March Ends Remembering the Joy of Kite Flying

Wednesday the last of March
I heard Gary fire up his new cycle and take off around 9. Tracy called yesterday to check on me. He has a palpable fear of this disease and when I try to tell him you can survive it he shuts down. It will be warm today. Van rolled the yard yesterday, she did great. She has lined up her volunteers to keep up with the shrubs and other heavy stuff that will be forthcoming. Hopefully I will be involved in that soon.
I am now so limited that even a walk from my office to the family room, about 50 feet, must be paid for with extended pain and suffering. For all intents and purposes I am now a complete invalid. Any effort to walk creates such pain centered left groin level that I am quickly reduced to a very short shuffle. So today I shall not walk much. I found after only a couple of calls I am exhausted and must rest. Probably got 2 hours of real work today at best and logged accordingly. This would have been a great kite day. I am down to my trusty 6’ delta, but it is long in the tooth. Kiting with a two string delta in a strong wind is a unique and singular experience. It is you, the wind and the kite you share with the wind. In Indiana the wind is a sly fox, coming from all directions then none then one then some. The two line delta has great control and flying in Indiana has certainly sharpened my skills. Last year I got to fly in 25-25 sustained, allowing the kite to fully support my weight through low altitude sweeps and climbs. It was a great day. Often as you watch your foil 80 feet above you see far off in the sky, able to focus on an airliner at 35,000 feet as the sun glints off its surfaces. An occasional star in the daylight just beyond the farthest cloud, and the clouds, with endless variety and change float by. I always found it surprising that I was the only one out flying. Some say it is because of the tricky winds, but I suspect in Indiana something as mundane as kite flying cannot hold a candle to TV.