| We drove to Austin in September, 2002, to visit Ruth and the kids. We stayed in Ruth's house which she bought after her divorce and recently, Ruth asked me why I didn't post he pictures I took on that vacation. Sheepishly, I said I would. Here they are, but comments rely on our memory, a vanishing commodity for us old folks. | ||
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| This is Tim, Ruth's boy friend in September, 2002. What's he looking for -- my contact lens which I dropped in the sink. He found it. | ||
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| Many of our pictures are of Ruth's sukkah, a house-like structure that Jews build in their yard at harvest time. | ||
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The two ends of Tim's dog. |
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| Tim and two more of Ruth's friends. | ||
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| This is Steve, a friend of Ruth's who has since died. There are several pictures of him in this set. | ||
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| The legs belong to Faith, Ruth's good friend in the neighborhood. | ||
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| This is the bottom of the balloon. | ||
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| It takes a lot of helpers to blow the thing up. | ||
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| The wedding party beginning the service. | ||
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Up, Up and Away. |
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| Here, Jenelle and Dustan are making something with friends. |
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| Dustan, Elaine, Faith and Ruth in the sukkah. |
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| A bit of Fred Deoliveira looking at the sukkah. |
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Donna Deoliveira talking to Elaine. |
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These are really sad to see. |
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| The pictures below were taken the next morning when Tim was scheduled to help launch a balloon over Austin so a wedding could occur at sunrise over the city. I had never witnessed a balloon launch close up so I took lots of pictures. |
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| Looking into the balloon from the bottom.; |
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| Finally, the hot air is projected into the bottom. |
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| Steady, there! |
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| In they go. |
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| I'm not sure who is being married. |
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| The sun is just rising -- isn't this a nice shot? |
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| Now comes the hard part. They have to follow the balloon to wherever it wants to go so that they will be there when it lands. The balloon "captain" has little control of where the thing will drift, so the ground crew just has to drive to where it goes. |
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| These are the last two pictures we took in Austin. We ate a last meal in the sukkah before we left for home the next day, by way of St. Louis to visit brother Ken. See below. |
