all sections of the place.. that would be cool... Not interested in building larger cites for the people... With Diamond City and Goodneighbour I am not sure its necessary.... But I could go on.

I spend more time rescuing idiots in this game and building beds and putting water in then I do killing bad guys... but I have to get into Vault 95 next so.. ugh! Great Exploding ammo shotgun.. my fav weapon so far.

Loads to explore still.

And I am off... voom!

Really.. Its Sunday!

Yeah yeah yeah.... After driving back form the Red ROck Balloon Rally I was in no mood to be typing in the blog... so it got shuffled to today.. Yes.. Wednesday.. Not Monday or Tuesday... Lucky its getting done now as the dog is trying to sit in my lap and that means balancing the keyboard on her and she was having nothing to do with that so now she is beside me .. and upset about it... Then there was the whole logging in thing.. System wouldn't log me in and kept trying to send me to my other "non blogger" account which for obvious reasons didn't work.. then.. in a blink it let me in... No accounting the goofiness of computers and the software that runs on them.. and the net and google itself...




Let me deal with the week leading up to last Sunday..... Nothing major happened.. days in a row.... Did get a nice new sliding glass door installed .. and then my zombie proof iron bars restored... I like them even if they do make the view a little jail like... To get in my house you have to cut your way in and that will take long enough for the police to visit and remove said cutting device from your hands... and if you're a zombie.. well.. boom! Bye Bye... So nice to have a door that glides open and closed and is also double paned. Nice...

Friday we took off for Gallup... Made it there in good time even hauling the trailer. Nice hotel right off the main off ramp.. Comfort Inn... Good clean and enjoyable place to stay.. Outside electrical hookups and could back right in very easily. No flying Saturday due to the wind direction and the speeds I think I remember... Sunday was terribly cold but we could fly. My inflation was nice with good crew from Albuquerque there to help.. Paid for their own hotel like we used to when we crewed... Long time ago.. Lovely.... Inflated... and our rider from Saturday didnt show up so I just chucked one of the crew in and with the thumbs up of a colorful zebra we were off... even caught a wind going towards the rocks... made it between two fingers of rock and was becalmed... up... down. nothing.. sat there... even watching others go around us we sat there.. then the penguin balloon came over and bumped off us hard... decided to drop out and look for something but nada.... played around a bit more but no one else wanted to fly so we set down... packed up.. got propane.. and headed home.

It was nice...

The above photo crop and color is what I want on my wall in three separate shots to span the whole shot.. I tried before lifting Sunday to get the right angle but missed it... I got the center bar centered but the burners are too low and there was a balloon on the side... so.. I have to try again here soon.





I did get some pictures of the glow and of flying Sunday but I have yet to get to process the Sunday ones.. The glow was excellent and besides the pictures of balloons glowing or just burning.. because it was breezy at first I decided to shoot the crowds and crowds of people.... Shooting at night in low light is hit or miss but a few were amazing.... Those are below...

And one of my favorites that I show while bobbing in place....



Perhaps by this coming Sunday I will have to morning flights processed and ready to show....

Enjoy your remaining week and see ya Sunday.... I hope...