#387 – Stare

One summer I came home from a fair with 5 or 6 helium balloons. I tied them all together and then started adding weights. I tied on some sticks, a Star Wars figure, a couple green army men and other stuff I found. I kept experimenting until I found the right combination to achieve neutral buoyancy. The whole thing would float in the middle of the living room at whatever altitude I would put it in. I took it outside and paraded it around the neighborhood like some sort of pet. I had a yard stick with me and I would give it a little push and it would float out ahead of me. I would catch up and push it off in another direction. I was walking down my driveway when the wind took hold of it and slowly sucked it straight up into the sky. I stood there watching it thinking and second now it will come back down. Some 25 or so years later I still wonder if anyone ever found it.

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10 thoughts on “#387 – Stare”

  1. Library Lady says:

    I wonder what a pilot would do if he/she really did see eyes looking back?
    Ohh, bloodshot eyes looking back – that reaction would be sooo interesting! So long as the plane stayed in the sky.

  2. McGehee says:

    Heh. “Uh, tower, this is Flight 219. I’m going to be taking a break in the lavatory sobbing hysterically. Over.”

  3. Falos says:

    You should be careful when experimenting with neutral buoyancy, a process suspected of causing increased aggression in scorpions.

  4. pbarnrob says:

    Somehow reminds me of an old Gahan Wilson, two enormous eyes peeking over the hill in the night, at the diner with its big bright EAT sign glowing by the highway…

  5. kingklash says:

    Hmmmmm, now where can I get balloons large enough? And tissue paper large enough to make a big bikini top?

  6. Myk says:

    Um Chris… Are you sure we didn’t grow up in the same neighborhood?

    1. Chris says:

      I didn’t know anyone named Myk back then.

  7. Sherri says:

    I did this with nearly every balloon I got! I was never brave enough to take them outside. One girl I knew let her balloon go *on purpose*, it nearly broke my poor little brain.

  8. rich says:

    cloud man is watching…

  9. Dan says:

    The eyes from Great Gatsby or Super Mario?

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