SKY MASTER

 

I often wonder why we can't have more sunny days particularly during the rainy season. It seems like several days go by and all we get is rain and gray skies. I remember when I lived in England, those gray days lasted for weeks and I came to realize why the English people had such white skin and yet rosy cheeks, because they hardly got to see the sun. Well, I got to thinking about my old friend the Sky Master who once told me many years ago that he was doing some research and some day would finish his invention.

So, I decided to pay him a visit. He lived in an old house in the countryside where he was surrounded by acres and acres of land. When I arrived he was very pleased to see me and wondered where I had been for so many years. He looked hardy and had not aged at all. He still had his white beard and was smoking his curved briar pipe while sitting in his rocking chair on his front porch.

I asked him how he was doing with his weather inventions and without saying much, he took me for a walk to the huge barn behind his house. The double doors were open and as I looked into the barn my question was answered. Hanging on one wall were loads of bicycles with colored umbrellas fastened to them. Another wall was adorned with caps, each with a small umbrella glued on top. On the floor were stacks of hooded raincoats each dyed with rainbow colors. Piled up on the other wall were over a thousand rolls of heavy steel baling wire. As we walked toward the back of the barn I saw thousands of brooms piled to the ceiling. Each broom was about nine yards long with thistles at least nine yards long, made from broom corn, bound on each cylindrical broom handle whose base was at least a yard wide. I was amazed by such a spectacle.

"No doubt you are wondering what all that is about," he said. "Those wires and brooms are for my major project. I contacted a company to build one hundred of their sturdiest and highest flying helicopters with pilots trained to implement my project. I arranged to have each helicopter connected with the baling wire to which the brooms would hang below. The helicopters were to fly above the clouds parallel to one another, each at least five miles apart. Then, the pilots were to synchronize their journey by flying into the clouds and sweep away the rain clouds. For about a few hundred yards it seemed like the project was going to be a success. But, unfortunately, the broom thistles got so wet that the weight of the brooms broke away from the baling wire. Like the Wright brothers in their early attempts to fly failed, so did I. But, all this material you see is my second order of equipment and I plan to try again with more durable thistles."

I know that many of us in the community like to play tennis and golf or bask in the sun near the pool. I guess we will have to wait until the Sky Master succeeds in sweeping the clouds away.