Off To The Park

It's been breezy a couple of days, and I've been telling myself for a couple of MONTHS that I should go fly a kite. So I packed up a kite, sunscreened myself, and headed off for the Harry Griffen.



I REALLY wish I had used a less-cluttered background!

Even though it was 93 degrees (Fahrenheit) out, I didn't have any problems getting there. Not too much traffic, and not really too hot, as long as you keep moving!

Of course, by the time I got to the park, the kite string had loosen itself and got tangled up. So THAT took a while to unsnarl.

Oh, and about half-way there I realized I forgot the stopper for the climber. What's a climber? It's a device that climbs the line as it is blown by the wind, when it reaches the stopper it folds up and returns to you. Mine will release a payload, like a parachute, when it reaches the top. Hopefully. If I had a parachute, too.



So I used a strap to fasten some broken branches to the line as a stopper.

The tree must not have liked this, because after flying the big Neon Delta for about two minutes, the tree REACHED OUT and GRABBED the kite!



Well, after much fiddling around, sawing back and forth, some branch-breaking, and eventually cutting (biting!) the string, I recovered the kite.

I was sitting on the ground, the MOIST ground, thinking about tying the string back together, when I noticed a depression in the grass. I stuck the end of the kite string holder in the depression. It was a hole under the grass. Oh, oh, says I, a gopher hole! That is what all these piles of dirt are! I pull the kite string holder back out. It has mud on the handle. For some unfathomable reason, I smell the mud. It is not mud. It is poop!! Aaaggrrhhhh!!! It touched me! I've got gopher (HOPEFULLY!) poop on me!

I clean it off, best I can, with water from my bottle. No soap, though.

I give up on nature, I'm going home.

NOTE TO SELF: Pack antibiotic soap in tool bag.