Hot air

So, another five days have elapsed in my journey toward, well, the next place. I continue to recover, and think that I have found the proper combination of medications that will allow me to sleep. Aspirin is my shoulder-pain alleviator, and I am now going to restart the wean-Ed-off-oxycodone process. The abdominal pain has remained steady (and modest) since just after the surgery, and I am sure that the narcotic nightmares will go away once the narcotics do...

But what does any of THAT have to do with hot air, Ed? Excellent question. Almost wish I'd asked it myself. Yesterday, I received a phone call at about 7:30am from a friend that I was planning to see later in the afternoon. I almost did not take the call, as I was actually still in bed and sleepy, but thought that maybe something had come up and he needed to cancel. No big deal. He said hello, and then there was this awful loud static. I wondered where he was, and soon found out that not only was he in a hot air balloon (the loud sound was the gas burner firing to provide some immediate lift), he was landing in Bush Park right outside my bedroom window. Literally. They were about 100 feet from our front door, landing themselves on the park lawn. The sun was bright, the day beckoning... so I went downstairs, got a cup of tea, and watched. Very impressive.

And, as usual, that prompted me to do some thinking. Hot air balloons are relatively simple aircraft. Pump heated air into an enclosed space, and it will lift. Attach a passenger bucket, and you have a transportation system. But the steering can be complicated, and landings are not always smooth and their location can be unpredictable. Winds shift the flight path here and there, and the cooling of the air in the balloon can leave you in an awkward position if you are not paying attention. That may be the reason that balloonists are not as ubiquitous as, say, car drivers. You need to know when to add more hot air, and how much, in order to maintain a steady and enjoyable flight. And you need a team supporting the landing, to protect passengers and balloon alike.

On a regular basis, we all launch metaphorical balloons - perhaps hoping for a change to our daily circumstances. We wonder how much energy (hot air!) to inject, and how to sustain the effort. Sometimes the effort to insert additional hot air is loud, and drowns out all other sounds... We look around for the support we need to make changes (sometimes the support comes from unexpected places). We look around at our environments, our landscape, from a different perspective, and sometimes see what we can (or cannot) do differently. It is good to have trial balloons in our hip-pocket, so that we do not get stuck in place.

We just need to remember that they are there, and to not float too many at one time...

Namaste.