The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Registration started Monday last. Completely different menu and page style and more questions asked that I had to go find answers to to complete... It was not hard but did take a bit of time. Hoping next year that most of the fields will be pre-filled to keep the repeats down.
The new artwork for this years banner............... ..... ..... If you enlarge or really expand the web page Patturns Highperactive pops into view on the left side. I was trying to get a clean clip of the banner and adjusting the size and there she was. Cool. Its a rare shot of PH in a Fiesta shot but as its a one off envelope its very easy to spot.
Debi just posted this. Hilarious!!! Had to share... I'm waiting 6 months... Hoping those in power would stop this silliness.
So many things happened this week. Some worth recounting..many, well, its better just to put them aside in a dark corner of the room.
Mainly the office techs set up a rescue training scenario at our Radar site for the Albuquerque Fire Department. This was to see and learn how to remove a person from the top of the dome the quickest and safest if they were unconscious or hurt....or both.. It was... interesting. I'm damaged so I didn't volunteer to be flung over the side.
Seriously high tower. This stairs are at a very steep angle and are made of a heavy unfinished metal. Bang a shin and you will bleed. Been there done that.
Three teams went through the training. Parts of that were, response, setting up connection points for ropes and what each member did and how to do it. Interesting. Pre-start brief.
Mike gets dropped over the side on this one. Big time safety at all times. Helmets on whenever the hatch is open.
Second day of the last week they brought the heavy rescue truck. Nice!
Tony gets to play for the second evolution and out the hatch instead. More difficult because there are supporting structure beams and the stairs to contend with. From our NWS training... you use your feet to push the "victim" away from the obstacles. Its doable but you have to be able to understand dynamics.
Other than his arms being out instead of tucked away Tony is trussed up nicely.
Pretty much a fantastic training event. The Albuquerque Fire Department teams are amazing and great people. We learned a lot.
I spent a bunch of time ( what else can you do while your foot heals and your supposed to stay off the damn thing ) playing fallout 4 modded....
Skip over this if you are not interested in Fallout 4...
Some mods work.. some dont.. some do strange things... I am building out Armor between building more settlements... or strongholds... Over killing the weapon emplacements... because I CAN!
Mods allow for many things. The sets I use usually fix building errors where you cant build over a rock in a certain way or there is a bit of trash that cant move and causes the program to refuse to place an item. See..its like this... you have to build in specific areas and in specific zones laid out by the game. Working around this is extremely hard. You have to figure out how pieces of walls will set and how the land grade is and what is the maximum area you can enclose. Not that this stops the game from dropping raiders inside but it helps funnel them if they are outside.
My favorite mod is a zone expansion but it works some times in some places. I really wanted it to work everywhere but it wont so I went on building this version a little different, learning from the first try. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of fear of falling control to build this stuff. You cant just float off the ground to build a three level wall.. you have to set every one of the wall sections at a time.. every insulator and every light. I've learned how to do it the quickest and I also learned what the optimum housing facility is and the best use of space.
This is Croup Manor. Its a location full of ghouls. You clear it and the loons in the basement and you can build here. It has a half destroyed manor house on the build zone. I could use a mod to clear the building completely but I dont. I would rather work the best possible way around these things. Plus due to the game dropping raiders inside I usually build everything two levels up so the raiders cant destroy or kill anyone.... mostly.
I have used this same build style everywhere possible. Two levels at the bottom are open... third is a ring of weapon emplacements to deal with the constant raids... next level is usually living and crops.. next is water production ( piping to wells through the walls ) and the top is power. Using two 500 power generators.. because I CAN!
This is inside of Jamaica Point. Biggest ( almost ) pain in the ass location to build. The area is oddly shaped and nothing wants to sit right. Took a bit to figure out how to deal with it this time... but I did. This is the second level that is the weapons and entrance and stores area.
Exterior of Jamaica.... Note the back sets.. that's because the build zone is angles in too many places. I took the best straight line and went from there... the straight line is on the back side.
Here we have an error in the program. As soon as you step one foot forward it corrects... I'm always carrying too much.. and am always walking.. Makes battles very interesting.
Egrets the first time I built here there was a fit problem but not too bad. I learned a lot from the first build. This time I built a bit higher... *Mod for building height. Some settlement zones will not let you build very high.. totally wrong....
Aquatic camo.. a new download... I dropped five or six different paint styles......
Starting to populate the armor in the main facility I built on Spectacle Island.
Bunker hill... I really hated this on my first run through the game. The settlement was surrounded by crappy wooden makeshift walls... you couldn't remove them and you were stuck with it. First time I just built above, but it was a hodge podge of space. This time I downloaded a mod that made the location like it really is in RL and also downloaded a mod to allow me to scrap ( within reason it seems ) the walls. I had to be very creative on how to lay the cement walls to fit the settlement zone but it worked and I didn't have to remove too many items to do so... and it came out nicely.
Boston Airport... Limited... You were not allowed to grow food nor process water...aos it was tiny... so you were forced to rely on traders moving from settlement to settlement... WRONG!! Using the mod I used at Bunker hill and another mod to allow water and food processing I built a nice building on this small plot. Its only 80 ft by 130 feet.. so I built up! This is the third level and the entrance is right in front center.
Exterior shot.. the only place I didn't create the same housing style... It worked very nicely.
Yes.. lots of time playing games.. but remember.. I do not watch television.. At all. Most everything on television now is either stupid, ranty or in your face and I'm not interesting in being preached at constantly or have my brain turned to mush. Lots of time to do this and work on other stuff...
To each his own.
Lastly... Mary and I decided to go to our favorite restaurant for an early dinner... We just rarely get out so....
Joe's Restaurant in Rio Rancho. http://joespastahouse.com/
We had some bruschetta (sp?) and fried mozzarella and I had the baked penne and Mary had chicken...
So very tasty and I was only able to eat a fourth of my penne. The sauce was smooth and a hint of wine floated in there. The meat was well processed and not chunky and over all the plate was excellent. Staff is always right there if you need anything and ready to assist with any changes you might want.
From living in Italy for two and a half years I know my pasta and I know what its like to eat in a real Italian restaurant.. and Joe's hits it nicely. If they added Tortellini alla panna with prosciutto Id be there every other day until I died of over eating...
I really hate taking pictures of my food but this time I made an exception.. three times..
Super fresh ingredients... Just like in RI ( Real Italy ). We used to go and get fresh before going out for the night.
Fried Mozzarella.... Nice because even thought its hot its not just a floating puddle of Mozz...there is texture and a good bite to each piece. The marinara is very nice and holds together.. not watery or sloppy.
First time trying the penne. WOW! A smooth forkful and the slight tang at the back of the portion and when I say smooth.. it was smooth... Not buried under cheese or hidden .. but just there...
It was a good afternoon and as old people we were home by 430... HAH!
Guess what I am having for dinner tonight... Leftovers!!!! Going to be very good.
Much thanks to Joe's for the great dining experience.
Now its on Sunday.... Foot is trying to be abusive. Much to do today and trying to balance that with keeping this foot up ... something is going to have to shift.....
We also didn't get to do training this Sunday as the winds were forecast to be up in the 40s and it was supposed to rain.... No rain yet.... Winds are gusting on this side of town.
Mo got in a review flight yesterday when it was also supposed to be ugly. He did land in a odd place but I have yet to talk to him about it.. and I always ask about his and other Pilots flights.. I like to understand their thinking in different situations....
Next weekend is the St Pattys Day Rallye in Belen. I did a quick design for their T shirts.. I hope it comes out okay. Not much time to do it and the pictures of the balloons I had to work with were sub par ( just the way it was ) .. and you work with what you have.. Hoping to get better shots for them for next year.
Hoping for good weather next weekend!
Happy new week to you all...
