Up, up and away

Howard and I rose before dawn because today is the liftoff of the Channel 2 Weather Balloon. That is a picture of it up above! Hmm, that is kind of odd-looking for a weather balloon now that I think about it. Well, it is only 5:30 a.m. and I am not quite awake.

We are drinking coffee and Howard is on the 'phone with Andy Parker, the Channel 2 weather man. Andy was up at 4 and so were we! Andy is at the airport where he is launching the balloon. He is at the weather station out where Flying Tigers used to be.

I was just laughing at what Andy wrote on the TV station's Web site. The company www.followthatcar.com that he is talking about is Howard's company which is why we are involved. On the site you can see a picture of Howard bloviating to the school kids at Thomas Jefferson School.

The balloon is launching at 6:30 a.m. They have the countdown going on. I just saw it on TV and Andy has all these schoolkids and personnel out there with him at the Buffalo airport. All these people, including me, up before dawn! That is so Buffalo.

Track it with Howard's tracking system by clicking here. Ha, ha! This is so cool. You see the Buffalo airport!

I am a bit punchy and underslept and it reminds me of when I used to get up very early to get to the airport to go and see Leonard Pennario. Here is a picture Howard took of me on one of those occasions.

As I remember it the weather was always like this, hot and perfect. I never remember it cloudy or raining.

Today it is in the 80s and we might tie a record set in the 1940s.

If I do say so myself, it is nice to be up so early in the morning.

Perhaps in between posting live updates I can get in a little bit of work!