Category: events

rDay Thirteen-Hundred-Five

Hands-down the best balloon photograph of the entire week, including upcoming images you have yet to see, was this.  Made by Kim with Android help near or on the way to Bennington Lake for the early morning trek with Charlie-Beast.

And some balloonery observed downtown on my customary workplace walk:

Some vehicular portraits in the urban wilds of WaWaWA:

Finally, we look in on Dog 163.

rDay Thirteen-Hundred-Four

Balloons.  Everywhere.  A previous post told us that the Balloon Stampede is taking place in WaWaWA for most of this week.  Balloons, if you’ve seen one balloon, you’ve seen … Even the fact of balloon photography is a cliche, but I have nevertheless been sucked in.  From the sunrise launches to the night-time burns.

Roller Derby!

Years ago, when I worked at UCLA, one of my colleagues was a tall (at least six foot), muscular woman with a wonderfully positive frame of mind, but a fearless approach to speaking her mind.  She was a single mother who was proud of her at-home, unemployed adult son because he spent his time reading instead of mixing and doing drugs with the street crowd in her South Central neighborhood.  As I grew to know her, I learned that she was once a professional roller derby star in Los Angeles, traveling around the country for her bouts.   So I sought out some roller bouts on TV, but never saw anything live.

Saturday morning on my walk to my workspace, I noticed a poster in the window of a local video & board games store.  I immediately called Kim and we made plans to attend the final bout of the season between the Walla Walla Sweets Rollergirls and the Beet City (Nampa, ID) Bombers.  So that very night, we made our way to the venue and witnessed the rather amazing spectacle that ensued.  Herewith, some documentation — far from Sports Illustrated standards, but perhaps enough to give you a sense of the organized melee.

[rDay Twelve-Hundred-Eighty-Four]