Smoke

It seems every day we wake up to smoke hanging along the Sandia Mountain in a heavy gray veil. The weather forecasters on TV share with the viewers where it's coming from and invariably it's originating from some western state and making its way to hang against the Sandia here in Albuquerque. I do believe every fire in the western states winds up in Albuquerque each year. A clear day is getting to be kind of special.

Sylvia and I enjoy hosting a balloon watch party each year on our deck, but with the smoke, and our asthma, decided to not have one this year. That and everything seeming to break down last week. We went a week without a refrigerator and had to buy a new one. The installers had to take apart our front door to get it into the house. Yup, I just finished re-installing the front door yesterday. Between the car, refrigerator, and the smoke, we weren't in the party mood. I just looked out the window. The smoke is still there. Which reminds me, I need to change the air filters.

While I look forward to Balloon Fiesta each year, I also kind of dread it. It's a huge boost to the economy with all of the out-of-state tourist, but also clogs all the roads in the area. Even my fishing destinations are full of tourists during the fiesta. I usually take a break from fishing these two weeks and it looks like I'll be doing that this year too. The only exception to that could be when we have the grandkids later this week. Our youngest has been begging us to take him up to the mountain for fishing and we may do that for him. Nope, I'll not have a rod with me due to helping the kiddo do his thing in the stream.

I picked up a 4'11" Tiny Tenkara for him this year and it has worked out perfectly for him. You know, when I tried it out on the stream to demonstrate to Kolton how to cast it, I found it was a lot of fun. And, in many of our tiny Rios, a Tenkara rod would work quite well. I may pick one up for the old man next year...if I can find a used one on the cheap.

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