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 Being Retired now, I thought that it was time for a new name to this Blog |
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Talk about perks, my career had one of the best I can think of! I traveled in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I was a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and taught classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2-way radio communications. I knew that when the time arrived that I would retire, and I have. I've always said that if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out! I can't handle the heat anymore. I was qualified to deliver approximately 32 different classes, but about half of those were 'Legacy' classes, and were not in demand anymore. My students were technicians, those who maintained, programmed, calibrated, and repaired large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I traveled, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where have I been? Some of the places I've been (I can't list them all here, the list would be too long) are pretty interesting. 1. Hawaii - Four times, Oahu, Maui (twice), and the Big Island 2. BangkokThailand, twice 3. Frankfurt Germany, twice 4. Algiers, Algeria 5. Melbourne Australia 6. Bismarck North Dakota, Summer & Winter 7. Los Angeles, Too many times to count 8. Washington DC, Too many times to count 9. Seattle three or four times 10. Texas, all over the state 11. Florida, all over the state 12. New Mexico, HOME! Several times  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
At The Balloon Fiesta We were up at 3 am to get to the Park-n-Ride at a local mall for a 4 am bus ride. My est friend from H.S., and former on/off again girlfriend insisted I have a 'cane/stool' to take with me, and dropped it off last night. It came in handy, and helped us a lot. At the last minute, another Niece of mine decided to bring her daughter along. That was fine, except the Park-n-Ride tickets were sold out. We figured we'd cross that bridge when we got to it. There we were, in a long line waiting to board a bus when a worker came to me and said, "You look handicapped (I was holding that cane/stool), come with me." I explained that I wasn't handicapped, that the cane/stool was loaned to me by a good friend. He explained that his job was to identify handicapped people, it didn't matter if I wasn't, we were to still come with him. Off we went; this ended up saving us at least 30 minutes of time. Remember that we now had 4 people in our small group, but only 3 tickets? Another employee was scanning tickets, we had talked a little before this. The three tickets were scanned, then Kristin's (my niece) daughter showed her ticket on the phone, of course it was invalid. Still, he had us board the bus! Off we went and joined the huge crowd of people on buses getting to the Fiesta. We had skipped breakfast to get to the mall on time, getting coffee and a bacon, green chile, potato & cheese burrito was our first move. Yummmm. After that, we walked around until we found a nice area to sit in. Now that cane/stool was even more handy! I was able to sit a little, and relax. We eventually had to move so the tarp for the Smokey The Bear Balloon could be laid out. The balloon would then be laid on it for inflation, not on the grass. Having never seen this kind of evolution going on, I walked to the area around the Smoky The Bear Gondola. I was 5-10 feet from the Gondola as this was being done. Here's what the team does. 1. The balloon is spread out on the tarp, it was pretty large too! 2. The team holds the bottom of the balloon open so air can be blown in. A gas powered fan blows air warmed by a heater into the balloon, and it slowly inflates. But this air is not hot enough to lift it off the ground. It was during this evolution that I walked over to the Gondola area. 3. So far, the Gondola has been on it's side. Once the balloon is inflated enough, the Pilot lights the Propane Burners to heat the air in the balloon even more and the balloon slowly rises off the ground! It was quite an experience to be that close to the Gondola while this was going on. Sadly, no balloons flew today, it was too windy at the higher altitudes for them to fly. Still, it was quite the experience to see the hundreds of balloons floating, even if still on the ground. If you have any interest in something like this, attend a balloon festival near you!   |
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Too hot. In England, you cannot make it up. However, like you say it was cool to see them all floating above the ground. I live right next to a park where hot Air Balloons take off from and so I often see them in the Spring and Summer going over my house and allotment. I would love to go on one, but I have not yet... 
