Well I really wanted to show you something flying today, and this was the best I could come up with. Apparently when the flags are stretched out like this, hot air balloons don’t even try to fly. Ascension a word I was not familiar with, but apparently that’s what hot air balloons do, they do not launch as I had previously incorrectly stated. See you are never too old to learn something. And if a bunch of balloons are going up at once it’s called a mass ascension…who knew

So it is Friday at the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival and there is lots of things going on, balloons in the air just happens not to be one of them…there is a continuous flow of entertainers on the main stage. There are lots of venders selling all kinds of crafts, pain relief, souvenirs, and such. There are food venders selling everything that you didn’t even know you wanted to eat. There is a midway with rides and entertainment for kids, but none of these were intriguing enough to draw us out on a windy day, with folding chairs blowing around outside, we just stayed tucked away in the coach today…our hopes are riding on tomorrow, it looks like a great day as long as the wind co-operates, so maybe I can get a picture of a balloon in the air!

On a more somber note:

Imagine that a Ukrainian commercial jet shot down by Iran defence missiles with 178 passengers, 63 Canadians, and apparently it was scientifically impossible that it could have been done by Iran, but as amazing as it my sound they have been able to pick up tons of the shot down jet and clean up the whole debris field in just a little more than 24 hours, so that no one can do a proper investigation? Now that is the part that I maybe would have said that part was impossible, and as President Trump said someone may have made a mistake…no shyt…kind of like poking a hornets nest…so the death toll starts to add up from this first poke. If anyone thinks this is over, I have some swamp land for sale, you see some of these leaders don’t care about who they kill, and anyone from a different tribe is fair game. And now that Russia’s President Putin has said it wasn’t Iran, I almost was expecting a theory after a statement like that, but it’s pretty hard to argue with the actual real facts. Just waiting for the statement from Iran tomorrow as to what caused the crash…they are so much more efficient than any other countries crash analysts…just saying

Rant alert!

Wow I sleep in this morning, it was after 7am before the first generator fired up, and of course it’s the noisiest generator in the whole parking lot, and as luck would have it, it is located in the row directly behind us. It’s at the spot that the generator is on all day, and I mean all day it runs till it runs out of fuel then someone exits the trailer, refuels and restarts it, and this will happen until 10pm. I guess I just don’t understand what needs that much power, because none of the adults are sitting outside it must be television, but of course that is also the trailer with the kids, and with no parent outside to supervise, these are the kids running around with toy guns, running through everyone’s site, shouting and screaming like a banshee, I guess they are just little red necks in training.

Respect…due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others

I guess that says a lot about what we now see everyday in our travels and daily life…I don’t mean we see a lot of respectfulness…no no much more the opposite, a total lack of respect of pretty much everyone and everything. But just stop for a minute and look around, where does today’s youth learn that respect? Well it should be taught at home, failing that, friends and family, school, church, community leaders, clergy, political leaders, so now I’m starting to understand why the lack of respect today. I won’t go into the whole when I was young story, no no there has been way too much water under the bridge since then. But just look what has happened to the world, no one respects a politicians (not even politicians), the clergy (child molesters), community leaders (?), church (gun fights during the services in the pews), school (endless mass school shootings), which only leaves family or friends, and I fear we are failing there as well.

I always laugh when they show an apprehended criminals mother and she’s saying my little Jonny couldn’t possibly have done that…mean while there is a video of little Jonny doing exactly what she said he couldn’t have possibly done…and then I think if that Mom had just filled her parental role and taught poor little Jonny some RESPECT, then maybe little Jonny would’ve have grown up to be such a piece of shyt. But then everyone will go on to blame the community, or system, for failing little Jonny…wrong little Jonny’s family and his lack of a good up brining failed little Jonny…if they had taught little Jonny some RESPECT, then maybe little Jonny wouldn’t be on his way to prison or already in a body bag…NO little Jonny’s up bringing or the lack of up bringing caused his demise. Little Jonny is a product of his environment it’s too bad, but why didn’t little Jonny’s mom fix it before it was too late, RESPECT and MANNERS cost nothing but pay such huge dividends…just saying

But on a more upbeat note today is opening day of the balloon festival, the first balloon launch was to be at 4:30, Well because of the wind direction they called off the launch. They had decided to do a night glow, that is when they light and partial fill the balloon with the huge propane burners used to lift the balloon, but because there was no launch we decided to catch a ride back…just couldn’t see me sitting for an hour and a half on a rock waiting…will take some chairs next time. So I was hoping to have a great photo of balloons in the Arizona sky but that will have to be a future blog.