The 2024 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is off and running (well, flying), and proud we are of all of them.
One rarely sees this many swole-up gasbags outside a meeting of the U.S. House Budget Committee. But we can’t see ’em at all, buried as we are in a Foothills cul-de-sac, which is as close as I intend to get to the “action.” Mustn’t distract the tourists from their primary mission, to wit, pissing away their hard-earned moneys here in The Duck! City, “Gateway to Los Lunas.”
I may celebrate the kickoff by riding my ballooner, the Jones with its 2.4-inch Maxxis Ardents, just because I can. Them big fatties come in handy when a fella has to bunny-hop onto the sidewalk to dodge a distracted out-of-towner watching the skies instead of the road.
But I’ll confess I am curious about this evening’s skydiving, if only because of its sponsorship. Here’s hoping nobody has to take one for the team.
Mad Blog Media 
We used to have a balloon festival here many years ago. We had just gotten a puppy, the mighty Beaumaster, and had him out for a walk, one his first walks in the neighborhood. A hot air balloon flew low over us, and fired up his burners with a loud hiss and roar. Scared the shit out of Beau, and he flopped around at the end of the lead like a fish on the deck of a boat. For the rest of his life, any hissing sound, like the air brakes on a truck or school bus, had him running for cover. We did enjoy the festival though, which launched from the park and local schools in town. That included the school 2 blocks from our house. That’s where Beau’s low flying balloon launched from.
Poor Beau. You never know what’s gonna blow the fur right off a dog.
Miss Mia Sopaipilla is a big fan of silence. Unless she wants something, which is fairly often, and then she’ll make a racket you’d swear was triggered by a psycho home invader feeding her tail-first into a blender.
I’m in favor of balloon festivals if only because they help people think of something other than “Breaking Bad” when the name “Albuquerque” comes up.
Mass Ascension always makes me think of a Biblical account of the second coming.
What, the Rapture? Many gasbags arising in that one; many, many of them. Or so they’d like to hope.
If it happens in the dark, will they glow on the way up?
NuttyYahoo keeps bombing everything with a pulse over there in the sandpile and we’re all likely to be glowing on the way up, or down, as the case may be.
Religion and its after effects just shows to go ya that hell is right here on earth. We did a good job constructing it to date. Once we totally screw the climate pooch, it will be perfect. No going down mi amigo, only up, heh?
My younger bro, young punk like yourself, is moving from North Port, Florida back to Wisconsin. Perhaps Milton was the last straw?
Man, Somebody up there has a thing for Florida. Funny, I don’t see it mentioned anywhere in Revelation.
Say, how’s that Nathaniel Rateliff Gibson working out for you? He’s a live one.
Fedex completely messed up the delivery. Supposed to be here Saturday, signature required. Next time I checked tracking, Saturday evening, it was still in Phoenix. I hope it wasn’t outside! 113 there today and 3% humidity. That will kill any guitar in hours. Should be here tomorrow. I will have to ket it acclimate inside the house for 24 hours before opening. Might open the box after 4 hours or so and throw in a humidifier. But the guitar cam’t leave the case for 24 hours.
Yeech. And yet people are still piling into Phoenix as if it were the Last Bus to Paradise. For some of them it may be something like that. Other direction, different management.
Here’s hoping the new git-fiddle finds its way to you with neither illness nor injury.
I ordered the guitar from Sweetwater. They shipped it from their climate controlled campus in Ft. Wayne. The orginal shipping materials are used to repack after their inspection process. They then add an additional box over the factory box. The guitar will be in a hard case wrapped in a big plastic bag. So, no worries there. But, you are probably right about Fedex, and their tracking system stinks. This is only the second guitar I have ordered online. I usually buy from a shop, Rainbow Guitars in Tucson. But, the LG-2 standard model has been discontinued, and the Rateliff model will soon be. Plus, they gave me a substantial discount. So, I took the chance. I love the tone of small body Gibson acoustic guitars.
Finally an update from Fedex tracking. Say barcode label was unreadable and replaced. So, that kept it in Phoenix. It left there this morning at 0345. Can’t imagine they don’t have a climate controlled sorting and holding facility. So, this pessimistic old guy is waiting patiently for baby to come to the door.
The bar code label as unreadable is a delay excuse. They fouled up and you can bet that the guitar was in a handling terminal with all the other parcels waiting to be loaded out. It’s not just FedEx that takes advantage of their many stated reasons for their poor logistics on that particular day. If the shipper (the Guitar Shop) knows what they are doing I would think that they may have hermetically sealed the guitar to retain a constant humidity inside of the box. Here’s hoping that they load it with care and deliver it to you personally. – Not one of those toss it over the fence deliveries.
Regarding music; I just watched “This World Won’t Break” again last night.
POG: Here’s hoping that all the hot air craft made it back to earth ok and didn’t come down on you somewhere on one of your rides and you needed to give Saul a call.
I dropped the spouse off at the Sunport this morning for her trip to see her sister in Dee Cee. Drove down through Albuquerque just in time to see hundreds of hot air balloons taking off. It was pretty cool.
I got to see quite a few as I started yesterday’s ride, and then some more during this morning’s run. The wind was a little friendlier today so I could actually see a couple late starters while still in the cul-de-sac. Winning, etc.