Full Of Hot Air!

Let's start this post a little differently than usual- with a shout out to my "90 sumpin" year old mother who went out this last week and bought herself a new laptop and wireless router so she could stay on top of the cyber happenings in her life. How cool is that! Way to go mamacita!

Actually, I was gonna bring her up regardless because I borrowed the title of this post from her. Well, maybe not directly, but at least indirectly as she has been known to use a number of "sayings" throughout her life as it relates to her children- not the least of which is, in response to something I may have offered into evidence at one point or another....."Oh, you're so full of hot air!"

No claim on my part that that led me to be intrigued by hot air balloons, but I can't rule it out...and it works for this story, so it is what it is. My bucket list (and Marilyn's as well) has always included being able to attend the big balloon festival in Albuquerque, NM in the fall of each year. While we haven't made the "big one" yet, we sure got a terrific introduction to ballooning by traveling up to Lake Havasu City, Arizona for their version of the balloon festival- about 60 balloons instead of hundreds, but impressive and kind of awesome none-the-less. We caravan-ed the hour and a half journey with some of the Brenda Gang which added even more to the adventure of the day. It is good to have a support group any time it is necessary to get up in the dark at 5 in the AM and head out by 6. Yuk. But it had to be in order to arrive in time for the flyover and mass ascension of the balloons that was set to start just before 8 o'clock. And so it was....

We have seens balloons drifting over before, usually in Florida where they float high above and drift effortlessly across the blue heavens. A pretty sight, but tranquil. No sense of excitement and anticipation and marvelous adventure that comes from standing close enough to touch them as they are inflated with air, then heated to vertical, before lifting off the ground right beside where you are standing taking a picture. No ropes to stay behind. This is not like staying 7 miles back to watch the space shuttle go up. This is the here and now, the present and accounted for, the hands on ( hand me that line, will ya?), this is happening and YOU ARE THERE that Walter Cronkite used to deliver on the news so long ago. (If you are embarrassingly young, you can Google Cronkite - see if I care)

The sights and sounds of the day- or maybe the lack of sounds of the day, made for spending some fascinating time, and there is a lengthy slide show for sharing. The dueling cameras of Greg and Marilyn were firing repeatedly and this is what's left after we weeded out the few shots that we could stand to delete, albeit difficult. Perhaps the best experience of the day for us was walking into the massive balloon that was resting on its side - fans blowing air in to inflate it, so that folks could walk into the balloon and get a feel for the size and magnificence of the hot air container. Surely upon seeing the images of her now aging son actually in the middle of a hot air balloon, she will come to the realization, if she hadn't already done so, that, at least on occasions, the old boy IS "full of hot air." Just sayin'.




And for those of you wondering what on earth we have been up to during our most recent extended silence- we have been building a kayak rack and a "stand-up" garden box for growing some vegetables out of reach of the dad-gum rabbits but well within the reach of my sometimes sore back. Both are heavy duty and starting to go into service now, although not 100% completed at this point.