--Pete

I know what you mean about eyes and fingers. Quite a few years ago I confidently disassembled a wind-up alarm clock (of the Big-Ben variety, if you remember them). All I had was my Swiss Army knife (big one, with tweezers, tiny screw-driver, magnifying glass and all that stuff). It was hanging up at a certain time of day and I was certain there was a 'ding' on one of the gears, or a slightly bent shaft. Well, I had all the gears in a row, had a look with the glass and found the problem and fixed it (a burr on one of the gears, as I thought; a tweak with the knife-blade cleaned it up.) When I began to re-assemble, I realized that I could neither see the pieces (either too close and blurry, or too far away and too small to see) nor the places where they were supposed to go. AND I couldn't hold them still enough to feel them into place. Now these clocks are not rocket-science; I have been taking them apart and putting them back together since I was seven or eight years old. It was a REAL SHOCK to discover that I could no longer do this without some special tools and optics. And, if anything, my eyes and fingers are worse today than they were 20 years ago. I can still do things like this, but it takes a lot of tweezers, picks and a rig like this:

It is perhaps not completely fair to say there can NEVER be knots in a tangle. If one or both handles are yanked out of your hands or pulled off the ground-stake, they can get bounced through loops. If you never pull the tangle up tight, these can be removed in the last stage when you are removing the wraps. They will be double-overhand knots, since two ends go through a loop (or loops) together.

One additional note: When you get a tangle like that, remember this - the ONLY way an overhand knot can be formed is if a line-end goes through a loop. (I know a 'magic' trick that involves putting a line end through a bunch of loops simultaneously, and then pulling on the end and forming a series of perfectly spaced overhand knots - like 'magic'.) When you pick up the tangled lines (in a bundle, or maybe wound around a winder or something else) KEEP TRACK OF THE ENDS. Before bundling/wrapping attach the kite ends to something. Cut slits in a piece of cardboard; larks-head them to a twig; anything. Do the same at the handle end. Then don't let the ends get near the bundle/windup or each other. If you drop the whole mess in a box, hang the end-clusters out on opposite sides. When you get home and start to untangle things NEVER let yourself be tempted to pull an end through the tangle. THAT IS PUTTING AN END THROUGH A LOOP! IT IS HOW KNOTS ARE CREATED. That tangle was NOT made by putting the kite or the handles through loops; it was made by putting loops through loops, and that is how it should be untangled. Gently, never pulling anything tight, begin backing loops out of the tangle. As you free up line, begin moving the kite-ends (still hooked together) and the handle ends (still hooked together) farther and farther away from each other. You will end up with the lines stretched out with some wraps (wrapped pairs and 4-line wraps) in them. NOW you can separate one set of ends and begin removing the wraps. There will be no knots; I promise.

Unless the knot is extremely close to the end, you may be able to make TWO linesets out of this. If you have never intended to make a short (10-30 feet - I've heard of as short as 8) lineset, you now may discover some of the interesting things you can do with them. Maybe it's time to try some indoor techniques. Short linesets are good for learning catch-and-toss outdoors, as well. The worst might be if the knot was almost exactly in the middle of the line; then you would end up with two identical linesets. Even that carries some sunshine with it. Next time you meet up with another Rev flyer, you can experiment with team flying on 45-50' linesets. Might be interesting.

Another entry in Jeff Masters' blog, with good explanation and comparison (this was a BIG one) with other tornado outbreaks. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1784 It includes a video made by a man sitting in his car, calmly talking to (his wife?) as a tornado comes straight over his car as he records it.

Here is a good page, with discussion, about the outbreak http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1783 This is from the Severe Weather Blog of Dr. Jeff Masters (founder of Weather Underground, and former hurricane hunter).

I hope all is well with members (and all kite flyers) in the SE US today. I know Nick (Reef Runner) is near the affected area. It's hard to figure what we might do to help from a distance, but you all should know that we are thinking about you.

for Mike! Enjoy the kite and post some pics when you can.

Amen! And, oh yes: TICK...TICK...TICK

You would need a kite-flyer and a kite-knowledgable signer, or someone who is both, although I think a kite-flyer/signer would "have his hands full" so to speak. I think a team like that would be instantly welcome at any school or program devoted to hearing-impaired children.

I almost joined in, but then I thought: "I'm half-Canadian (my dad was born there). I should at least let chance bring a kite of Canadian colours to my bag if the RNG-spirits should so-ordain. Maybe next time, if Gregg hasn't got a kite by then. SV already has more Revs than I do - he's on his own.

Nice write-up. Looks like you got it to kitmap.org and rev forum as well. Dunno if I'll ever get there (or if I could climb up if I did) but it sure looks nice. I spent a couple years near another huge dune (Sleeping Bear, in the NW corner of Michigan's lower peninsula -- the little finger of the Michigan mitten). Climbing the leeward face (45 degrees) was a challenge, even for a teenager. Some parts of the dune are 450' above the lake, but I don't think the leeward face is quite that high. Never thought about kite-flying there, but I wasn't a kite-flyer at the time.

How about: "If I don't answer, catch my eye. I have a hard time hearing people." Or: "... I don't hear very well." Or: "I'm not ignoring you. I just don't hear very well." That clearly explains the situation, and also pretty clearly is not asking for anything, which is what publicly declaring something like deafness sometimes is.

I note that that there is a lot of stuff missing from the satori site which is not included on the wayback site. Too bad; there is a lot of internet history that will never be recovered. Almost as sad as the missing film only recorded on celluloid film which is also gone forever.

This: This site is best viewed with Microsoft IE 4.0 or better and 600x800 screen resolution. ...cracks me up. Especially when you have just posted (and I have seconded) an exhortation to the world to upgrade from IE6. I accidentally set my screen resolution to 600x800 recently. I can't believe that at one time I thought that 600x800 was the ultimate in clarity. My first graphics screen (a second screen; my main screen was a print-on-paper Teletype) was a beat up television driven by a 256x256(x1 - which means black and white) Matrox video card. I had to write my own driver to get my computer (a NorthStar S100) to "talk" to it. I've been playing with "home" computers since 1978.) When I first saw 600x800 in 64 DIFFERENT colors (RGB at 4 bits per color), I thought I had seen the promised land. (Today, I have mood lighting in my house that can handle 64 thousand colors.)

Looks good, Duane. With a supply of those cards you may create more new kiters than most of us ever do.

For some hard truths about random numbers this Dilbert strip is a pretty funny commentary: http://dilbert.com/s...mic/2001-10-25/ And it IS true: in a really random sequence ANYTHING can happen. (It's VERY* unlikely, but) John could run the RNG and get the subscribers' list in perfect order, or in reverse order, or all odd numbers first, or all even numbers first, or... (You get the idea.) What we are all hoping is that the next time (or the time after that...) the random list will come up with our own personal number(s) before any others (which is merely SOMEWHAT unlikely). ====================== * This is SO unlikely that if such a thing actually happened, I expect that John would be emailing the guy who maintains the RNG to ask if it was broken. Or at least preserve that unlikely-looking result (in case it really was true) and run the RNG a few more times to see if normally random-looking numbers came out.

Yeah...That's probably a better idea then all my personal BS. I can just mention my hearing loss and tell them here's an information card that can direct them to everything they might want to know about kites and/or kiting. I think that would be better and a lot simpler and to the point! I suppose all I'd really need would be a few web sites listed: Kitelife Revkites AKA What else might be important? They can get kite shops at these sites from their sponsors, clubs from their listings, any questions answered in the forums...what wouldn't be at these sites that might need to be added? Keep It Up! Duane Actually, What Duane has put together is pretty good for anyone. Leave out the deafness and communications issues from the first side (unless you are also a bit deaf). Duane, I wouldn't completely leave out the information about your deafness - it explains why you can't directly communicate while flying. You depend on lip-reading and can't do that while watching the kite. Then personalize the flip side to match the kites YOU fly, and the extent that you are willing to communicate to help a new, interested flier. I like it. (Oh, and responding to the first post: you thought enough of the questioner to design and print a card just for them. That's personal, to my thinking.)

Amen

You might consider printing the first part on one side, and the part after the site listings on the other side. That would let you keep the type size a bit bigger. Also I would make the "any" in boldface or italics rather than in quotes. Same with Revolution and Revs. Great idea. I may have to do something similar - I'm getting deafer every year.

I hope not. Someone has to pay for all those bright lights and noise.

I'm ready for "just one more".

This was discussed in another topic recently, and the RNG that is used is about as good as you can get in the way of random numbers.

Shhh! It does, but it doesn't let bribes influence it. (That's what the "R" means.)