Balloon Fest:not just for postcard photographers anymore

Yesterday morning, displaying further evidence that Adam's proverbial elevators does not stop on all floors, I got up at stupid:30 in the morning to got pick up the young'uns from their Grandma's house in Lake George and take them to the big morning launch of the Glens Falls Hot Air Balloon Festival. This is the Big Annual Event put forth by the local civic board, the one they splatter all over posters and signs even when it's not September, so the main activity involved was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic just outside the municipal airport, waiting to park.

The half-asleep-but-wired kids and I finally found a spot not too far into the next county and trudged over to where the balloons were just beginning to take flight. I have to admit that it was quite majorly cool: the weather was perfect, and about 60 balloons were participating in staggered launches. The neat part was that they were all arrayed in the same field, and spectators could just wander among them, regretting (if they're me) that they didn't bring a f*@!ing camera. Most of them were your basic balloon-shape, with differences in color schemes and patterns (with at least a few corporate-sponsored ones, like Target), but the crowd pleasers were the flashy novelty shapes, like an octopus or bumblebees or a barn or a clown, which I think were ucky just to get off the ground, seeing as how a few antennas probably got sheared off in the main parking lot. The best part, though, was looking off to the south after better than half of them had been launched, and seeing this gorgeous array of colors spreading a mile or more into the distance in the post-dawn sunlight. (Why didn't I bring that f*@!ing camera....)

The kids had a blast, even with all the walking we did. They loved watching them rise, loved getting to walk inside a reclining balloon on the ground, loved the crowd—heck, loved just having a big field to run around in. Of course, once the balloons were in the air and away, it became a matter of, "Well, it's 7:45 a.m. What do we do now?" Answer: Sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic outside the municipal airport, waiting to get out.

Here a thing, there a thing...

1) Exhaustion + delicious cool autumn air + pile of blankets = Adam sleeping for 11 hours. Sometimes early turn-in is worth it.

2) lbitw rules all things like an All-Things Ruler.

3) During the balloon festival yesterday morning, they enhanced the launch experience by piping in classical music over the loudspeakers. This is how I was reminded of just how utterly boring Ravel's "Bolero" truly is. Seriously. You get the picture about three minutes in, and then have to remind yourself, "Oh, ye gods, there's another 12 to go...."

4) Yesterday over lunch, Abbey said to me, "You know, Dad, with that beard, some people would say you were rugged." Huh. I've never been "rugged" before. I guess this means more Grape nuts and black coffee breakfasts. And more flannel. And a future in Timberland catalogs and Ford Ranger commercials. (Unfortunately, I'd need to sell off my Ani Difranco discs.)

5) Roger Ebert actually used the word "ho" in a review. Without irony quotes, even.