Survivor Journals

Bob of If I Die Before I Wake has invited nine journallers to participate in a Cyber Survivor Adventure.

Every couple of weeks, the group will be issued a "challenge entry". The site will post a excerpt from the challenge entries, as well as the link to the complete entry found on the journaller's own journal site.

After the challenge entry is posted, the nine journallers will vote one of the writers off the site.

The "ousted" journaller will actually remain on the site, but rather than posting further challenge entries, they will act as a judge and commentator.

The first challenge entry has been issued, and can be found at the Survivor Journal website. The actual entries should be completed by
October 1, 2000.

Please take the time to visit, especially once the challenge entries are posted. There is a message board to post your thoughts/comments and also a instant poll where visitors can vote for who they would want to see kicked off the site.

The reasons behind Survivor Journals are simple.

1. To try something new.
2. Increase the interaction of the journal community.
3. The challenge.
4. Increased exposure to all journals involved.

So take a look around, explore all the journals involved.

If you would like to take part in Survivor Journals, Year Two (around Nov/Dec 2000), let Bob know!

Diet Week #12

Goal :
lose 100 lbs.

Immediate goal:
the next 10 lbs.

Lost to date:
18 lbs
this number updates
on Tuesdays --

UP, UP, and AWAY!.....

September 28, 2000

What a day we’ve had! Peggy had set the alarm for 5 a.m., but I was wide awake at 2:45 a.m. and unable to get back to sleep. At 4:30 I was sneaking downstairs to take a shower before she woke up. We were out at Prosser Dam watching the fog rise off the water long before anybody connected with the balloon company showed up.

As it turned out, it was a lovely day for a balloon ride. We had booked for an hour; three other people (2 from Honolulu, one from Atlanta) were joining us for the first 30 minutes. We watched them get the "sleeve" of the balloon set up and start pumping air in it, then switch from cold to hot air until the whole thing finally stood upright, inviting us to hop in and start our adventure.

I expected Ray, the balloon operator, to start our trip with "I can’t come back...I don’t know how it works!" but he didn’t. He explained balloon aeronautics to us as we slowly drifted from ground zero up 1,000 feet. There is absolutely no sensation of leaving the ground. Just one minute you’re on the ground and the next you’re watching your car become a tiny speck far, far away. While waiting for wind to carry us along, we hovered over the mist rising off the water in the dam and Ray explained that he couldn’t watch it because it mesmirized him and he could easily go into a trance. It did have a kind of "lava lamp-esque" quality to it.

Shortly before the first half of the trip ended, Ray aimed us through a grove of pine trees and we were able to pull needles off the top of the trees. That was pretty kewl.

The balloon set down on a hillside and the 3 other passengers scrambled out and waved goodbye to Peggy and me as we continued our flight. Ray decided to go higher and got the balloon up high enough that we could see Lake Tahoe off in the distance. We took lots of pictures of the shadow of the balloon on the ground and on the treetops, and even reflected in Peggy’s sunglasses.

check the shadow of the balloon in the upper right corner of Peggy's sunglasses.

We landed in an open field and bounced a few times before coming to a halt, each time dumping condensation on my head. But we finally got out of the balloon and Peggy helped roll the sleeve back into its package while I snapped lots of photos. You can see all the best at Club Photo.

When all the balloon equipment was loaded, we climbed into Ray’s beat up old van, a real classic, and were driven back to our car. Then it was time to go back to the condo, clean, and pack up (after we’d looked at all our photos first, of course!)

It was an uneventful drive home and we got here around 2. I hoped to take a nap before going to see Beauty and the Beast tonight, but alas that was not to be, as there were three tapes waiting for me to transcribe. I got a load of wash started and dinner in the oven and then attacked the transcription.

When Walt came home, we had a quick dinner, then left Peggy here while he and I went into Sacramento to see the show. I could get into this critic jazz. We had 10th row center seats for this opulent show and it was just great. The down side, of course, is that it’s pushing 1 a.m. and I’m still struggling with getting the review written, which I have to do before Peggy and I leave for Los Angeles tomorrow.

In an hour, I will have been awake 24 hours.

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