Lead by the nose...or handout.

Lets lead this out with a quote.

"My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Put your hand back in your pocket, Thank the Lord for what you have, ask for justice and fairness, nothing more.

Special news that we have been holding from most everyone but super close friends. We bought two 'new to us' envelopes. We got them from a very good friend for a great price and that we promised we would keep them in good stead. We will. 

We now have in the garage Ytivarg and Terpsnickery. An Avian experimental and a Kennedy 90. Wonderful envelopes. Name changes coming even though they are historic envelopes they need a new breath. The will always have the AKA after though.

    

< Avian ^ Kennedy 90

Best pictures I have at the moment. As soon as I have more I will post them out. Both have different than standard rip stop fabric. Both are interesting in their construction. Both need a goof fly to see how they handle.

Its all very exciting and novel. Both have paperwork that had to be done as usual. Getting that done now.

Okay.. since your going to ask.. Yeah.. each balloon is different in how it handles and works. If I were to say it was like driving your Toyota to work and you get in a 4x4 truck.. that would be kinda close. For me it will be getting our of the Maserati and hopping in a Mustang and a Challenger. Its gonna take time to see what her max descent rate it, lift weight is, altitude holding ability and put up and pack away process. I know from Erics 80 KKisses ( also a Kennedy built ) the Kennedy is going to be real fun squeezing the air out of. The fabric will not let air out so its tough to get it out so it can fit in its bag. Video and picture of that to come too. 

What I am thrilled at is the Kennedy ( yellow and White ) that it has two turning vents!!! Woah!  So I can fly this over my Lindstrand basket and not get the basket damaged. Yes I line up my basket before landing on the side I have a pad on. Normal non-vented balloons land on what ever side or corner the hit first. It can be very awkward and sometime painful to you and your wicker. Vents make it so you can turn your basket to the forward ( scoop ) end first so you can keep the envelope full after landing or in the case of a rip out landing you can lay it out cleanly. Lots to learn.... fast.

Fiesta is all of 33,32, or 31 days away depending on how you count it. If you go by the day of registration ( I do ) its 31. Registration at Fiesta is an even of its own. Even if you are not a Pilot its fun to watch... Volunteers have so much fun meeting all the returning and new Pilots and crew chiefs. If you want to experience it... be a volunteer! We have fun chatting with all of our friends and some of the most dedicated FAA folks and others who lend their time to make it one safe massive rally.32 days os for those of us who go to the local elementary schools and teach the kids about ballooning and let them get up close ( some kids never get to go to Fiesta so... ) and see how everything works.. then we launch off their playgrounds. 33 days is when Fiesta starts in Earnest.. where the wake up times are 4am and the excitement is visible. 

Soon!

Some of the stuff I have been taking pictures of but have not stuck anywhere... Not a lot as its been a very busy week and I am still not feeling well... which really sucks. No energy..little concentration .. lots of tired.

PITAS KISS getting her annual inspection at AERCO. I popped in to get docs.

Early morning visit to the NOAA Weather Radio Transmitter site in Albuquerque to troubleshoot a fading issue.

REbooted Transmitter is working as it should work.

A visit to the Albuquerque Sunport ( Airport ) for Ramp training and Security training. Since we have equipment in the middle of all the runways we have to have the ability to get out there and work on things. So much fun. No really. It was interesting at times.

Carabiners..which seem a little light to me on some ( seems to me ) light think cables. Woooo... hard to get used to that. I have Kevlar on my Lindstrand.

So much fun if I could feel well enough to enjoy the high. Soon.. or I am back to the doctors for more assistance.

On the Fallout 4 thing. I have gone in a rebuilt some settlements that allow higher building to create bastions above all the ground crap you cant remove. If the game played fair those settlements would be overflowing with settlers and they would never be attacked. Places are super strong and very nice to live in. Separate rooms and group spaces and all the food and clean water you could ask for. The game cheats by dropping attackers in the middle of well fortified places, damages stuff they couldn't have gotten to. Ive moved most of my crops up to the top of my locations and in growing beds instead of the regular dirt. In between building up those places its move over full locations to other areas and get supplies. One good thing is you can now get more wood. 

Some shots

Kingsport Lighthouse. Kingsport Castle. So many problems building this site.

Kingsport. Wonderful views of the ocean and totally secure upper living.

Murkwater entry level. So many updates to this but I like this the most. Very nice.

Murkwater living level. Again. 5 x 6 housing with power on the roof. 

Murkwater view into the general living quarters.

Murkwater upgraded entry level. 

Kingsport interior view of the entry level. Cant remove the damaged housing so I built over it again. 

Abernathy Farm Castle. Growing a good crop of settlers there. Silly game cant figure out the new floor levels at times.

So there you go. Lots of fun in reality and outside of reality.

Pick a good reality for yourself. Mix some of the other stuff in it too.

ExpansioN

Yipes! Its Sunday already and have yet to look at my list of things to do. I believe it will become a list to do some other time. Nothing like a little last minute extreme cleaning and sorting to get the blood up.

Yes there are things that need to be done. The pond pump again needs to be cleaned..but thats a pain and since I am still getting over this bronchitis I cant really do it and stay on the healthy upswing. I try that and I am going back down. Hopefully this week I will have the lung capacity to lift the 80 lb dead lift out, then cut filter and clean the pump up. The edges of the pond need to be cut again, but I have to go buy an electric trimmer to do that with. Really on the weekend..or this weekend particularly I am just resting. Its the best I can do at the moment. Try it you'll hate it. No really!

So since its been sit and rest and get the breathing zones to clear I tried to get the Red Bubble linked to my photography web site ..and I got it done. I have to work on some abstract edits for the site though. This site displays your uploaded artwork onto pretty much any medium you can think of. Nice huh. I am going to play with the below items and see what I can come up with for loads to the main site.

Link: http://www.redbubble.com/people/ibimages





and maybe some of these













I have been playing around with those for a while.

More to do but I have to feel up to doing it. ...which I really don't. I should do some more cell phone wallpapers too.... again.. as soon as I am up to it. Crawling in a corner sounds so much nicer.

Not much else to say. Hoping for a nice surprise here soon. So much paperwork and information to pass around and documents to process plus other things to get ready. Timing is a big thing too.

It all really boils down to timing. I would like some more time off work to feel better but that's not going to happen. I am far behind now and if I take more time off it will just get worse. Things are not getting done or just being shoved forward. A big problem with this is that we are down a person. That person could be picking up this slack and I would not have to worry about it. Thats not going to happen for at least another 6 months so it will go on.

Never mind.

I think I will decide to do something sometime soon.

Just peddling that bike.

One week of bad weather living

Cannot believe having bronchitis and upper resp virus can kick you down hard. You just do not feel up to anything. You're on that edge or ability but it ends up getting you to the chair or to the kitchen for juice or water and leaving you stuffed up and wobbly. Almost clear of it. Today is the first day I have felt the strength to do something other than try and breath.



So.. work was an hour on Monday and all day Thursday... Which was a nightmare of coughing and hacking. This week will be dealing with all the stuff piling up in my in box. no looking forward to that even though I cleared it out Wednesday during a conference call for our staff meeting.

Olympics have been on. They have been shotgunny. Don't know what the schedule is for anything. Nice to watch Goff even though I don't play. Some of the foot races have been different. The swimming was been ugly with the problems with the water. Winter next I guess in two years. Football coming up but I don't watch it much anyways. So for television.. don't ask me.

Even music is past me right now. It's all too much.

Just keeping up with the daily facebook banner changes and logos.. a new idea every ( almost ) day is daunting. Glad when it's over. I an going to put a generic banner up for the month of october.



















Keep up please.

Along with that I have been working on a design Kurt came up with a while ago for a pin but I haven't gotten it that far yet. Just a t shirt design so far.








Thats it so far. Too tired and worn out to work on it farther.

I think I am going to rest more.

Have a good weekend. Tomorrow is monday again. Seriously.. Again?

Outtakes and distracted shooting

Its a down day. Picked up my granddaughters cough and cant get rid of it. Ugh! Feeling real bad.

Since I am fuzzy headed Ill just post out some of the outtake shots from the trip to California. Normally I will take a massive amount of pictures of everything I think is interesting. This time as I ran through the shots I noticed I was somewhat short of the norm. Had to think about it for a while. A third cup of coffee jogged my thoughts and I figured out why there were so few outer shots. I was enjoying the moments. I guess I should be lucky I got any shots.

When we lived in Moreno Valley and then Perris or in the Riverside area we went to the ocean a few times. It was more fun to go to the fun fair parks than the boring ole beach. We did but not to sit on it.
When we lived in England we would go to the beach a lot. Granted with four kids during summer break what is a mom to do with them. Sizwell and other areas. How I wished I had a DSLR then too.

This time I expect I was so enjoying the beach, the air and the views I left the camera down at my side. I am trying to think back on what I might have missed. Well signs. I love shooting signs. I know it was terribly hazy so the sky was beat. Much of the time I was driving so I didn't have a chance to shoot off shots for that either. Next time I think we will visit friends and have them take us to a few more places I wanted to go to but didn't have the time. Where? The Chinese theater and the stars... kitschy but I wanted to do that.. and the Piano staircase from Laurel and Hardy's shot film. A few other places. They will have to drive cause I only have a vague idea of the fastest ways to get there and then I can sit in the passenger seat up front and shoot things. Plans!

So some outtake shots....

Redondo Landing.

Lost Sub

Rusting away

Signs

Old buildings and strange buildings.

Tied up.

A gaggle of masts.

A gaggle of flying rats.

Funny trees.

Well a paddle wheeler. Novel.

Green everywhere.

Rent a Schooner.

Signs, Singns, everywhere a sign...

Its pretty.

A few shots from the B side.

I did get some video edited but this cough is making any concentration very hard. SOme excitement possible in the next week. Hopefully. Waiting and watching.

Hope you all have a good weekend and a good week looking forward.