In Case You Missed It

Every now and then I'll come across a story on cnn.com that makes me smile. This is one of them. It's not about someone doing a good deed, doesn't contain any drama, and probably has no intrinsic value. It's about a guy who, as a child, imagined he could fly, and did.

Unconventional, yes. Silly, maybe. Certainly dangerous,... but nobody got hurt except for a few rope burns. And while it may seem that this guy doesn't aim very high in his 'dreams', at least he lived his (twice, actually).

Last weekend, Kent Couch ... kissed his wife goodbye, petted his Chihuahua, "settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks..." and then flew 193 miles, aloft for 9 hours until he decided to land just outside of Hells Canyon in Oregon! He concocted a 'flying machine' using 105 helium balloons, some plastic bags filled with water (for ballast) and a GPS in his pocket. He said, "When you're a little kid and you're holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind." It crossed mine, a few times, I must admit.

The part of the story that made me smile, though, had to do with a previous 'flight' of another balloon-man, who rose 3 miles above Los Angeles in 1982. A surprised airline pilot radioed the control tower that he had "just passed a guy in a lawn chair." Imagine being in a window seat on that plane :)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/10/flying.lawn.chair.ap/index.html