Folks, please feel free to click on the ads that appear on this web site…. you do not have to buy anything and it may give you some very useful information…. and it will help this old soul to stay on the air. I could be like XEG, Del Rio, TX…do you remember them….seems like it was always “keep those cards, donations and letters coming folks”.Back in the good old days that is one of the few radio stations you could always count on for company driving across the southwest at night…. Things are different nowadays but they probably are still on the air…I just don’t get out at night much anymore…..Anyway, several good companies put their information on the ads here for you to look at and if it interests you, please do click on their ads. Thanks, Pete

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta concluded this weekend and by all accounts was very successful even though they could not fly on about three of the seven days. The paper stated that an estimated 750,000 visitors saw the balloons this year and the crowds around town kinda confirmed that number…..Other ‘Portant stuff:  Sweetie and I celebrated another anniversary this weekend and went out on the town, amongst that crowd and had a very good time over at Pappadeaux’s Seafood establishment. They serve up good food and in good quantities. Sweetie had craw-fish and I had the mixed seafood grill over dirty rice. Very good…You may wonder how long Sweetie and I have been married. Well, I don’t like to throw numbers around, especially big numbers, so let me just say Carl Perkins “Blue Swede Shoes” came out two months after our marriage. Barbara Streiand recorded “You’ll Never Know” at age 13 the month after our marriage and Chuck Berry’s “Rock Around the Clock” was going strong. President Eisenhower was recovering from an heart attack and the Mickey Mouse Club had just premiered. If you remember any of that you’ll probably know just how big our “numbers” are…

The balloon fiesta started great, beautiful weather for flying, great crowds and everyone happy, then rain, good rains I might add and then winds today which puts a damper on ballooning. Tomorrow is looking like more rain according to the weatherman. Soooooo, we don’t know how the end of the fiesta will play out.

B-17 Flying Fortress “Aluminum Overcast” is in town at the Double Eagle Airport, which is located out on my side of town and just a short drive from my place. I was in the yard when it flew over Tuesday. What a beautiful sight and a reminder of seeing them in my youth. I jumped in the car and beat it out to the air port hoping to get there in time for the landing. It was taxiing into the tarmac parking area when I arrived. As I was watching, another old timer joined me in watching the ground crew. We decided to go out and walk around the aircraft and see it from the ground. In talking to one of the EAA volunteer ground crew members he let us know as Veterans we could sign in and get a free tour of the aircraft. What a sweet deal that was. You remember watching film of the B-17 crews grabbing the top of the opening at the belly of the aircraft and kicking up their feet into the aircraft and slinking on up into the ship easy as pie….um-huh, no way…this old soul could barely get his head down over my fat belly to climb up the ladder, but I finally made it…I was looking right into the nose, the Bombardier  location and nose gunner….four could have flown in that location but I am not sure of the duties each would have had. I worked the optic bomb sight on the B-36 and some of the features were the same…On a bomb run, the plane was flown over the target by the bombardier but where the B-36 had a joy stick the B-17 has a control similar to the pilots. Up above the ladder and a little aft of the nose section was the pilot, copilot position and just behind them was the flight engineers. and it was in excellent shape and as expected, the pilots had over a jillion dials and gauges for them to study. A walk through the bomb bay, which this belly barely cleared the walkway and required a big sucking in of the old gut to make it, there was storage for about twenty 500 pounders by my count. Then you stepped into an area where present day passengers could ride and then the waist gunners positions. It seemed to me they would have been bumping into each other some in tracking the enemy planes. I had to put my hands on the guns and sight down the barrel trying to line up on a target. I don’t know how they ever hit anything but I guess they did.  I looked into the belly turret. The ground crew said the smallest man on the flight crew got the belly position and that he had to take off his parachute to get into the turret. Then if they were shot down, he had to line up the turret correctly with the aircraft, get out of the turret, put on his chute and make his way to the nearest exit, doing all this while the aircraft was probably in all manner of maneuvers while falling…geezs, who would want that job….I forgot to check out the tail gun position, but I am sure that was just as exciting as the belly gunner….Anyway, that was a wonderful experience for me. I hope you will check them out. They will be in Las Vegas NV Oct 12 – 13, Salt Lake City Oct 14 – 16, Denver Oct 21 – 23 Liberal, KS Oct 25 – 26 and Tulsa, Ok Oct 28 – 30…ground tours are $5.00 for one or 15 for a family, flights range from $399 to 465. Phone number for these guys is 800-359-6217 and e-mail b17reservations@eaa.org . This is some history you folks will not want to miss…

Alabama wins big over Vandy….Upset special….Air Force beats Notre Dame who is a 17 point favorite…..Arizona wins over Oregon St…..Arizona St over Utah….Arkansas over Auburn….BYU has some problems this year and I am not sure what .if they don’t figure it out San Jose St will beat them…I am going with BYU but they have a close one…Baylor over Iowa St….Boise St over Fresno St……Clemson over Boston College…LSU beats Florida…Georgia Tech wins over Maryland….Okla St will upset Missouri…..Oklahoma beats Texas…..Another upset…San Diego St  beats TCU……..Wisconsin idle this week as is New Mexico and New Mexico St….at New Mexico we are ready to talk basketball….

I missed three games….Arizona lost to Oregeon St, Air Force lost to Notre Dame and San Diego St lost to TCU…Arizona hung close but with the others Notre Dame and TCU were just too tough. So, I ended up with 11 correct and three incorrect….

Albuquerque Journal, Oct 4, 2011 by John Fleck says, “Air Force officials, in new filings with state regulators, acknowledged that contamination from a Kirtland Air Force Base jet fuel leak has traveled farther than previously known toward Albuquerque drinking water wells, but they don’t know how far…The metro area’s drinking water wells continue to show no signs of contamination….”The water is safe,” said Tom Berardinelli, staff director at the base, during an interview Monday……skipping down some….”It’s clear that we need to get that badly cleaned up,” said John Stomp, the water authority’s chief operation officer, said Monday..me talking now, put  Kirtland AFB Jet Fuel spill in my web site search engine and it should bring up about 3 other entries on this subject matter. Discovered in 1999 that we had a leak that’s estimated to be around 8 million gallons of, what, JP 4 or JP 8, I don’t guess it matters, but we just keep reporting about it and the cleanup goes undone. Some present issues are officials asked the Air Force to install more ” soil vapor extraction” units, which suck up the contamination floating on top of the water table. (the jet fuel does float on water as you probably know). The water authority called for installation of more of the machines to the north, where contamination is spreading….Air Force officials said they think it is unlikely they would do much good there. The Air Force only has permission to drill wells and test the water pumped up, Berardinelli said. If the state gives the green light, the pumps would then be used to pump 200 to 300 gallons per minute of contaminated water. The water would be cleaned to drinking water standards. (get this) “No decision has been made about how the Air Force would dispose of the cleaned water.”… Now, I ain’t real smart but I cannot believe that statement made it as far as the news paper. Can you? No wonder this clean up campaign has rocked on for 12 years now. We are presently pumping river water down into our reservoirs and we wonder what to do with clean drinking water. And how about using it on the base, could that be an option? If an airman serves four years in the military, do you realize that four different groups could have come through here, served their time, been discharged, gone back somewhere to a home with good water, and we are still dealing with this cleanup. Wonder how many more will come and go before the mission is completed? Or, well, how does jet fuel taste? JP 4 taste like JP 8 you reckon? Maybe a little Jet A on the side……some 100 Octane for topping maybe….River water don’t sound so bad, does it?…..

We the people have decided to furlough one Senator from each state for the remainder of the year, however the furloughed Senator will be paid for the year, but his staff and office will be shut down and expenses curtailed until such time as deemed necessary by We the People. All of Congress and their staff will be laid off until such time  you can make a decision, make that positive decision, for the United States of America. You will be paid for all of 2011, but your staff will now  enter the unemployed ranks with about 10 % of us American. The Supervisor of each Cabinet will remain on the job for now and each may retain one assistant to help supervise your cabinet. The Vice President will be laid off as the President will just have to take up the slack in politicking for now. His staff will also be laid off. All of the Supreme Court Justices and their staff will be laid off until a sufficient number of laws are available for them to consider a ruling.  Lower courts will handle all emergencies.  It is with sadness that I, one member of We the People, had to come to this decision. Be glad that I am the only one thus far that has reached the drastic conclusion, but be aware that others are on the verge of joining me. Upon vast improvements in the economy, recalls of employees will be considered. Until that time comes, we wish you Good Luck!!! One member of We the People…Pete Hester

I think our Lobos will be energized for Saturday’s game. They proved they can score. They proved they have the athletes capable of performing. Sorry New Mexico State. We got to have this one, 28 – 14 Lobos….Alabama beats Florida by a touchdown…Wisconsin beats Nebraska by a field goal…..Air Force beats Navy…Arkansas beats Texas A & M….Ole Miss beats Fresno St…I like Fresno St but McNutt needs a win bad and his boys give him one this week…..Michigan St beats Ohio St. This just ain’t Ohio St’s year….One other upset I am picking is Clemson over  Virginia Tech. Clemson looks tough this year…Texas will probably beat Iowa State, the polls have Texas a nine point favorite….I think they will be lucky to win by a field goal…Iowa State is playing good ball also and could beat them if Texas does not bring its A game…Still, all that said, I come back to the Lobos and winning this first game under Coach Barlow…It is so important…We need it badly folks and New Mexico St has already won one this year…….., know what I’m talking about, Vern?

I watched a farmer from Alabama tonight complain that he was not going to be able to harvest his sweet potato crop without the aide of the illegal workers. American workers will not do the back breaking farm work. We need the farmers or farmers coop to be able to sign off on a needed amount of farm workers giving them legality for a certain amount of time based on the needs of those particular farms. He or a government worker stamps a legal paper given to the farm worker stating that he is a farm carded worker for this time frame. When it is time to expire, he revisits his supervisor and gets an extension to his farm card. Really, folks in Alabama, New Mexico, California need these workers to continue the farming operation. The illegals are here and we can send them back, allow others to cross legally or illegally, but we are going to need them. I am not talking amnesty….I am talking putting the illegals on some type roll, control them and as long as it is beneficial to America, we keep those who work….To borrow a line from Mrs. Gump, “Surely there is something that can be done.”  Our farmers are an important part of my daily life and I want to keep them healthy and productive….Don’t you. We need to listen to them and get them the help they need…..Legally…Let’s start thinking about what will work…..Pete

Man, some interesting names have come up in the search for a new football coach for the Lobos….Coach Leach is named by many, including me, known for his exciting offense and ability to recruit players in West Texas and New Mexico…I doubt we can afford him but he may want to show the nation what he can really do and that is turn a program completely around….How about it Coach?….Urban Myers….yeah, well, come on out coach, but he would really be after the challenge with his health, but we can dream, huh? According to the Albuquerque Journal this morning, Sept 27, 2001….Here is their list….Coach Leach, Coach Rich Rodriguez (Mich. WVA), Mike Belotti (Oregon), Noel Mazzone (Az St), Bob Bostad (Wisc), George Barlow (UNM), Dan McCartney (N TX), Trooper Taylor (Auburn), Sonny Dikes (La Tech),  Brad Franchione (Asst TX St), Dewayne Walker (present coach at New Mexico State) and Urban Meyer (lately of Florida)…..Day dreaming and speculation I suppose, however, someone is going to consider this job and if one of them could turn it around….what a resume then, huh…..It’s gonna be a tough job and it is not really going to lure the high dollars guys and will have to be someone who does seek a challenge….Geez, what a challenge, pray for us, ok?

We lost…In overtime, 48 – 45, an exciting game, but we still lost… a 2 – 26 record under our present coach. He has a bunch of problems and I don’t want to add to them, but unfortunately,  one of his jobs as coach is to have a winning program. Sam Houston State could beat a lot of programs, so could New Mexico, but we are not playing them this year. If you know of a good coach that is looking for a job you might ask him how he feels about Albuquerque….Key word is, “good coach”….Busy weekend….Bama won pretty easily. I was expecting a tougher game out of Arkansas….Okla St – Tex A&M was a squeaker at 30 – 29, huh?….And Texas Tech and Nevada at 35 – 34, I did not think that one would be that close. Forget about New Mexico beating Nevada….Wisconsin continues to roll, those boys got them one heck of a quarterback and a few others….LSU won, Baylor won, TCU won, BYU won, Neb won, Boise St won….but I missed on Vandy beating  South Carolina, … and missed as Michigan showed Rocky who was still boss as Mich beat SDST 38 – 7…missed as San Jose St beat New Mexico St 34 – 24…..missed as AZ State beats Southern Cal…..Arizona lost, again, and it ain’t looking to good for next weekend either, sorry No. 1 GD (reckon we could get AZ and NM to play?  I’m kidding as I know you would win that one)….One of the New Mexico teams will win next weekend, for sure, as they play each other….I think I can pick the winner on this one…I mean really, I think I can….I’m pretty sure I can….well, I can…But I’m going to wait until next week to tell you which one it is…It might surprise you….COACH LOCKSLEY IS FIRED PER KOAT CHANNEL 7 NEWS….ON FIELD AND OFF FIELD ISSUES……George Barlow, Marshall 1990 is named interim head coach. Coach came to UNM from James Madison U 2004 – 2008. He also spent some time at Oklahoma as a graduate asst 1996 – 97 and the linebackers and safety coach in 1998. We wish Coach Barlow the very best and we know it will be a difficult time for him….GO LOBOS