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...

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Let me throw this out there...

I bought Fallout 4.

I can attest that you can waste way too much time doing things and picking up things and building things and killing things ( mostly Ghouls in this version ) than you really have time to blow.

I spent time building a place for the people I first ran into to live safely only to find out that regardless of the safety measures you put in place they are going to do stupid things like stand on five foot high roofs and or sleep in your bed or just sit out in the bloody rain because they can.

Today after playing for some hours I did a quest to relieve a transmitting site of its nasty ( raider /boomer ) people only to be given the requirement to secure it ( impossible ) and then send a call out for people to move and live there... HAH! I would have to ring the place with gun emplacements every five feet to feel good about that.

Even in the zone ( Sanctuary ) I secured with full walls and automatic weapon emplacements they popped in raiders in the middle of the blinkin place... Thank forethought that I ran gun turrets on almost every roof in the area.... That's about the only way the idiots were saved.. what did they do.. walk towards to raiders with open arms.... Yeah.. sounds like reality don't it.... So I shut it down... Enough with reality without it happening in a surreality I am trying to build.

Perhaps I should set up my own safe-house and let them all go hug the mutants. I can salvage their junk after.

Nevermind.

New back door tomorrow....

That is something to look forward to. After last weeks short week and then having to work from home on my first vacation day to try and fix things that are out of my local control... well it was a bad start to the holidays. Now I an having to wait till Monday to get other work done I should have been able to do from home also, but for a crappy password system locking me out when it should not have. Waiting.. I really hate waiting.. I want to do now.. get it done.. this is not helping my procrastination bones.

Thanksgiving was a nice quiet day .. with a stomach virus playing about it was going to be a close to home day regardless. I had a turkey sammich for dinner tonight and it was very nice. I'm thinking a hot turkey sammich tomorrow for lunch while I watch the workmen install that door.

Its going to be a short week next week as the Red Rock Rally in Gallup starts Friday and I plan on being there Friday evening to fly Saturday and Sunday... Hope to get some good video and pictures. I want to get a shot of the top inside of my balloon with the 10.5 lens on the D7100 so I can create the trip tic shot for my office wall. I have to remember that that comes secondary to flying not first. We shall see.

Well since I took them I should post them with a bit of information and props to the creators of the Fallout 4 world-let. Its nice if you weren't having to rescue people from their stupid selves all the time.

Sanctuary... with my build to fit bunker and gravity defying lookout post. Since there are no instructions on how to create things unless you delve into the nets I had to play around until I figured it out. With the building of houses and walls you would think the creators would have opened up the build areas more with more materials to use and made pieces to go up and down at an angle.. Nothing is straight on the landscape except for the building blocks.. stupid.

Power Armor...Found five sets.. none complete.. fine... using cores to power them is a bit much, not unlike having to repair your equipment in Fallout 3 New Vegas.. It gets tedious. Oh.. and if I take out a raider with a power suit I should be able to scavenge that suit. Since about all you do in this game is pick up crap ... well please.

The Sky Long Barrow... I built it big to house stuff and up high to keep raiders out and the locals out. Heh! Even removing the stairway before I leave the area, I find them in my bed, on the roof, sitting in the chairs with their dirty clothes... May have to relocate everything to an empty area like the red rocket place. Let Sanctuary fend for itself. My character is wearing a metal helmet and combat armor.. It carry's a pretty good 15 points at this time... Hate wearing the power armor all the time.

Bomber Kitty.... Got to hand it to the artists.. they do have a good time in this place.. I loved this picture... I even found a cat laying in a field playing with some little  pumpkin gourds. The pictures of the Moose in repose is a bit much though.

I have found one big glitch in the game so far and it irritates me.. but I am not going to think about it at all. I am going to finish this and think about this week and this next weekend and how to set cameras up.

If you are playing Fallout 4 or are thinking of buying it.. Go for it.. its a good diversion.. just remember.. that the people in it are no better than the people around you right now..... Stupid.. Silly and ignorant.

Fallout 4 creators.. Get back in there and fix the damn angle thing so I can have walls that do not have to sink into the ground half way to follow a line or leave gaps everywhere. Stupid and silly... Oh.. and I want a FREAKIN DOOR THAT I CAN LOCK!

LOLOLOL..... Its FUN!!!

Slight Adjustments

Wow.. Its Sunday and I am writing my blog...instead of waiting until Monday evening.... Its a stunner.

Back to front.....

Did not feel like doing anything balloon type at all. Did I get fried? Hope not as there is that cool rally in Gallup coming up. I guess when all of everything with Kiss A Hoy is settled out and PH is back in the trailer I will feel ready to go fly somewhere. I have to get my sensor back into place in the top of my envelope.

Oh yes.... So.. today.. I did put back my lamps into place and also my glow balls that I thought were dead into the office/cr. Above is the red with little bits of metal flake in it... It looks much more nifty in person. Two other lava lamps are purple and some weird color.. both bubble differently. They have not been lit in over a year.

Before that I hung all six pin boxes... then rehung them because they wouldn't fit the way I was going. Don't you know that the bottom two have different mounts so I had to devise a way to get both pins in the wall level and about an inch below the upper ones. Sigh. In the middle of the six boxes  will go the triple 20 inch up-view of PH I am planning on printing on stretch around canvas.

Before that the Xbox 360 Pioneer stereo system was run. Its all sitting on my tables but sounding very nice with a connection to my surface via an analogue cable and a creative Sound blaster Xfi unit. Very clean and separated. I am going to have to either re-cable a portion of the cables or get another box to hide it all in. Too many things attached to too many other things with no cover. Better than it was but could be better.

Before all that was a five day week of being the Boss. My Boss is recovering from surgery and I hope doing well with that. I will be emailing him tomorrow to check on him. It was not a killer week of crazy Boss type decisions but a few that were on the edge of "why do you have to try and pull this crap now" kinda things.

In those five days there was the install of a computer at our Center Weather Service Unit over at the FAA... Not a easy or fun thing as the instructions were not what I would call good with gaps and errors and oopsies. I hope in the future that if a mod note is sent down it covers everything instead of having to hunt around and ask a lot of questions... Not happy about that.

We did get some nice Linux machines going for myself and our ITO to monitor our AWIPS system. Nice to not have to stand in the cold server room standing up typing in status checks... Just access and run them from my desk.. very nice! I had run the cable for it ages ago but when I installed my new walls I had put it where I wouldn't forget it... I forgot where I put it.. Had to take apart a bunch of stuff to find it but it worked a treat!

In between there was a ton of property stuff and paperwork stuff and stuff to go to the recycle service and climbing and towers and vehicles and returns of stuff and cashews and no lunchs and things. A pretty churned up week.

Now with all that I am battling a sinus problem that keeps causing my eyesight to waver in and out of focus. Headaches and a serious bruised left chest area that I have no clue what caused it. When you get old you get to complain about stuff you would brush off when younger... Its a right or something.

Here are a few bad shots of the things....

Glowy ball things... They are on their charging base and all three are charging again. Nice!

Two lava lamp things.. They look the same but they are not.

 Left side of office/computer room. Between or to the right and above the monitors will be where the triple PH pic will go.

Listening to SpaceMind - Silent Planet 1 on youtube in surround sound while checking my office diagram for the positioning of pictures and pin boxes.

You would think I would take notes of the week so when I was writing up I would know what to write when.. I really do have a daily journal of everything I do or things that happen during the week.. Im just too lazy to get it out and read it... way too tiring and then I will be thinking of work I have to do in the coming days before Thanksgiving.

Hope your week was better. This upcoming week will be short because of the holiday and not sure if I am going to be able to travel at all.

Well.. here you go...... a view to a fill ( office ). More to do and maybe some fun in there somewhere.

Cheers!

Blown aways!

Its now the 16th of November. I still have little want to go flying again. Ive been out and watched others and taken pictures and helped crew and all around them but its still a bit sighing of it all.

There have been some fun times.. Like this last Saturdays AAAA meet in Rio Rancho... Damn fast winds. Gusty too.. You could have a nice and calm inflation and take off only to be grabbed and flung South West. It looked great from the ground......

Chasing after Enchanted Diamonds was a good time. No way was I going to be able to catch up to them. The did a good wild landing on the other side of a hill and arroyo way way South. It was in high scrub and if I had no been direct line driving on a road that crested that hill I would never have seen anything but their heads.

I took somewhere around 400 pictures... most duplicated for best shot. I did even process a lot of them and put them on my web site. Not all nor many good people shots... yet.... But a lot... The links below.

What I did finish over the last week after work was the processing of all the Kodak 360 degree camera footage into 360 degree two segment clips. For ever minute of footage its two minutes to process.... for 9 days of flying and in those nine days many over 90 minute flights... It was long and tedious. You have to line up ever clip and flip the take when the cameras in set looking down or out depending on the time if flight.

For the inflation it is pointing up ( the lends is upward ) catching the inflation all around but when I stand up the balloon  it is now facing backwards... then in flight or before I take off I would flip it lens down which is what you will see in the following clips from the first five flights... so here you go...

Kurt flying Highperactive for the first time on Albuquerque Aloft day or Friday before Fiesta.. It was a nice smooth flight and you would never know he had never flown a racer before... My nudges as to what to do were completely unnecessary and goofy. Lovely landing and I had a great time not taking pictures as I forgot my camera.. go figure.

 My Sister in law and Son on his first flight in a balloon where we went South then East then up and North to get a great upper stands view of the fiesta field. A nice little jaunt and soft landing on the Pueblo.

Ballooning family flight and not the same track.. this time we went South and then up and then straight down the center of the field at about 600 feet above.. then curled down to land about 150 feet from where we landed the last day... Hilarious. So much traffic.. so many balloons coming up at us and our bobbing along to stay out of their way and clear the field.

Kelley's short ride...... It was all south with a nice pause over the South end of the field in between. It gave the crew time to get packed up and off the field to meet us as we zoomed over power lines and tank far.. the cereal factory and a trailer to get caught... Very nice... The video at the end after we had put down of all the other balloons coming in to that spot in the quick winds is cool.

Andy's flight was one of my fussy flights. About two hours of trying to stay in a very thin wind stream heading West only to have to drop out of it due to low fuel levels and had to pretty much find a road to get low enough on to land... We were booking but there were power lines right to our right and only this nice bunch of dirt and a parking lot to drop it in. Gotta say.. when you dump a bunch of air and there happens to be a nice soft dirt pile and sage bush.. you just go for it... The local folks thought we were needing medical assistance but it was one of the best solid drop ins I have done. Poor Andy was my padding.. I kinda stomped him when we stopped so suddenly.

There are ( tried to type are and typed were twice.. whats up with that???) four more days of flying and another.... why am I having to think and stay on time streams of air all the time.. sheesh! Good times and I hope to be happy to go fly again soon. Maybe after Thanksgiving and before the Red Rock Rally in Gallup NM. Better be ready for that.... cause that is interesting flying.... Links below to a few years backs flight.

The pictures from Saturday..

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p606433990/e6eaf519d

Video from Red Rocks...

Down view of the rock jumping...

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e382bc3a1

Day 2 and over the mountain!

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e3e375b4f

It was a lot of fun.. Hoping this year is as much fun.

Slip Streams

Isn't it Sunday?

Could not fool anyone with that one. Sunday went past and it was not until head hit pillow and feet were wrapped up in the bottom of my blanket that I remembered that the blog had gone wanting.

A lot has happened but a little to really report. The double rainbow outside the office early last week was very nice. This is a three shot blend. It is what it looked like minus the rain falling.

In this week we did the standard work, a run down to Roswell to take a ridiculous four part six page test on our ability to travel on the runways and taxiways of that airport even though we are not allowed to do so. I ask you.... If you take the test then you should be able to walk the walk.. or drive the drive. No.. we do not have a need to go across any active anything there. We still have to take this test. I will leave it there. It was a nice drive down and back ( Hours and hours ) but I did get out my camera and shoot the road while we cruised down it. We even did a potty break in the lava fields outside Carrizozo... no.. there are very nice clean bathrooms there. Nice place for a camp out too and many were.

But before that I went to the AAAA General meeting and listened to our up and coming kids who want to be balloonists and their balloon camp. It was pretty good all in all though my legs do not like standing that long. I may have to bring my own chair and table so I can blog on the go while listening. Before that I wandered the Museum as they had some new displays.. took a lot of pictures... and tried not to knock things over.

A couple below too.... I have many more but no time to deal with them all as I had to back up and transfer and verify files of RAW JPG and MP$ and MOV across about 10 TB oof drives. It took me.. well its still ongoing but I have the important things done.

Pictures..


The Museums throat. Not sure I have ever seen a shot in this direction. Its nice how the panels are attached to the "load tapes" and the flags were a good touch.

Carrizozo's valley of fire. You can see forever.... or to the horizon Northish. South, West and East all all mountains. In out few minute stop to shake a leg I got caught up with the things up close instead of the fields of lava.

I got this close up of a capsule hanging in the Museum. it is rough and ready and good contrasts all over.

 Pancake Cactus in the dropping sun. I had a good time with the very thin focal depth. more with moss later.

One of the many descents into the valley floors between ranges from Roswell to Socorro. Not much but cars moving and those were few and far between.

Back to this.... I plan on re-shooting this with the 24 Mpix cam so that I can divide it up into three 30 inch by 30 inch panels for the wall of my computer office. I have to repaint it also as I did a "GREAT" job on this test. Not great at all really but very nice.

So this is Monday.... It was meant to be a get back to work kinda day and was in fact pretty heavy on the work.. That work being paperwork and processing... I love it when you do load documents and process stuff only to find it missing and not entered in reality.. I did not dream it nor did I jut write stuff whenever... But it was gone... So now its back and I took screen shots of it... Now lets see if disappear again! So busy but in the typing and entering things part... All the equipment is humming along very nicely.... Lots of ancillary things have to be done still but that's what Tuesdays are for.

Cloudbouncer was a big of a bugger too this week. But it got done!

I think Wednesday will be painting the home office. Once that is done I can move pictures and stuff out of the guest room and settle the office better... for now..... perhaps....