The Big Balloon

OK - so I don't have much to say about the big balloon. We have a huge balloon which we use for advertising. We put it up on top of the building to bring people in to buy big expensive boxes of hot water to put in their yards. Our son has risked life and limb numerous time to put the thing up. It is 25 tall, I think, and it fills with a very powerful blower. Once its in place and full, it moves a little with the wind but generally stays put unless we get a real gale. But getting it to that point, or taking it down... another story altogether. It is a giant sail as it begins to fill - and you would have to see it to believe how dangerous and vicious the thing can be as even the slightest breeze will turn it into a moving wall of death trying to sweep you over the edge of the building and to the ground below.

I can't even guess how many time the thing has been put up and taken down - we have had it for about ten years or so I think. In fact, it was left up in a gale-force wind just three weeks ago and actually tore a long seam out. The wife patched it up with the help of several strong men and a sewing machine, and then we did the exact same thing and had the exact same results just last week.

So - it might be time to find another type of sign or attention-getting device. Maybe we will just paint something on the side of Boot Barn or something which doesn't risk life and limb. The real point is that without our son, I don't know if I want people up on our roof man-handling the Big Balloon. He could do it with amazing skill and grace. We had another employee try it the other day, and it sounded as if a herd of elephants was up on the roof doing a break-dance. Or is that brake-dance? Whatever - we have NEVER heard anything as loud as they went running back and forth, yelling at each other at the top of their lungs, scattering gravel from the roof over the cars parked below, and causing little avalanches of dust and dirt from the lights, vents, ducts, and other things near the top of the building.

You know how you don't appreciate certain things until they are gone? Well, we are seeing other people try to do the very same things our son did, and we have come to be amazed at how he did things left and right which were just amazing.


More later...