What a great day!
Beenie had baseball practice tonight, and while we were there a hot air balloon truck came out onto the outfield and started unloading their basket and folded up balloon. By the time practice was over, they had it all stretched out and were starting to fill it with air. We went over to watch and I saw a guy holding a rope that was attached to the top of the balloon. Intrigued, I went to ask him what he was doing. He said that there is a "valve" in the top of the balloon (although valve may be an understatement - it looked like someone sliced off the very top of the balloon). His job is to pull on the rope to hold the fabric "plug" in place while it is inflated. When it is full, he ties the end of the rope to the basket, then when the pilot wants to land he "pulls the plug" and the balloon comes down.
An interesting thing he told me that I didn't know was that they first fill the balloon with cold air, using a fan, and then when it is mostly inflated they turn on the burners to heat the air. I always assumed that it was hot air from the get-go. Learn somethin' new every day!
The other thing that was really cool is that Beenie, Keke, and I went out back tonight to watch the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis pass overhead. They had been docked, then undocked Tuesday (I think), and we had a chance to see them pass by really close together last night. Unfortunately it was too cloudy. Fortunately for us, the shuttle didn't land today as planned, so we got to see them go by tonight. They each took about 3 minutes to cross the sky, the ISS first, followed about a minute later by the shuttle. It was cool because they were both going across the sky at the same time.
Of course, since today is the longest day of the year, we were cutting it close as to whether it would be dark enough to see them, but it just was. Suddenly, a spot of light appeared out of an indigo sky, and crossed from the NW to the ESE. The ISS was pretty bright, with the shuttle a little dimmer. It was neat!!
Edit (11:19pm): The weatherman on the news just said that the ISS and Atlantis were travelling at 17,500 mph!!
Beenie had baseball practice tonight, and while we were there a hot air balloon truck came out onto the outfield and started unloading their basket and folded up balloon. By the time practice was over, they had it all stretched out and were starting to fill it with air. We went over to watch and I saw a guy holding a rope that was attached to the top of the balloon. Intrigued, I went to ask him what he was doing. He said that there is a "valve" in the top of the balloon (although valve may be an understatement - it looked like someone sliced off the very top of the balloon). His job is to pull on the rope to hold the fabric "plug" in place while it is inflated. When it is full, he ties the end of the rope to the basket, then when the pilot wants to land he "pulls the plug" and the balloon comes down.
An interesting thing he told me that I didn't know was that they first fill the balloon with cold air, using a fan, and then when it is mostly inflated they turn on the burners to heat the air. I always assumed that it was hot air from the get-go. Learn somethin' new every day!
The other thing that was really cool is that Beenie, Keke, and I went out back tonight to watch the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis pass overhead. They had been docked, then undocked Tuesday (I think), and we had a chance to see them pass by really close together last night. Unfortunately it was too cloudy. Fortunately for us, the shuttle didn't land today as planned, so we got to see them go by tonight. They each took about 3 minutes to cross the sky, the ISS first, followed about a minute later by the shuttle. It was cool because they were both going across the sky at the same time.
Of course, since today is the longest day of the year, we were cutting it close as to whether it would be dark enough to see them, but it just was. Suddenly, a spot of light appeared out of an indigo sky, and crossed from the NW to the ESE. The ISS was pretty bright, with the shuttle a little dimmer. It was neat!!
Edit (11:19pm): The weatherman on the news just said that the ISS and Atlantis were travelling at 17,500 mph!!
