2009 Tigard Festival of Balloons

This past weekend was the Tigard Festival of Balloons. We have never actually gone to Cook Park to see the fun. Usually we just go out the back door and watch the balloons float by. This works out if the winds are from the north or northeast. If the wind is blowing from the south, the balloons head off into Beaverton or Portland. Not good - as a test flight on Thursday had a not-so-good landing in Beaverton.

Friday morning started out with dissappointment. Due to possible rain and winds - no balloons flew. We decided to go there Friday night and see the night glow. We actually didn't think through how long we would be there. We got there at 5pm so we could get dinner, and then we planned to walk around until the night glow. Well - that wouldn't be starting until 9pm or so...

At around 8:30, they announced that due to possible rain - they would not be doing the night glow, but rather just 'candlesticking.' Apparently when weather causes problems, I guess they just setup the gondola's without the balloon and fire up the burner. I bet this is just to prevent riots from all the people who really wanted the night glow. We decided we didn't want to wait around for another 30-45 minutes - so we called it a night.

Saturday saw the launch of 19 balloons. Connor and I sat out in the Tualatin Elementary field and saw at least 17 of them. The wind was coming from the northwest...so the balloons didn't fly overhead, but rather off the the east. No landings near us...


Saturday night, we headed back to Cook Park and saw the night glow. We didn't want to pay the $5 parking - so we decided to park at the Tualatin Community Park, and walk to Cook Park. We had biked this before - but it was a good walk - probably a mile or so. And - we didn't think about the walk back until we were almost there...this path has no lights.

There were seven balloons setup, and it looks pretty awesome when then all fire at once. The wind was picking up a little, but there were no real problems. Fun stuff! The walk back to the car was fine - but we had to watch carefully for slugs. The path was full of those guys - not sure where they were trying to go.


Sunday morning - I was up alone to watch for the launches, as we didn't get home Saturday until after 10pm. When the first two balloons went up - they took off almost due east. Not a chance that they would fly near our house, so I jumped on my bike and took off. Less than 10 minutes later I was at Cook Park - just as the last balloon took off. So I took a few photos and headed back home.

We still keep an eye out for balloons throughout the summer. Sometimes we can see them off towards Sherwood.

Housekeeping - Yard Work #13 was June 19th. The grass is starting to look less green, as the rains have slowed down. We water the front yard some because of the flowers. The back yard doesn't get much - and now with a inflatable pool out there - we'll soon have dead patches.

Only about four weeks until the Tour de Cure ride. Still time left for your donations!

http://tour.diabetes.org/goto/TeamTegan2009

Digital is now the standard

Good morning.

Welcome to the world of digital TV broadcasting.

Without a converter box, this is your TV today - and forever.

Friday Afternoon Traffic

Just checking Google Maps to see what traffic looks like before we head out "Over the river (Tualatin & Willamette) and through the woods (Stafford Area around I-205)" for a strawberry waffle night at the Larsons.

Not starting out good this Friday. At least we are not on I-205 South....looks like an accident.



Yard Work #12 - June 9th. Less grass to cut - either the growth rate is slowing down, or the less hardy grass plants are giving up. Not much rain recently.

Tour de Cure - Team Tegan Promotional Video

Just playing around with the technology I've got available. This is what I used recently...

• Nintendo Wii - fun stuff, no matter how old you are.
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• Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - I've completed all six levels on episodes 1, 2, 3. I'm ready to move on to Star Wars - A New Hope! See the original Star Wars movie trailer here! "A billion years in the making...and it's coming to your galaxy this summer"
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• Sony VCR SLV-N750 - This lets me watch the Wii action on the TV, as well as provides the necessary video out for recording by my camcorder. Soon - the VCR will only be recording channel 3 - after June 12th, all over the air TV will be coming through our digital TV converter box - the DTVPal, TR-40 - now sold out!
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• Sony Digital Handycam DCR-TRV310 - This is almost ancient in the video world - it is circa 1999 technology - it actually uses a 8mm tape! But it has Firewire, and it connects easily for transfer to computer. It also allows you to record video/audio from RCA ports. So this is my analog to digital conversion tool.
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• Windows Movie Maker - There are probably better movie editing software out there, but this came with Windows XP. So I used it. Pretty intuitive - but don't try and make a slideshow type movie using 30 to 40 JPEGs....it crashes every time.
  

Here it is. Nothing really fancy...just watch and enjoy. After watching - I'll bet you really want to go purchase Lego Star Wars...or maybe even donate to the Tour de Cure!

We had a tree climbed

We had a guy over to climb our tree this week. Actually, we didn't have the guy over. Dave, a remote control airplane pilot hired the guy to climb our large tree in the front yard. Dave was flying his plane in the large field over by Tualatin Elementary, and he had a mayday event happen. His plane crashed into our tree about 50-60 feet up.

The tree itself might be climbable by an adventurous youngster. Having been a tree climber in my earlier years - it is definitely doable once you reach the first branches 14 feet up. Straight climb up, with branches every four or five feet. However - I am much older and hopefully wiser now. And the kicker - my body has a lot more mass. Something that falls under Newton's Second Law of Motion. That law that I can experiment by throwing different balls up into the air. Something I won't prove by falling out of a tree. Also - it wasn't my $300 plane up there. I had no incentive to risk my life.

So anyway - there was a professional tree climber who ascended the tree and retrieved the airplane. He also threw down a couple of loose branches. Good thing too - because today we had a nice windy storm pass through. This image is supposed to be an animated GIF - but I don't think blogger likes it.



Final note - yard work #11 was June 2nd. The grass keeps growing - and this storm helped with the watering.