Let's go fly a kite

This afternoon, I took the boys kite-flying. We decided to try out these nifty little delta wing kites that Sweetie got the boys a long time ago, but we'd never opened. The kites were made of ripstop nylon, were about a foot across, had a delta shape (duh) and two long tails (10ft?). After a few minutes construction, we went down to the field across from the school. It being the afternoon, there was a nice, constant breeze (locally referred to as the Isthmus Express) coming through the valley from Catalina Harbor towards Isthmus Cove.

I started trying to help Calvin get his kite going, but it would just spin around and around and then crash into the ground. I think there was a balance problem there. Calvin was getting very frustrated. Meanwhile Hobbes was giggling. I looked over and he was laughing because his kite was also going round and round, but what I saw was that the string and the tails were going round and round each other and making a big messy knot. I quickly abandoned Calvin to his conniption and began struggling to untangle Hobbes' kite. Images of Charlie Brown's experiences with kites flashed through my head as I looked at the wound and looped strands. I finally got the tails free, and had one knot left in the string. Now this was not nice thick, high-quality kite string; this was essentially white thread. I pulled on the knot and the string snapped. Hobbes began to have a conniption of his own. (Perhaps I expressed a bit too much exasperation over the tangle, too.) He went over to hold on Calvin's kite so it wouldn't blow away. With Calvin's help (he has small fingers) I managed to tie the two ends of Hobbes' kite string together and he was ready to go. I looked over and saw that he had somehow managed to tangle Calvin's kite string and tails.

After a prolonged sigh, I relieved Hobbes' of Calvin's kite and we managed to get his up into the air. Up it soared, and he started figuring out how to make the kite move left and right and how to get it to climb when the wind started to lessen. He was having a ball.

Calvin, on the other hand, was still in Conniption City. I managed to untangle his with relative ease, but we still couldn't get it to fly properly. It just spun around and crashed. I sent him home to get another kite. (That's the polite way of saying he stormed home to get another kite.) This was a wing kite, and I don't know where we got these, either, but we'd tried them before and had a similar spinning problem. But today, when we got it unwrapped, it sailed up into the sky with little problem and for a brief second I thought we were on our way to a pleasant afternoon. "Don't cross the strings!" I warned.

Seconds later, they crossed strings. Calvin's wing kite, being heavier and having thicker string, managed to saw through Hobbes' thread (or maybe the knot I made failed, I don't know). Set free, it blew across the field carried by the Isthmus Express. I gave chase. I ran down the field, past the pavilion and picnic area, across the street and into town. I kept hoping the kite would fall, but it just kept going. I ran down to the beach and saw that the kite was now over the water, but starting to descend. It hit the water about thirty yards out, just beyond the Baywatch dingy. I trotted down the pier and found a Harbor Patrol employee who said he would take me out to see if we could retrieve it, but alas, it had sunk beneath the surface. I jogged back up to the field. Calvin and his kite were nowhere to be seen. Hobbes was sitting with his head down on one of the picnic tables. He looked up and I told him the bad news. Tears. We started home to get some sympathy from Mom.

So here is the last known picture of Kitey. Ah lad, we knew ye well. Godspeed, and maybe we'll see you washed up on the beach tomorrow morning. (If so, we'll rinse you off and try to fly you again.)