It’s Been Way Too Long

When we were searching for our retirement home, we knew it had to be in a community located close to the beach. The beach is our place to go and let our souls relax from the cares of the world. It has a calming effect on both Terry and me like no place else. Plus, we wanted a place where we could fly our quad line Revolution kites.

Well, we live about a 15 minute drive from the beach, and guess how many times we have flown our kites since we got here? Zero. None. Nada. Zip.

Don’t ask me why, because I really can’t tell you. Maybe it’s because we had no idea that semi-retirement would take up so much of our time. I mean, there’s fishing, and kayaking, and boating, and weaving, and writing, and playing darts, and…. you get the idea. Yep, it’s been way too long since we’ve had a set of kite lines in our hands.

But all that changed yesterday afternoon. Terry and I drove down to the beach and were parked, just enjoying the sound of the surf and watching the water when Terry spotted somebody flying a Revolution kite further down. We suspected it was our friend Colleen Baker, known to quad line flyers nationwide as Jynx. She has a home in Wisconsin, but winters in New Smyrna Beach, and spends just about every day flying kites. In fact, she is the person that first introduced us to Revolution kites at the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach, years ago.

We were just standing on the sidelines admiring the skill of the kite flyers when Jynx invited us to give it a try. Now, these kites are not cheap. They start somewhere around $300 and can easily go for twice that much, depending on the model. So obviously, Terry and I were hesitant to accept her kind offer because we didn’t want to have to buy somebody a new kite once we crashed it. But Jynx insisted we try, saying they are pretty much indestructible. The rest, as they say, is history. It wasn’t long before I bought my own Revolution kite, and I would be hesitant to tell you how many we have between the two of us now.

When we got down to where we saw the kite in the air ysterday, it was actually somebody else, but Jynx was there, too. After a round of hugs in greeting, she insisted we fly her Polo, which is a custom version of a Revolution kite.

Having not flown in so long, I was pretty sure I would spend a lot of time crashing the kite, but it really is kind of like riding a bicycle. I had no problem getting it up in the air and doing some basic maneuvers like flying sideways and hovering in a stationary position. That’s not to say I was smooth, but at least I didn’t embarrass myself too badly.

Of course, it helped that the Polo is a superior kite and which would make even a rank amateur look good.

When it was Terry’s turn on the lines she showed the same grace and style she has since the first time she started flying a quad line kite. She began a year or so after me, maybe two, but she quickly left me in her dust. It was the same way yesterday. It was like the last time she flew was a month ago, not over two years ago!

It sure was good to be out there flying, and we spent several hours at it. We both realized how much we miss the hobby. So don’t be surprised if we aren’t pulling the kite bags out from under our bed and heading to the beach again soon.

Here are Miss Terry and Jynx at the end of our time together yesterday. We promised her we’ll be back before too long to do it again.

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It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Hands of Onyx, book 2 in the Sav’ine series by Stacy Bender. It’s a story about cybernetic soldiers escorting a long haul space freighter to the outer rim planets, dealing with saboteurs who are trying to stop them and a crew that includes a half-blind medic, an explosives expert who is a sociopath, and an interrogator suffering from dementia. What could possibly go wrong? To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – You are only young once, but you can be immature forever.