Go fly a kite.
Who did many kitten-like things.
She tangled with kites,
And took long lazy flights
After anything airborne that sings.
~Lawrence J. Levine, from “Kitten With Wings”
AQuietEvening’s entry put the yen in my zen to go out and get myself a kite. This is not a brand new interest, but rather the revival of an old one. Not all that long ago you’d have never found me without a kite within easy reach.
I never got into the acrobatic kites or fighting kites, but I loved the big showy ones that would bring people in from miles to check them out. The ex got virtually all the kites, but I kept one, a small one foot by two foot parafoil.
I always traveled with that pocket parafoil kite that could go up at a moment’s notice. Its formal storage space was in the trunk of my car, but it folded flat enough to fit into my pocket easily. Unfortunately, after a trip to Utah a few years back, I was vacuuming in my bedroom around the not-yet-emptied luggage, and my vacuum cleaner grabbed hold of the harness strings to the parafoil. That was all she wrote, and while I still have the remains, I don’t think all the King’s men are putting that one back together again.
So I spent several hours on the web last night looking at kites. Things have changed a bit since the last time I went kite shopping. Or maybe I just didn’t shop in the right places. But $1,500 for a kite is a little steep. Frankly, $300 for a kite is a tad pricey, even if it does have a totally awesome frog on it. I settled for a parafoil slightly larger than my old pocket one, as well as some extra kite string and a really nice figure eight spooler. Lunchtimes at work may become interesting again.