UP, UP AND AWAY

Here's a great song from the past that is perfect for today's post.

Today, you see was the day for Prescott Valley's annual hot air balloon fest.

It was a perfect day with a beautiful clear blue sky as the balloonists began readying their crafts.

A large fan is used to begin inflating the fabric globe.

Flames from a burner in the basket complete the job.

One of the crewmen told me he'd heard there were 24 balloons this year.

And then it was time to fly.

What a great day for a balloon ride.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Just last Monday I was thinking "Gosh, it seems like this week is going so slowly." 

And then it's Friday again.

So in a week that had many hours of Republican blather, let's see if we can find some humor.

This week you get a bonus cat picture. Just because.

That's it, folks. Thanks to my contributors and others I've stolen from. Let's keep the chuckles going, gang!

THROWBACK THURSDAY

A tiring week, finally over. 

San Francisco, California

1984 Democratic National Convention 

KPNX-TV crew.

(Front, L to R) Political reporter Ron Talley, Anchorwoman Linda Alvarez, Field Producers Bruce Taylor and Bert Sass.

(Back, L to R) Photographers Wally Athey, Greg Voigt, Steve Torbeck.

FALL FOOD

SWMBO's chicken stir fry

TUESDAY TRAVELS

Protect me, Captain Jack!

I was an extra in a movie with Johnny Depp back in the early 1990's. And young Leonardo DiCaprio.

The movie was "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". Here's how the "boys" looked back then.

That was in Austin, Texas.

The picture at the start of this post was taken at the Pike Place Market in Seattle in 2006 after "Pirates of the Caribbean" had come out.

Oddly, Johnny seemed much more one-dimensional to me.

EXERCISE

Every time I see any of my doctors they always ask me if I exercise.

Shamefacedly, I always respond that I have been doing some walking.

The doctors then tell me that is good exercise, if I do it for about 45 minutes every day, or at least several days a week.

My walks are more leisurely, 10 or 15 minutes, and of late they've been weeks apart.

So I'll try to get back to daily walks and try to extend their duration.

There are a lot of walkers in my neighborhood, some with dogs, some without, some amblers, some power walkers.

So the example has been set for me.

My longtime friend, Tom, over in California, has taken up tennis and become quite involved with a group of fellow seniors (sorry 'bout that, Tom). I think most of them are older than he is.

I don't plan to take up tennis.

But there is an alternative, apparently designed for we age-challenged folks.

It's called Pickleball.

It's sort of a cross between ping pong and tennis.

It's played with a paddle and a plastic ball and a net.

I've read that it's easy to learn but can develop into a fast-paced and competitive game for experienced players.

The other day I wandered (drove) over to the recreation center here and watched a group of four playing the game for a short time.

It looks like fun though I'm not sure I'm agile enough for it.

Maybe I'll just WALK over and be a spectator.

AUTUMNAL TINT

A sign of things to come

WHAT A DIFFERENCE . . .

Last March 10th I took some photos of new construction around StoneRidge, where we live.

Workmen were busily working on this new house, though if you click on the photo to expand it and look closely near the center you can see a couple of them taking a break in the shade.

Yesterday, I ventured out to find the home finished and occupied.

Even more startling was the change in what in March was just a vacant lot being cleared, leveled and surveyed.

As of yesterday, another house had been constructed and the lot landscaped.

It appears to be a modest house from this angle but look at it from the other side.

I can't remember and my earlier photographs don't tell me if the house between these two had been built in March. 

Now it joins the other in looking down on the StoneRidge golf course and the mountains beyond from it's cliff edge position.

Their view:

The song goes "What a difference a day makes . . ."

In this case it's what a difference six months makes.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

T.G.I.T.F.F.

(thank god it's the friday funnies)

Speaking of that OTHER Donald, you know, the blonde one . . .

That's it, folks. Have a happy weekend and don't stare at that cuckoo cat clock too long. But if you do, remember to keep laughing!

THROWBACK THURSDAY

September 11, 2001.

The day the twin towers in New York city were attacked by terrorists in airplanes and brought down.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of that horrible day but those who died are not forgotten.

On the grassy lawn between the Prescott Valley Civic Center and the Police Station, three thousand flags are flying.

It is called the Prescott Valley Healing Field of Northern Arizona.

Each flagpole has a card attached with the name of one of the victims.

Only one came from my home state of North Dakota.

This is her card.

I never knew Ann but she came from my hometown and was the daughter of someone I grew up with.

I have sought out her card before and spent a moment at her flag.

You may have noticed the boots at the base of some of the flags. They are placed to remember firemen who died when the towers collapsed.

The display is put up by volunteers every year to allow people to commemorate the lives lost in the tragedy.

As President Roosevelt said of December 7th, 1941 when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, "it was a day that shall live in infamy."

September 11th, 2001 was another such day.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

I guess Queen Elizabeth II has lived long.

She's 89 and today she became the longest ruling queen of the United Kingdom in history.

At something less than 23, 227 days she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Elizabeth was characteristically modest when commenting on the event, "Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones - my own is no exception -but I thank you all and the many others at home and overseas for your touching messages of great kindness."

I can remember the day of her coronation very well. I was a 12 year old boy living in North Dakota, about 50 miles from the Canadian border. At that location our a.m. radio could pick up stations from Regina, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Of course the stations were carrying the coverage of the event live from London and I listened to it all day.

By this age, I had become engrossed in the tales of Sherlock Holmes and was a budding Anglophile so the radio broadcasts were like a dream to me.

63-plus years ago now.

Congratulations, Elizabeth!

TUESDAY TRAVELS

The political trail.

Some of the press badges I collected in my travels covering politics, from the 1968 national political conventions in Chicago and Miami Beach to the 1984 meets in San Francisco and Dallas. With stops along the way at Richard Nixon's 1969 inauguration and Queen Elizabeth's visit to California in 1983 and the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984.

The top row includes badges my grandfather and father collected attending Republican national conventions back to 1924.

What a long, strange trip it's been.