Choices   I never heard the word balloon — not on job sites anyway, not when we laid out plates on newly poured foundations, set plumb bobs to keep everything true as though our fate was on the line. When we installed the joists and subfloors, sawed two-by-fours for the walls, windows, and doorways, cut rafters and hoisted them skyward, we didn’t know to call what we were doing “balloon framing,” we just thought we were building houses.                                                             When you don’t know the name of what you do, or see what could be different, you’re just a fool who sticks to one lane, blinkered, not knowing where you are or the choices that got you there.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont October 2025