Let’s…Go…Fly…a Kite…

Quote of the day: “That guy must be a professional flite kyer!” -Amy

Summer days have at times seemed too few and far between here in Dresden and now that fall is only a few weeks away and the days are getting noticeably shorter any chance to be outside and enjoy a nice day has become a priority. The past week has been absolutely gorgeous weather and today I felt inspired as I walked by the kite section in our local supermarket and decided to invest a little cash for an amazing potential of fun and enjoyment. I bought one of these fancy two-stringed kites, with one handle for each hand, which advertises many super sly turns and high flying action (by the picture on the front). I was way pumped about my new purchase and easily convinced Amy to be my “launcher” on this fairly breezy afternoon. We headed out to the beautiful open meadow along the Elbe river where I quickly assembled the flying contraption and read up briefly on the unique flying techniques of this previously unfamiliar two-handed model. I mean, the small pamphlet included in the package only had three pictures to describe the simple act of launching so I knew it must be a piece of cake. Well needless to say, after over an hour which included walking further into the middle of the field to maybe access more smooth winds, meticulous synchronizing of Amy’s throw motion and my pulling-while-walking-backwards action, changing directions after realizing we weren’t angled into the wind correctly, almost twisting our ankles from the random holes hidden beneath the ground shrubbery, practically taking out a few people innocently walking their dogs on a nearby path with the uncontrollable swooping…not to mention another boy with a much larger and fancier kite only 100 meters away and seemingly intentionally perfectly landing and launching it numerous times while we struggled to even just launch it upwards and maintain any kind of controlled flight for more than three seconds. In the end we figured there just wasn’t enough consistent wind today, not that it was anyhow related to our lack of kite-flying ability.

Good thing our enjoyment of this wonderful summer day isn’t somehow hinged on our ability to accurately participate in this summer activity. :)