And to all a good night.... Okay. one more piece of cherry pie!

The close of the 2016 Christmas is near by. For some its passed and I hope they survived it! We have some hours left to see how it all goes but barring the errant meteor or localized earthquake I think we are gonna make it. I think....

This was a quick week. Between work and pushing things through with so few staff everywhere and re-reading things and also having Friday off to prepare for the Christmas weekend... well.. it was a busy one and a strangely tempered one.

We had our normal Christmas eve glow cancelled due to high winds and incoming rain / snow. That meant the pot luck after started very early and we found ourselves home and backing the truck and trailer into the side yard early ( it was still pitch black out ) and safely home in in the standard chair settling in. We looked at the clock and were amazed it was so early.

This Christmas was all about our 11 month old granddaughter. When she arrived we had to first get everyone fed full of pashka and ham then settled down to open stockings.. Emily had no clue nor interest. After that we started trying to get her to open gifts but we seemed to have bought the super strong wrapping paper and it was crazy hard to tear... okay.. everyone pitched in and helped open presents for Emily to look at, see if it was worth the time and then look at everything else... We did get through it all and she did get way over stimulated...but still was awesome!  Dinner later was wonderful and pie after that rocked. It was a nice Christmas.. Next year we can look forward to being told off by a near two year old Emily so I cant wait for that. I will also get the non duct tape wrapping paper to make it easier for us all.

Now with Emily gone home with her parents, dog on lap and things cleaned up I can rest a bit, think a bit.. and probably go to bed early.. hah... not till after that piece of pie!

Here are some shots... centering on Emmers as you would expect.

Short envelope strap. I was going to get the same for Morghans balloon but I opted for the 3 footers so he has extra wrap. Nice for envelope handling.

The AAAA Jingle Bell Rally.. first day was a total bust but where can you go to drink champagne at 0700 in the morning. 2nd day was better but I was babysitting the Emmers. Emmers always comes before ballooning.

Emily has her own sunglasses to wear when out and about. Mostly she chewed on them.

Dining at its finest! Her drinking noises will cut down on return trips to all five star restaurants in the area.. though at the house she can slurp as much as she wants.

Emily in a new set of onesies playing with Mo and her new phone. For a fisher price the first one didn't stand up at all! New phone.. hopefully it will last longer.

The new Pilot pin I am working on.. very rough. Cant seem to get the digital program to create the soft curve I can get freehand. I keep throwing the designs away. Frustrating.

I have also.. on this long weekend tried to resettle all my files in their correct drives only to find that moving that much data is a serious pain and a massive time sucker. Wow. Still not done getting the video files where they are supposed to go and the picture files where they are supposed to go.. and finding stuff in places it has no business being.. wow...just wow.

Off to do more.

Merry Christmas to my friends.. even if we have not spoken in a while and family who are far and wide away... Cheers!... Boxing day.. then New Years Eve then New Years day.. maybe a flight in In Czech somewhere in there???? Crew? Can I get some crew????

Plans.. they are really suggestions.

I had planned to do many things this weekend. I planned to fly but Saturdays weather was insane. I planned to work on the pins and that got waylaid by my favorite Granddaughter ( not that I am complaining... except for the no sleep part.. too old for that.. but she is a treasure ) Many little things I am just not going to get to .. I did get the dishes done and laundry done so I call that a fantastic process completion... even though I was mostly not written down... It's done now. Can't take it back.

A banner from last years countdown to Fiesta... I need to upload all of them to my website. So many.

I took all of maybe twelve pictures at the cookie contest on Saturday. Not a great showing for me. Die hards came out.. which was excellent and it was nice to sit in the Sid Cutter Pavilion in the warmth and chat with friends while it blew and rained ( snowed in places ) outside.

I need to order some shock pads to attach to my daughter to make sure she goes home.. gets her husband in bed to rest and daughter down for a much needed nap... can I get one for Christmas? LOL. Too much sickness going around.

Probably due to the weird weather.. cold .. warm.. cold cold.. warm.... So fun. Ballooning in the cold is a special thing too. Cold is good for life... the cooler the better you can lift.. My balloon weights in the ballpark of 660 pounds complete... Yeah I calculated it from my weights page..

Propane is about 4 pounds a gallon ... so..

Add me and whoever I am flying and it adds up.. so the colder the better.. but the colder the less I want to fly... I don't want to be cold.. I don't want to try and get things put together.. Id rather find a nice greasy spoon to sit in a drink coffee. But .. we do get some amazing flights in in the winter months.

My Son did get to fly .. and he flew quite a ways.... almost to the airport... Yeah... Wild. I am the conservative one. Yeesh... I think I need to move.

We are glowing at the Del Oso Golf Course on Christmas Eve... Followed by a pot luck at the good people who are setting it all up. It's always fun. Going to glow Patturns In Czech since we really have yet to glow her. It will also be very cool.

This upcoming week will be quiet in sound but that allows for some of the things that need to be done. well get done.

Here are a few of my favorite banners from last Fiesta countdown.....

Many fun ones... Can you find the numbers?

Okay.. Much to do.. or not do and complain about later.... so.. here I will stop for the day.

Have a great run up to Christmas.. Be safe.. don't take chances... be there for your family!

Pin Boy

If you have never watched Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton's Night Shift... go watch it. Its a very good movie from wayyyy back.. and the Pool Boy thing is a constant in my mind for jobs that you really don't want to do... But on the other had I really love doing the pin thing... so.. yeah.. confusing.

Another great movie is Better Off Dead. Worth every minute of your time.

So the week is gone past and its so much closer to Christmas. I did "almost" complete my Christmas shopping. One person requires a lot of phone time to get things done. Trying to keep it small and less painful on the pocketbook. Too many outlays and situations and too little incomming... but everyone is in that boat I believe.

The Red Rock Rally was fun. I did bust out two quick videos on it. One from the GoPro and one from the 360. One at 27 times speed and one at 10 times speed. The links...

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e5fcfc8b

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e1c6a3f14

I still have pictures to do but here are a few more...

Flying in and amongst the rocks is the fun of it all. Sliding sideways is a bad thing as there are some sharp edges can cut your emvelope. Up and down is usually okay. Oh. and what ever other people say you can fly with a hole in your envelope.. its just not fun and sometimes not safe and most times not in regulations, You land and pack up and get it repaired.

Pulling the envelope down against the light breeze.. not a lot of fun.

But very colorful.

Onward. I did finish my Sons balloon pin and sent it off prior to this rally. I could not respond to the request to check the proof until I was back in town. Its too easy to miss an error. Now that we have looked at it and changed around some of the colors it is off to get cost of their making.

That will be two of four down.

Here is the first.. In Czech...

Ill post MOJO when it arrives... probably the week after next.

Now I have to recreate Highperactives pin..

Change of interior and exterior color rings. Change of background.. Change of size of lettering. Add detail.

Then after that its Kiss A Hoy.. but I have the wire frame for her already..

I have to work on the basket on this and also maybe straighten it up. Maybe.

I do have in my mind a Pilot pin for Racer Pilots and Standard balloon Pilots in my head and on paper. I wont share that as of yet. Surprise surprise surprise.

So pin designs.. lots of fun.. loads of hard work ... I am trying one for a friend but the pic is just too blurry to get a good gore drawing. I will try again but if it sucks I will have to get a better picture.

Other than that... My xbox Fallout 4 game is having problems... Its lagging horribly... I may have over run the game somehow.... watching and waiting to see if it corrects itself.

Next week.. Christmas presents arrive and have to be wrapped.... Much to do and maybe a trip to Colorado for an assist.

I wanted to fly this next weekend to check my instruments but that may be a no go. Oh well.

How you are having a good time through your life  so far.... Me.. im dong laundry! YAY!

Red Rock Rally Moments

Rallys outside of the Albuquerque area or really any rally outside of a very local area always become a study in patience and perseverance.

You race home from work and throw everything you think you need into your truck and load your balloon and hit the road for anywhere from 2 to 12 hours to get to that rally. You slam into town, find your hotel, race to registration, grab your gear, the race back to your hotel to get a good bunch of sleep before waking super early in the morning to scream out to the morning brief then fling everything of your system out onto the dirt and blast into the sky! Woosh! Then do it again the next day. After that it's pack up, pick up and make a beeline back to wherever you live.. throw all the wash next to the machine and fall on the floor exhausted!

What really happens is a bunch of fantastic people work insane amounts of time to set up a amazing venue... from getting all the pilots rooms to stay in, bags of goodies, all the assistance that is possible, set up launch sites and propane and volunteers and rescue services and and and.... then we pop in... get to fly some of the most fantastic places..... make it look simply thrilling as we really take complete glee in bobbling around and about.... then after all that work we get to refuel with free propane... sit around and tell stories, eat and drink then do it all again the next day.... While the behind the scenes team keep it going strong.

We thank you so much for all of your hard work.

Red Rock Rally in Gallup New Mexico.... Three days of flying... In the Red Rock Park.

Here are some shots....

Since I was driving the main chase I didnt get to take many pictures but I did get some of them. Here are a few of them that were good enough to share.

There are more but I am very very tired.

There is a whole story behind the weekend.

Both my son and I were in the rally. Its invitational so you can't just come, you must be invited and were were.. which is fantastic. Two vehicles. One trailer. Two crew vehicles to caravan out. The drive out was quite nice and it only took us a little over two hours. Our hotel was excellent. We have to have outside outlets to run power cords to our propane tanks to keep them warm for flying. The hotels provide them. Unfortunately our outlet died in the night sometime so when we woke up on the first morning everything was cold. Fortunately we were able to plug in for a good twenty minutes and get enough heat to be able to fly. Sadly one of our trucks failed to start but we had another crew vehicle to transport to the field.

We made the field and briefing with minutes to spare but soon found out that the low cloud layer above us as well as the wind direction would not let us fly. So what do we do when we can't fly... We go to breakfast.. or.. in the case of a cold and blustery day in a park.. we sit by the campfire and eat and drink and tell stories. ... which we did.

That night we were to glow but my sons balloon had a tear appear in the top and it all went downhill from there. So.. no glow and tomorrow's flight was up in the air for him.

Sunday we got up and drove out to the field... listened to the brief and it was good news... though the winds were possibly going the wrong way. I decided Mo needed to fly and so he took my balloon up with two people who has won a raffle at Western Refinery and they flew off.

They were able to go play in the rocks for an hour and a half before setting down nicely a couple miles away West. Packed up and all returned to the field... Refueled again and it was over for another  year. There is a breakfast and raffle and other events after but we had to get some people back to Albuquerque so we checked out and cruised home.

It was a great weekend.

Thanks Bill Lee and team!