Friday, November 2, 2007

What's Floatin' In my World

Today's post will have a little bit of everything. First let me catch you up on a few things and answer a couple of emails.


My grandmother is doing much better. She is back at the rehab center where she fell and while her bruises are still a nasty shade of purple, she is on the mend.


And yes Phats, your cheerleading info was helpful, but I still do not get cheerleading organizations that have no affiliation with an actual school or sports teams. I do admire the grace, skill and athleticism, but I have a problem calling anything a sport that relies solely on a judges opinion.


Also, thanks to everyone who went tot he Underground Voices website and read my story, The Simplest Of Sounds. I reread it myself yesterday and even though I have went through the piece a thousand times I still cringed at a couple of spots. Why didn't I catch those things all of my other read throughs? I know some writers who do not read any of their work once its published for that very reason. I guess we are never truly finished tinkering with any of our stories.


Sunday I am off to Las Vegas for a week and it is doubtful that I will get any posts up during that time. I am going for The American Postal Workers Union national conference and between workshops by day and the poker tables by night there will not be much time for blogging. I plan to post tomorrow and then not again until the following Saturday which will be November tenth.
But don't forget to check back tomorrow. I have a few pics that tie into my Feedstore Chronicles series.


I just found out that former President Bill Clinton is going to speak at the APWU conference. Should be interesting. I have never had the opportunity to hear or even see a President - past, present, or future.


Now for more pics that I promised. These are from the hot air balloon festival that occurred here in Amarillo this past weekend. You can't tell it by the photos but Palo Duro Canyon is just beyond the horizon. Some of the balloons landed in the field beside us and some sailed over head. All told we spotted seventeen of them.







All of these were taken within an hour after sunrise with the camera in my cell phone. After the big halloween party and a mere 3 1/2 hours of sleep I didn't think to grab the good digital camera when I left the house.

14 comments:

The Egg said...

Have a good time in Vegas. I've never been there...Good luck with the sleep:)

Charles Gramlich said...

I went to a hot air balloon festival once. No balloons even got off the ground. It was windy for one reason, but the other reason is that most of the people who flew them were all still drunk in the French Quarter.

Phats said...

Hmm notice these conferences are never in like Alaska, or Idaho always somewhere like Vegas, bet one for me my friend!

Clinton COOL! that's awesome

Cheerleading- HA I feel so sad you feel this way, I am assuming you're talking about All Star Squads? Because we are connected to our school since when we competed we wore PURDUE across our chests ;) On a totally separate note we had an 80 yr old on the alumni squad this year and he did a toepitch!

Bubblewench said...

Have a great trip! I'll be using the time to catch up on you!

Cool balloons, where I grew up, they would land in the field next to our house, usually shortly after sunrise. It was amazing to watch them. It was worth getting up for.

stonelifter said...

hey thanks for the comment on the blog, I assume you got to me via Cher

have a good trip


regards Aaron

cher said...

hey! stonelifter! fancy meeting you here!

glad to hear about your grandma. that's great.

i was thinking, in sports, doesn't some of almost all games come down to a judges call? be it an umpire or ref??

and i'm so curious what bill clinton is doing, exactly at a postal conference. seriously. i'm baffled.

Tena Russ said...

What's with you & me and hot air balloons today? Theme from Twilight Zone... Maybe we are both full of hot air?

BTW, my dog sitter was just in Albuquerque (I had to look the name up for spelling) watching hot air balloons.

BTW2, at least YOUR phone takes pictures.

Travis Erwin said...

egg - If I can win at the poker tables I will have a good time.

charles - be thankful they didn't fly a bunch of drunken ballooners could be scary

phats - I am talking baout these organizations that start ceerleaders at age five and treat the whole thing like gymnastics. going to meets after meet.

bubblewench - what did yo tink of the pirate get up?

stonelifter- yeah I think it was via cher's site.

Cher - I'm guessing he will be campaigning for ilary snce the talk is about the imortance of organized labor in politics or someting along those lines. There wil be 25,000 postal employees in attendance from all over te country

tena - the alb balloon festival is supposed to be the biggest in the world.

Clare2e said...

Number One) Love me some Vegas. I'm not even going to bother telling you to have a good time. I don't tell gravity to keep working either.

and B) Enjoyed your story. Loved your feel for the cold, and I can't remember the last time I read the words Lord Calvert. That kind of detail always resonates for me.

lastly and iii) I know you may write tenderer stuff these days, but as a purveyor of darker fare myself, I say you've got the whole Noir, justice-in-an-unjust-world sensibility, so I hope you find places to throw more shadows no matter what you're writing.

cher said...

oh, ok, that makes sense. i was thinking he might be coming into town to tell people how to get big mac stains out of little black dresses... i dunno, i guess i just thought it must be a problem evey postal worker has to deal with.

Leigh Russell said...

Never been to Vegas, never want to go, but everyone I know who's been has a great time. Hope you do too. I could tinker endlessly with my writing. How do you know when it's finished? I might change different words on different days, depending on my mood, so I tend not to rewrite at all. It's too maddening. Balloons look great! and glad to hear your gran is on the mend. Drop by my blog any time, fellow writers always welcome. Keep in touch.

Skiingred said...

Viva Las Vegas --

If you get the chance, say HI to Elvis for me -- that town is crazy, but have a good time!

alex keto said...

Hey Travis,
I read the short story. I like the writing quite a bit. Very refined use of words.

Aaron said...

I live less than a mile (pratically a half mile) from a local private air field. They're always launching hot air baloons in the summer. Not so much activity this time of year. :)