Learning to Walk Between the Rain Drops

So is it just us sun-deprived folks in Seattle or are there other people out there who keep an eye on the radar and then as soon as the last raindrop has fallen bum-rush the outdoors to do their "thing" until the next weather cell moves in?

It's just us, huh, that's okay, I'm very used to be the odd man out. Ah well, at least there are pictures today.

Andy's latest obsession is para-kite flying. If that is not really what it's called, it's okay, I don't really care. It's all really just oh-god-the-kite-is-big-enough-to-lift-a man-off-the-ground, to me. Anything bigger than my 9 x 11 inch kite in he kinds of winds we see at Gasworks is a tad bit excessive, really. I mean it's cool, but come on:
This is a three meter kite. It is NOT the biggest one they sell at the kite shop. Do you see the tip of my shoe over on the left-hand side? Yeah, my job was to play dead weight. It's a job I am exceedingly good at. Given my awesome super powers, as Damage Girl (tm), there was no way I would be allowed to fly the kite, especially in the kind of winds we had:
Andy is unwinding the lines. Can you see the grass being laid flat by the um breeze?

So I didn't get either of the intense action shots of the day...I was a little busy getting out of the way for the first one as Andy was dragged into these huge cement structures right behind the launching area, greatly diminishing the amount of skin on his fingers...and my fists were too busy being balled up and up against my face so I wouldn't have to watch the landing for the second....But in between the gusts and then utter disappearance of the wind:
Andy got airborne, twice. Check out the sky. Even the kite was a bit intimidated. See how big it is? Andy is 6' 3.75" tall, so don't let his height fool you. Can you see the speck over on the left-hand side? WE WERE NOT ALONE. Three other people had kites and boy-howdy were they going to fly them!

Yes, his arms are being yanked out of their sockets. He considers this "fun."

I thought if I took enough pictures, I'd be able to present them to the authorities when he was dragged off into the lake...but the wind was blowing in the complete opposite direction...
Into the trees...

It was right after relaunching from the kite-eating tree that the wind became crazy-dangerous and there were easily four feet of NOTHING between Andy and the grass...he is TIED to the kite, mind you, so he landed somehow--no loud CRUNCH noise was heard, and he did this cool somersault maneuver and yeah...he was done for the day.

Like any boy, he wanted me to take a picture of his "war wounds" for posterity.
So yeah, about then the adventure came full circle, except Andy was maybe whimpering and limping a little as he wound the lines back up:
And I took on the job of dead weight once again:

Sexy hairdo thanks to ma' Nature.

Here is a super cool artsy shot telling us all we needed to get inside pretty darn quickly:
The rain came back full force about 20 minutes later.