Bloody Hell.. and other assorted descriptors

It just took me ten minutes of &*(%$*^&$  to get logged into this blog site.. oh.. I have a mind to go to my own damn site....

Its still buggering up here and there.

Yeah... and yeah.. no TP anywhere to clean up this Google mess. ARGH... well lets see if I can add this blog for today... before it blows up again... ( Im logged in and it keeps asking me to log in ).

Not like there is a lot to it.

Down and dirty for today....

Broke my foot two weeks ago and took that long and pain to go see a doc about it. Yeah.. Its really broke. After seeing a Podiatrist I am in a boot for 6 weeks. It was a perfect Dancers break as they tell me. No surgery or casts or splints or anything... just the boot of shame... somewhat like the cone of shame for dogs. I need to get people to sign my boot... It was expensive. I have good blood flow in the area so they are happy to make me miserable with this thing. Pain...I refuse to feel it.

So the week was full of stuff.. mostly hospitals and distant parking lots to traverse... I would bore you.

I did get asked to come up with a logo for T shirts for the VFRS St Pats balloon Rallye... which I did. Hard because the photo files for the balloons were very low resolution...but I came up with a nice little thing. I have to adjust it a bit still..but it will be done tomorrow for sure.

The Rally ( Rallye ) is in Belen NM. It used to be in Los Lunas but it was squeezed out. Belen has more space and such. I flew it last year and had a good time. I did have Ted with me so that is usually fun or funny. Expecting to do that next month. Between that I will be taking part in a training ( hands on ) session for new people interested in ballooning. Have all these new people learn how to remove, assemble, assist in inflation.. maybe bobble down the field, catch, lay down, secure the whole thing. Requested the Kennedy so that will be extra fun.

Also going to take a trip up to Colorado somewhere in there and I will take pictures of that. I am hoping the next couple of weeks to have lots of shots to show you.

For today you get some interesting stuff I've come across or made or such.. Its also the waiting point for the Fiesta Registration... so lots of waiting...

And web surfing...

This got my attention. Migration.. you never used to think about it but the US is so huge its novel to think about.

Based on a Hotel in Riverside Cali...
 Super funny to listen to the song now.

Love the capture from the 360 camera.  Since no one is interested in the two 4k versions I am going to break them out and start using them... Should be very novel.

Ted has a great eye for photographs but a teeny tiny iPhone to take pictures. I love his shots but I have to force a Nikon on him if or when we fly next to each other again.

A long throw back at 2nd Kiss. A very beautiful balloon that was not taken care of by the previous owner and a quick loss to our family of balloons.

My favorite rabbit shot. When I am lost in thought and wandering about this will pop in my head. One rabbit.. maybe not impressed with you..  or what your up to... or perhaps just a good raspberry at you just because...

When asked who my primary care Doctor is... And lately that has been a lot.. I show them this...
My Doctor..

For long road trips do not use a balloon... not gonna stay on the road and not gonna get very far down it.... unless you are long jumping.

I am not impressed with most bumper stickers.. and I just had to make this to show my complete withering deep sighing level of feels for your silly bumper stickers.. hahaha...  Just had another thought for a different sticker.. wow.

Almost that time... do I have all my ducks in a row.. or moose in a peck or numbers adjusted by my best mob accountant... cant wait..

A true statement I need to remember....

Loved this pictograph.... I really love New Mexico.

A never before seen shot from the archives. A fun day of flying friends. Landed in what looked to be a beautiful green park only to "splash down". Swapped passengers and back up in the air for more fun.

So what more fun can you have.....

See how green it looked on the right... wow nice place to lay out the envelope... Uh nope!

Last for looking at the past this weekend is a glow we did for our good friends at their wedding rehearsal dinner. A complete surprise for the people in the houses and apartments that bordered this field.. a lot of fun for us.

I have so many pictures stuffed in files everywhere that I forget what I have added and whats never been viewed. I need a system but it takes too long to process...

Oh well... Off to do some more resting of the foot....

PS.. Someone bought me a pair of nice new chairs for my computer room.. probably just before the ones I have now fall completely apart.... there is leather bits all over the house on the floor.. perhaps that was the impulse to get something quickly.... I cant wait..  I think the old chairs will go directly to the dump along with some others we have not flung to the curb but seriously need to be removed... Why hold onto the stuff when its past its usefulness..  I feel I will need to live up to the new chairs... not sure Im up for that... but Thank You!

Life.....Its so strange lately....

Missed it but ... thaaaaat much!

If you wanted to come crew for me or fly with me... well we missed the good winds by thaaaat much..... seriously. You could estimate when I want to fly and go opposite and fly while I get winded out!

Yeesh!!!

 Yep. I sat and watched the crummy winds blow on the mid mesa while those in the valley had great flights.. but I am positive if I had gone into the valley they winds would have been nice on the mesa.

I have to go back to saying I'm not not flying... fool whomever is checking on my ability to fly.


Today's banner shot was from day 1 of the AAAA Friends & Lovers rally when all the Pilots that were grounded threw their baggies from the wall. Very novel.

This week we had lots of crazy things to do at work... In fact we installed some software that broke more than it seemed to fix. On Tuesday I will get to see how much time was put in correcting the issues and the small fiddly bits. I am not a programmer but I can figure out if a program is pointing the wrong way or if the file has moved. Unfortunately there is no info on where they moved files to.

So much fun!

For a minor soap box ... yep.. lets get it over with.... so many people are so very uninformed that it is scary! Sadly I have to stick myself in that group. I thought I had info on some things and was advised by august personages ( thanks Rory and Bob ) that I had things skewed. I appreciate getting more information and or being able to see where I had been going with the info I had. Just thinking of this makes me now believe that news agencies are manipulating the masses every microsecond of the day. Its pretty worry-some. Done.

Since I am still nursing my foot I have been playing some Fallout 4. If your not interested in this skip to where it says.. WOAH! below.

I have beat the game on Xbox and then played with minor mods there but it broke the game. I then got it for the PC and have been playing it there with mods to the building segment of the game... except for one item. I missed my flaming Shotgun ( it was awesome but had a tendency to kill the good along with the bad ( NOT GOOD )) from the Xbox so I fiddled to get the Blade Runner pistol into this game. Its been silly fun with that thing. Its terribly accurate and no side dead.

I am going about rebuilding my settlements... I wished the mod to expand the settlements on Xbox worked with the PC version but its isn't. Sucks... but what settlements I am remaking I am adjusting as I have that ability now. Some fun...some insight... some silliness.

I had a massive amount of power armor stored on display at the Red Rocket station in the Xbox version but it was limited in space and had the station right in the middle of it. Didn't like that so this time I put a huge facility on Spectacle Island that had clear sight-lines in it.

I've started collecting the armor that is about the wasteland and putting it there as well as buying frames to upgrade later. Its a whole lot of fun but also a whole lot of work.

I took some snapshots of the game-play below. Not too many.

So this is Nordhagen Beach in Mass. before building up the settlement. You have to protect your settlements and settlers, get them food, water, electricity and security. Options....

Build a fortress!!! You can build whatever you want within reason. The game will spawn attackers inside if you build over a spawn point. But if you have enough weapon emplacements.. Its noooo problem.

A radio station up North that spawns attackers right at the base of that mast. But you still have to make a settlement here....

Big walls.. and lots of turrets inside and out. Again. takes care of the riff raff.

The creators of this game are some crazy crazy people. You never know what you are going to run into and its worth the time to look everywhere in this world.

Spectacle island with walls around the main settlement and also the base for my Armor facility. I moved the walls towards the front and made a space between the settlement and the facility... It looked better.

 Inside.... The armor in these displays are the base sets that are hidden around the area. Some are easy to find, some are very hard. I used this link to find them this time... Lots more to fill but that's for the future.

https://fallout.gamepedia.com/File:Fo4_Neponset_Map.png

Above and in the center ( if you look at the above pic there is a big pillar in the center.. ) this space is on top of that. Living quarters.. place to show off your best or favorite finds. Nice that you can snap these to show off like I am here.

 The full view from a corner elevator of the clear floor and living space above.

The exterior with wall moved and other items added. Note that when you announce the settlement is open for people to populate they get into everything.

It takes a lot of fiddling to get pieces of wall and foundation and light switches and water processing plants and cables and doors to set right. The game has controls that make it so you just cant slap things anywhere. Yes there are cheats for that but I don't use those.

This is what I do when I cant do anything else or am processing on the computer with other things. More fun to come.

WOAH!

And that was quick.

Here are a few more shots from last weekends rally. There is a rally coming up in Belen. St Pats Rally.. two days... I will be helping with the shirt design this year. Hope we can get something fun done.

Keith and his Zing racer. A little wild on this day.

Mo lifts with a new to him basket below. A little longer on the long side but looks perfect.

Someone lost their head! I love this type of shot. Looking in the turning vent to check the lines.

The crown line crew member is very important. You need some weight to control a balloon when it is rising.

When your chase vehicle arrives it makes you oh so happy.

Crown crew... hmmmm...... Christian has other things on his mind.

Installing the crown is always a bit of a fight with face attacking and foot tripping fabric and lines. 

I was trying something here... It kinda worked.

And a different application.. don't like it as much.

 I did get a few other things done that are less than thrilling to read about so I am not writing them down. There was a cool cloud layer half way up the mountain today. You will get to see that one next weekend maybe. I really really really need to put my tripod in the truck! It would have helped a lot.

That and some plastic bags to kneel on the wet grass for better angles..

Here is hoping your week is calm, quiet, fulfilling and enjoyable...

I'm gonna go hunt me some stuff.

When in the course of flying....

What a weekend!  I usual to work and get there around 6ish.. This gives me time in case something goes boom to get to work before 7am. Most of the times it is quiet and I can get work done before anyone else shows up. This weekend was the Friends and Lovers rally and I was up around 330am...WHAT!! Yes.. 330am and out of bed by 4am... seriously bad to do on a Saturday and Sunday. I am exhausted and I did only part of what the AAAA Special Events Team did... Ok... .01%.

Bill Dimmit making super cool shapes with his Adams Pop A Top Balloon. Love this! Bill is awesome!

SO yes.. This weekend was the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascention Association's Valentines day Rally called Friends & Lovers. Its a two day event, taking place on Fiesta Park ( Field ) and the public are welcome to come join in the fun.

Normally there can be as many as 50 balloons. That is more than most regular rally's in the world. We have so many good people in our association that we can do this and usually do every month. It is a sight to see. Plus, for the public, just like at Fiesta.. you can walk right up to the balloons.

There are a lot of selfies being taken or balloon backdrop shots or engagements and even a wedding or two taking place... this time there were two engagements. I caught one by luck. It is below.

I edited a few shots tonight but I am running on probably two very tired brain cells so its a short set. They will post below.

Okay.. Heck with it.. Ill post them right now and talk about each shot as we go... Its my favorite thing....

Saturday was a bust for flying. It was cancelled right off. Target would be on the field and Pilots had to throw a baggie from the wall of the Sid Cutter Pav. There was also a target just for fun so you could try your hand at making the center of the X. Its pretty difficult. There was also a crew target ( A Heart ) where cheating was allowed within reason.

Sunday it was squirrely as all get out but people flew for fun. Off and heading due.. well East but then South then North.. and yeah.

Tie Dye envelope. Bold statement there Hopper.

SunDagger gets aloft for a training flight.

Mo in The Reverse Gravity Machine ( Ytivarg ) stands up next the the Civil Air Patrol balloon. he was taking two new to ballooning people up for their first right.

I believe they loved every minute of it.

The crown is pulled and no.. they were not going to take off after all.

Trying to get that picture with the balloon in the background but the balloon is moving left and right and left and right... They had to get very close but by the time they did the balloon took off....

Mo cruises beyond the Balloon Museum and off to find a nice bit of grass.

Crew target.. throw from the moving truck and hit the center of the heart...

Charity's balloon Blew's crown. Lindstrand!

Family and friends in the far distance with placards.... Got it right and he was on a knee before she saw the cards and pulled it off nicely.

And I had the camera right there and caught it... Nice to be in the right spot. ( about 20 feet behind him really ).

What the heck are they doing there crouched low like that....

Ahh.. remote controlled dump truck driven the the center of the X then baggie dumped out. They WON!

Mark Lofts his baggie at the target...

Geese!!! And one of the reasons I would rather not lay my envelope out on the field at this time of year... GOOSE POOP EVERYWHERE!!!  I did kneel down on it to take pictures.. but no laying down.. ugh!

Matt got a new balloon and after taking shots of it from a lot of angles I saw this line!!! WOW!! Where can I get some of that white and soft yellow line!! It would go beautifully in Patturns In Czech.

Stacked up by Sid's place and lots of people around watching and taking pictures and video... Some tethering was going on before they took off.

A basket with a door. I love this shot for its content. Also the characters in it.

Eric shows everyone how easy it is and slips down the Western edge of the field.

Bill just has to make it interesting.. A second bounce and a lean while the envelope ( the banner envelope ) pops its top and lays down quickly.

Bill packing things up... and waiting for the chase crew to get down this end of the field.

Lots more shots out there. I will be posting more later and also to Facebook. Perhaps next week as well.

I was shooting specific things again today. I shot for crew action, balloon movement and then just shots of balloons. Since there were no clouds in the sky I didn't take many "balloon in blue sky" shots as they are boring.

This shot below I took from across the room and I just love the colors...

Lots of wine given away at the brunch on Sunday.

Well I have to post some shots to FB and get other things ready for the week.

Last thought is the Sony camera is kicking butt. I had a treatment I wanted to shoot for this weekend but the opportunity didn't show up.... I might be able to use some of the shots I took to test it but its still in the works. Ill post here when I get it sorted out.

Have a great week everyone!