As promised...my next rant.

I found out last night that our Friends daughter doesn't work. I called to let them know that one of the girls that helped us on Saturday, called to tell me she is able to help us on Wednesday and Friday. She said she was going to have to ask her daughter for help too. I asked if she was working and she said "no, she lives the life of Riley." She said she came over a couple weeks ago and helped for a couple hours but hasn't even called since. But while she was there she managed to tell her what she wanted from the house. I managed to keep my thoughts to myself. Pat on the back for that.

Don't get me wrong...I don't begrudged passing things along, but they need to get as much cash from everything as they can, because they are going to need it. The mom only works 3-4 days a week at a low wage. He only gets SS. Once they are out of the house they are not going to have the space to do balloon work when it does come along.

Someone did call about dropping off a balloon for an annual inspection. But that is something that only she can do...we can't help her with that other than to help her move it around and help inflate it for inspection. She'll have to do the visual part of it either in our back yard or in the park. She needs a big area to inflate it enough to get inside of it and get a good look. Then she has to do a stress test on it...the heat causes the fabric to become porous and allows air to escape too fast...you could come down a whole lot faster than you bargained for. There are allot of regulations...as it should be. Every balloon has a log book that tells how many flights it has, when it was inspected, what the findings where and so on.

The pix here are some shots I took while we were helping them do an annual in our back yard back in 02. The arrow marks the spot in need of repair. It's a hole about the size of a quarter. As you can see, it takes allot of work. There are two other people behind it holding guide lines attached to the top.

Any way, that's one more thing to get done and her son-in-law should be helping her just for the experience of learning the inspection process. She does his annuals for free. It's not like he would even have to see his father-in-law...he's in a wheel chair and wouldn't be there. It won't be long and she won't be able to do it for him. Then if he isn't licenced, he'll have to find someone else to do his annuals...could be in another state. That can get very costly.

Another thing I should clear up...I keep using the term "for free"...I don't think family should pay each other for services, but I do believe they should be there for each other...not just one sided. When it's one sided like this is I get a little irritated. Nothing burns me more than people who don't do right by their parents. Mine are both gone and I would rather have them and have to be there doing things for them constantly. Maybe if I hadn't lost my parents so young I would be like them. I like to think I would appreciate them more. In the end, this will all come back at them. They will eventually wish they had spent more time with them...plus they are teaching their children just how to treat parents. The rant is not over.