There were scattered clouds and light winds for the 4th day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Not only was the Funky Chicken out, but a Diablo, Leopard, Rocky Raccoon and a few other special shapes. A lone Turkey Vulture was perched on the top of the dead cottonwood watching the balloons.
The 48th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started today. Unfortunately, we had heavy rains on Friday, so there was a rare fog covering the valley on Saturday morning. Only a few test balloons got off before they cancelled the launch due to a persistence of fog and low hanging clouds. I went out to the river and came across a group of paddlers waiting for the balloons to launch. There were other groups of paddlers on the river. The clouds cleared by 10:00 am, and the bumble bees were flying around in the cosmos. I decided the bumble bees were a nice stand-in for the balloons.
My green red car got the best average yet at 43.7 mpg driving 358.4 miles. I thought I was going to squeeze an average of 44 mpg out of it this tank, but one day of really heavy stop and go traffic nixed the 44 mpg average. When I filled the tank it took 8.2 gallons of gas, which when you divide 358.4 miles by 8.2 gallons you get 43.7073 mpg. Normally when I divide the miles by the gallons the mpg is a little lower than what the car’s computer calculates because of the variation on where the pump kicks off. This time the car’s computer and the pump synced.
We had one of those rare times for the Albuquerque area where it started raining Saturday night, stayed cloudy and rained all day and into the night on Sunday. The clouds were starting to break up when I got to the parking garage a little before 7:00 am this morning.
We had thunderstorms coming in from all directions this afternoon. The thunderstorm that built up over the Sandias was the most dramatic. While out on a walk before the storms, I encountered a little bit of wildlife.
Buckeye Butterfly
This video of the Great Purple Hairstreak Butterfly shows how it moves the flanges on the ends of its wings while it feeds. I assume it’s to fool predators into going after the flanges on its wings, giving it a chance to escape.
Blue Hairstreak
Silver kitty
Thunderstorm activity to the north.
Can you find Bruski in the ȠE BU QUE RQUE sculpture?
I was awakened by thunder this morning. As I drove into town I could see scattered thundershowers all around. The photo above has two showers the were moving from west to east. The thundershower on the left reflected a very subtle rainbow from the rising sun.
Off Center & Not Even 