Somebody to Love

The backyard is fast becoming an airplane graveyard. Scattered about is the debris of three balsa-wood airplanes, the ones that retail for $1.99 and fly once or twice before splintering on impact with some super-rugged crab grass.
Then came the plastic one from the toy store that lasted a week before it was overwound, causing the nose to snap off under the pressure of 200 twists of a rubber band.
Next are the foam planes that we allow to be flown in the house. All three pieces to one of them were lying on different steps of the stairs the other day before H brought them to me for reconstruction.
In an effort to save money (we charter our own plane to Kitty Hawk on the money being sunk on flimsy aircraft), I bought a glossy pamphlet entitled "The Best Paper Airplanes You'll Ever Fly." Now I can fold my own planes using the stash of outdated Enterprise stationary I brought home to run through my printer and hand out to C for "projects." The paper planes fly pretty well, especially if you're anal about folding them symmetrically and follow the explicit directions regarding trimming. I'd say they fly as well as their commercially-made counterparts and last equally as long.
I've had little experience in the paper airplane making department prior to now. How is it I'd lived 39 years and yet been incapable of folding a Balcony Bomber? Guess that's what good clean living and paying attention during school assemblies gets you - a dearth of practical experience that could come in handy as a mom. What use is knowledge of the quadratic equation when what I really need to know is how to launch a paper airplane from the back deck and get it to fly into our plastic wading pool?

song: Somebody to Love • artist: Jefferson Airplane