Post Thanksgiving Crash

Starting very shortly after eating Thanksgiving dinner with the family and at the last moment extended family... Girlfriends of children and friends of said as well as the Granddaughters first.. I got the sick.

I can even tell you how fast it hit... It was fast. One moment nothing at all and the next.. gone! Cold, sore-throat, chills, headache, it was ridiculous. Now for the last few days I am battling it... and its been a back and forth thing. Day 4 and no sign of it letting up even with max over the counter medications. I need to get better quickly as we have the Red Rock Rally at the end of the week. I will be there.... Oh yes.

So as it was a short week at work.. nothing happened except the standard paperwork and division of work and minor adjustments to this and that. Loads of filing to do. Massive amount of mundane brain puddling stuff piling up but its stuff you have to have hours in a row to do and that never happens. I think I have devised a way to do it but that could be the medication kicking in. No... I have a way.

Since I have been laid up Friday was "huddle in the chair and play xbox and not try and move much" time. Ill get to that later.

Saturday we agreed to watch our Granddaughter ( silly...we are sick ) for 12 hours so the kids could go snowboarding. Yeah... bad idea.. she ran us over...LOLOL. No.. she was a treasure and very well behaved even with crawling everywhere she could possibly go and getting her outfit knees dirty with all the dust about ( Dust in New Mexico is a standard. If you think you are going to be dust free... yeah.. admit yourself to the cackle factory because its impossible to be dust free ) on every surface. She had a lot of fun but she was under the weather also so she was a slight bit slower.

Ballooning went on without us.... sad that.. but those that did get out there and enjoy the afternoon flight and some who found a thermal of four... I wish I had been able to go.. but yeah..no. Glad you had fun.

Its Sunday and I have a head that feels like its full of stuffing. UGH!

So.. back to Friday. I had all day to fiddle with Fallout 4 and clean up a bunch of settlements and build up some others. I have not built in the airport, the Machinists or red rocket ( cause that is my headquarters). The two mentioned have no ability to support crop growing so that really sucks. Also almost all my settlements are at at max people capacity. 22. I have been trying to trap dogs now for each lace but its hit or miss and I am running out of dog food.

I cant do edits on photographs or put video together as my eyes keep burning and my concentration is shot.

So xbox or trying to read is about it.

Here are some shots of what I was messing with....

Update to Oberland Station. 6 x 7 housing. 2 bathrooms and 22 rooms. Its the most economical use of supplies that also gives each settler their own 10x10 space. All above the ground by three levels as you cant remove the crap that is there already. I do this a lot. Plus all the raiders are mostly on the ground.

Update to the visitors center on the Island. Had a two high wall around it and wanted to close up all the gaps in the center house itself but it was impossible without modding the hell out of the game.. yeah no.. All I do are without mods. Clean game. I built over it again. There are also bodies laying about. No matter if you move them or dispose of them they reappear.. stupid. This now has a great housing and entry and even a cool lookout bump as you see below.

Try to trap dogs at Red Rocket and then send them to the settlements but the game wont allow that. So now I have a dog at Red Rocket to keep me company with IDA.

Tenpines has a height limit and you cant build up. So I had to redo this but keep it low. It worked but not my favorite. Okay. my most hated place besides the unplantable places is Hangman Alley.

Sanctuary. No way to repair the houses..No way to remove the houses.. so how about a test to build over the houses. It worked. Four rooms. Nice kitchen dining living area with two bathrooms and some additional space. Not very economical on supplies though.

Inside of the high duplex. Nice and open.

Okay. I stumbled upon this little visage while walking about Taffington Boathouse. We have a guard playing with toys on a rug... Okay..... Nothing to see here...

The Red Rocket station in Nuka World. Up about five levels and the housing is there and a nice place to lounge about after work and even some below places to hang out. Interesting build with so much open space you had unlimited ways to do stuff.. but I went with this to save on supplies.

Below the main level at Nuka Rocket is a boardwalk and support beams for the spanning of the area. Crops are on the left and water is shielded on the right.. you cant see that.

Water is what I trade in as it gives the most bang for the buck. All settlements except thos limited by size are running 300 water.

Really still a lot of fun when you have the time.. and since every movement is painful its much easier to just sit here sipping coffee and twiddling my fingers.

The plans to put up Christmas lights and decorations crashed badly. I am hoping I feel better this week so that it can get done.

No silly outings on Black Friday.. What a crock of crap that is. So much wasted money and time for deals that arnt really deals and you wouldn't touch any other time of the year. What am I going to do about Christmas gifts? I have no clue yet... but it wont be something silly like .. I got 20% off this thing for you.. cause I think I like you about that many per cent.  Yeah!

Im done.. Im cooked.. Im toasted.. going to sit in this chair with more hot coffee...

Hopefully next weekend.. great pictures of fantastic flying in Red Rock Gallup Newwwwww Mexicooooo.

Out-takes of the weeeeeeek

Yeah.. How was your week. Other than people projecting what is at their heart of hearts or how people act when they are totally drunk and all the filters are gone...well... wow.... There are some sick people out there.

But I digress.

BALLOONS!!!

Yeah baby!

Ya can't go wrong with a nice Hot Air Balloon. 

Unless you're very silly.

No ballooning this weekend. 

No waking up early, no getting coolers ready...heating tanks... cold air from the fans no friends cutting up....no FUN! 

Oh well.. you have to take some time off sometimes.

So what did we do this week.... We waited for the pins I designed and ordered to come in. I cleaned up another draft for another friends balloon so he could get a pin done. I also started working on the next pin for my son. Other than that.. not a thing. Oh!....

With the design of the pin we went round and round about the yellow color. The envelope yellow is very soft when viewed close up but in the air it shows up nicely. Trying to capture the right color was very hard and the Pantone website got a workout.  In the end we decided this was closest they had.

This is the shot prior to shipment. Color looks amazing!

In their bag after arrival into my hands. Perfect. Larger than I normally have a pin made but with the tiny details it had to be larger than normal.

First pin out of the bag. Love the outer and inner rings. Love the little straight jacket guys. Look at the first picture or expand this one and you will see the ring of them.

Every pin I have designed for myself has a story behind them. Patturns In The Sky's pin has arrows surrounding it because of its turning vents and wings because it was my first bought balloon. Patturns Highperactive has two high speed heartbeats on each side as it is a very fast balloon. So goes Patturns In Czech. She is a very controllable balloon. Large and soft and beautiful. There has to be a story behind it all and for each there is.... but for this envelope it was said I needed to be controlled and as I am half Czech ( she also has turning vents ) too sooo.... We have Pat Turns In Czech. My quirky brain figured that if I was in czech then I must be in a straight jacket as that would be the only thing that would keep me that way.... but..... because it's a tough thing to keep me that way half the little guys have broken their arms loose and are waving them about! Hahahaha....loose!

This is Takach Another Breeze. On the left is the picture and my overlay of lines. The picture was low resolution so I had to make multiple drawings of tracings of it. None were good enough.

Then I tried another process and it came out better. Due to the resolution there is some fuzzy-ness in the lines but it's pretty good for what it is. The colors are rotated so that ( I think ) the right colors starts at the bottom in the right place. This means quite a lot to me for some reason... Where a colors starts. Patturns Highperactive has sets of four colors... Four yellow then red blue red blue then four yellow then red blue red blue then the last four yellow and red blue red blue. It was imperative that the gore band above my head be a specific way. Go figure. OCD... I expect.

I started on Mo's MOJO's Reverse Gravity Machine.. or YTIVARG ( Her original Name ). She has this wonderful black and orange thunderbolt down the front and back. I think this is as close to perfect as it could be. Its an Avian and every bit of it is quite cool to be around. Since YTIVARG is gravity spelled backwards sdrawkcab then It must defy gravity so.. Morghan.. Mo.. MOJO being the special power to control her... and that has to be mechanics as he is a very good one... ta daaaa....

I am still working on the logo to go along with it. I had in my mind the equation for Gravity but somewhere in my muddled mind I got the theory of relativity in there.. which is so wrong but my brain was hooked into E=mc2 that it wouldn't let it go... Rory said we should do something with -g but what can I do with that.... Still working on it.

I did get to use my new 6040 instruments this last weekend with PH at the AAAA rally. Here is the readout. I had a nice 25 ( really 30 mins with inflation ) flight. Max altitude was 5590. Started a little over 5200 but the ground undulates so it's about 500 feet above ground level for most of it.  Min was 834 which is novel.. dunno about that... but I did drop into an arroyo for the target. Max temp with two people and 30 gallons of fuel.. 183 degrees... Speed was 394 up and 591 down. No GPS for some reason. Worked when I tested them. hmm...

The N number for Patturns In Czech. See how the yellow looks much lighter. I had to put her back in the correct bag so that she is ready to go fly again.. As she is super light it was easier than a normal envelope but it was still wrangling ... well... it was a load of fun... Barely fit in the bag with all the air left in it after I was done.

The Red Rock Rally in Gallup NM is coming up on the 3rd 4th and 5th of December...!!!! Flying in the red rocks is a wonder.. its well.. it is a picture worth taking many many pictures of. Both me and Mo are taking our balloons.. wow.. this is going to be awesome! We are launching from B8 on the map below. It's outside the fingers of the rocks but normally the winds will either suck you up them or spit you out... If you are in the area you should come see.. it will be a hoot. I know the tailgate after Saturday will be a huge fire and food and fun.

Granddaughter visit!!!! She was not interested in angel hair spaghetti and the chicken was too large for her to eat easily. She was more interested in crackers instead... Then an hour and a half nap in my arms... was good. I an getting all the baby sleeping time I can while she wants to because she will grow up and not want to cuddle anymore... well I can hope she won't stop anytime soon.. She is a treasure and very emotive. Her eyebrows alone are something to watch constantly.

Now she has gone home with her parents and they get to listen to her and watch her grow before their eyes. We get to rest...  LOL.. She is on the edge of walking.. and wow.. that's always a worrisome time for me. I don't want her hurting herself... AT ALL!!!!

Soooooo..... that's what I got up to.. and much more I didnt get to. No board up in the trailer for more tie down places..no roller cart swap for the envelope raising....Oh. and I spent a massive amount of time trying to get a video done for Ted... After five tries at getting it to go right I quite with a massive headache.  Sorry Ted... and everyone else I have videos waiting for.... Im sorry but the program is sucking bad.

Im OUT!

Riding the North Face

This three day weekend.. whew! Veterans day on Friday. I did ten years and one month... exactly. Due to draw downs it was time to move on. To those Veterans who saw the elephant.. I salute you. Due to my job they wouldn't let me out of the secured hole in the ground I was buried in nor out of the concertina wired compound I was locked into. I hope you all enjoyed the displays of gratitude all the businesses and people showed you on Friday. I feel like a piker so I don't join in but leave some extra space for those that gave much more than I could. To all who love this country more than anyone else is able.... past, present and future... you are awesome!!!!

Riding the North Face. 

( Or... Rio Rancho Fickle Winds of Fate )

This Saturday was the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association Rally

in Rio Rancho New Mexico.

The AAAA holds a mini rally every month except October ( due to the Albuquerque international Balloon Fiesta ). The location switches from the a nice little field in Rio Rancho off of Northern and Unser or the AIBF park in town. The field in Rio Rancho is open to us by a nice landowner and though its unimproved space it is open and has a lot of open space around it. The AIBF field is on the North side of Albuquerque but normally the winds flow South right into the city.... not so much fun.

Let me preface this little story by saying this.. as nice and open as the field in Rio Rancho is... it also has serious wind issues. Even if the forecast for that area says the winds will be calm and slow they usually end up being neither slow nor calm. This weekend was no different. 

There were a lot of balloons out... a lot.. more than your standard rally anywhere else. No really. This is the center of ballooning in the world. There are amazing places to fly... Saga Japan, France, Poland,.... Great Britain..... but for flying year round it's pretty much here. Our winds are smooth.. our space open... our skies clean and our landowners mostly fantastic. 

50 or so balloons in fact. Winds were reported in the later than normal briefing as in the 4s. ( If you know us we are very informally formal.. so if the brief is stated as 0630 it will probably be around 0645). We goofed around for a bit waiting for the sun to come up and we watched the flags kinda flutter. Some were looking a bit more active than others but overall it looked quite nice........ warning right there.

This would also be the first time my son could fly next to me in his balloon MOJO and not with me in my basket. We had along, soon to be extended family. Two in each basket. That's okay in Mo's balloon as it's an 80,000 cubic foot balloon... me in the 69,000 racer it's was flying heavy. No problem. 

Stand up and launch were wonderful. Mo and I were able to stay together for a few minutes but our reactions are different and our envelopes are different so we moved slightly apart and then I went South and he moved behind me to the West at the SAME LEVEL! So that was quite novel. We drifted apart as I decided to start hunting for one of the two targets out there to throw a baggie at. 

I had an idea where it was in the arroyo  to our Southwest and noticed the balloons low were heading from the Northwest to the Southeast and the balloons that were above me were heading West. I popped up and grabbed the West thinking I could get over West and drop in and that would let me run the arroyo at about ten feet up and go directly to the target.

It worked... and I came beside the target exactly where I wanted to be. I wished I could have been closer to the X but I'll take it. My throw sucked bad and I was short of the center of the target by about 3.2 meters. Mo... he decided to ride the medium then come over on the East side of the target and throw from about 100 feet up... and he hit for 3.9 meters.... not bad at all.... not bad.

After that fun I cranked up the burners and get up to altitude where the wind was pickling along faster towards the South West. This would take me out onto the mesa and a location to go ground track to a nice landing.... Yeah......

Cruising over Southern Blvd and looking forward I could see that all the balloons ahead of my were popping the ground harder than they should and dishing in if not just ripping out... Uh Oh..... there were the squirrelly winds.... Dropping out I had my eye on a nice dirt square out in the middle of nowhere. I saw it earlier but shooting for a 300 square yard zone from a half mile away is always a test in patience and luck.

Dropping out of the sky after the high voltage power lines it looked good for the dirt zone so I had my passengers.... ( my soon to be son in law and his mother ( YIKES ( DONT HURT THEM ))) assume the hard landing position and hold on... we swooped in to see three tall metal posts along the side we were heading to..DAMN! But I kept with the drop and leveled out to grab a bit of a shift off the poles.. perfect... cutting over the ground we got to the dirt and I vented out and we hit... dragged ... I am ripping out the top to stop us and some crew from another balloon ran over and helped us stop with the basket in the square, the envelope a third in the square a third in the road and the top over the berm.everyone happy and up and out...just to see my son coming in on my square but off to the East a little... A better line. About 10 mph...sheesh!

He was busting down and coming right down on it...no flare... no fluff.. right in.... yeah... wild.... cowboy.... We ran over and caught him just as he tapped the ground and about ten feet later he was ripped out and laid down... excellent. Everyone was laughing at the great flight and fun competition and wild landings. Now to pack up.

We all did Patturns Highperactive as she was sitting in the road... she is much heavier and harder to pack up but it was done quickly... then we ran over and did MOJO... whew! Packed up and back to the field for some tailgate before the family ran off to get ready for the wedding.

I got 4th place and Mo got 5th or 6th. Not bad. 

After getting home and cleaned up and changed and play with Emily it was off to the farthest South Volcano and a wedding ceremony right West of it. It was fun and and lovely in the lowering sun. I have pictures to edit still... I expect it will be next week before I get them done. I could give you a play by play like the ballooning but that would just be silly. 

Whew.... Sunday we went out to help Mo fly some friends. MOJO is getting a workout. Mo is getting a lot of hours and lots of experience. It was a fluffy day like the day before was supposed to be. Launching from Unser and Westside they puddled off to the North and landed across Unser from where we took off from Saturday!!! But this time it was so soft you almost had to push the balloon to get it to move. Another fun day with totally different environmental effects. 

That's New Mexico.

Here are some shots from both days

MOJO rides in the East side of the arroyo with friends. Target is just below them. In the distance was the launch field.

Passing the target after throwing and they line up so nicely.

The take ( clip ) from the Kodak 360 cam. My baggie floating there ( with the arrow pointing at it ).. it landed right between the legs of the target.

Sunday flight... Looks like they are trying to break orbit.. and yes.. if he could he would try.

MOJO's Reverse Gravity Machine cruising low and slow.

I got it for a few minutes but didnt feel like heading West so dropped back down and let Mo have it back. He only gave my 25% and 30% so I couldn't go far and that's usually my put it down mark.

A seriously great weekend but I am exhausted! Completly sore and ready for some cookies and milk.

Eve of Destruction... Deconstruction....

Listening to the best of the 1970s. Some good, some bad...some just silly. I was also watching some of the Bob Hope Visits to the troops back at the end of WW2 and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Sobering. Consider if you will... The people we put in power over us who cant tie their own shoes without help... who cant not lie...who brush us off as below them. They bring us into wars that kill or maim our friends and family. Consider what you do with your voice. Do you live for real freedom, real fairness, real justice.. or just your freedom, your fairness, you justice. Look in the mirror each morning.. ask yourself.. is it your way or the best way or do you just label people and blow them off.

Oh.. another word.. Intolerant... are you... or is it everyone else. Every voice should be heard even if you feel it hurts your feelings.

I hate this time every four years. Two years... Hates the hates and lies.. and Bull*hit. Hope you can live with your choice.

Nuff said.

Mojo's Reverse Gravity Machine.  Flying over Taos this last month.

I just finished editing the shots form the standard 18-200mm lens. Over a thousand shots taken. Multiples since I was sitting in the back of the chase truck for most trying to shoot on the fly. needed the extras since most were out of focus or not lined up right. I think I posted around 169. This included some crops.

It was quite a lot of fun, eve though I had to drive up in the morning instead of staying overnight. With a dog at home there isn't much chance of going overnight anywhere. Below are a few of my favorites.

Somewhat past Halloween.

Mojo overwatched.

Balloonists love hugs. We do this a lot. Dont be shy.

Fire in the sky.

O'laugh sneaking around the background.

Mountain colors.

Fire and Fluff... 

This shot I treated with a tone mapper. I have no cluse why it decided to highlight the left and darken the right but it turned out very nicely. My favorite of the day.

Other than the lack of ballooning this weekend due to the rain, thunder and lightning and very wet and muddy ground its been pretty listless. Drag here.. drag there... fall into a chair somewhere beside a wall. 

I have new instruments I want to play with a new envelope to play around with.. my nice and nifty racer envelope to play around with and I am stuck here... polishing and cleaning and wiping down.

Mostly I do not feel like doing a thing. Its all I could do to finish up the pictures. I have many videos still waiting to do. No want to do it.

I have been sitting here playing Fallout 4.. not because its fun or great or exciting.. Its to pass the time while shots are processing or video is editing so that I can work with it...someday.

What I did do was spend time re-doing the Castle and Sunshine Coop. Repairing the castle walls again.. correctly was a massive pain and I had to wipe it and start over... Now its done and ok.

Looking South East. Two of three damaged walls fixed without Mods. I do not use Mods.. Just hard work fitting things where they will go best.

Upper portion. Due to the yellow munitions door being in the way I had to set a half height cement wall to support the whole living area platform. Then set corners to support it. its 10 by 12 grids set upon the five point of the Castle.

Third damaged wall corrected with an added new gateway that has security and firepower. Not that that will stop the game from popping raiders inside the walls. Stupid game. 

Dark view of the Coop living area build over. Since the "stupid" game wont let me clear the area I can build in I build over...with supports and all. I have moved crops upwards to keep them away from raiders where possible.

Water is Life. Each settlement is almost processing 300 sets of water. not that that is what you get but that is the best for stocking up on it. Its worth 14 to 16 caps per. After almost a year of playing this damn game I almost have 2 million in caps not including the water I have. See 227857=3189983 caps or so.

Last build over was at the Drive in. It sucked. I tried laying out a floor lower but everyone kept being stuck half way in it like soup.. so I raised it up and made the bottom open wandering area. Lest side building is the gateway.

This game can get to you sometimes... Its all destroyed due to the bombs dropping due to some idiot dropping them or getting into a fight with another country... It could happen and it shouldn't. At least I can ( here ) try and save 20 or so people per settlement. Funny but in each place the standard statement is... If you don't work.. you don't eat. 

Other than that its a lot of fun to remove the mutants and raiders from the game. They just pop up again like weeds... which reminds me.. the weeds are going to start coming up in the yard with all this rain... UGH!!!!!!

OH.. yeah.... I at last was able to get what I hope is a good design verified with the pin maker. They will ship around the 16th. I really hope the colors are right and the design looks good cause it was a pain to do. Ill et you see as soon as I get them.