Last weekend we went on a evening balloon ride. This was my first time in a balloon, and I really didn’t know what to expect. The ride was great and a lot of fun. Four to five balloons took off around the same time, and had an informal “race” to the 50 yard line of the MU football stadium. Our balloon won, being the closest to the goal.

If you ever get a chance to go up in a balloon, I highly recommend it. Here are a few shots from the trip. All photos were taken with a Canon 30D, Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens, and Tiffen 67 mm circular polarizing filter. We got lucky and caught the beginning of the fall colors:

I was a little bored and a lot procrastinating this afternoon, so I wandered around with the DSLR. These shots were all done with the Canon 17-85mm zoom lens and warm UV filter.

This shot is far more impressive in the full 3504×2336 resolution. The detail in the spider is really cool and the wood fence texture nice too. The narrow depth of focus makes it a great background (wallpaper to you Windows people); it is a little blurry on both the left and the right side so it can be used in either OS:

Here are a couple of our favorite singlespeed bike, or more precisely, the drivetrain:

I’m not sure why, but all of the photos of the singlespeed that I like are of the drivetrain only. Oh well.

This is what I should have been (and should be) working on, among other things:

I’ll continue rambling; I found a “proverb” that I thought I’d share:
Build a man a fire, he’s warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he’s warm for the rest of his life.”

I sold my last VW yesterday. Of all of the VWs I’ve owned, this was my favorite. To see all of my VWs check out my other site: 251.org. So far I have owned six VWs (listed in chronological order):

• 1987 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg
• 1988 Fox GL
• 1961 Bus
• 1988 GTI 16V
• 1995 Jetta III GLX VR6
• 1983.5 Vanagon GL Sunroof

The Vanagon I sold had been in the family since it was new. After nearly 20 years and 197,900 miles, three engines, two transmissions, and hundreds of gallons of coolant, it is gone. This Vanagon was the first VW I owned, and the last to be sold. However, I did keep the Vanagon service manual; maybe some day I’ll get another one. As a parting gift the alternator decided to die. So, on the last day that I owned it I replaced the alternator and still can’t get the grease off of my hands. Not a bad way to go.

That was two automotive posts in a row. Don’t worry, I have a large order of bike parts coming in next week so things will be back to normal soon…