how to make rainbows
the wise zauberbar in all its glory
ever since i got the idea to blow bubbles, i've been doing so every day. the chief tool i use for doing so is the Pustefix Zauberbar. not only is it very nice to look at, but it functions with one hand and is not very messy if used correctly. the steps are simple. remove cap from head. squeeze belly until the bear's head is filled with bubble solution. squeeze again to raise the wand out, but not too hard, or the liquid will over spill. blow. repeat as desired.
as mentioned, the bear is pretty darn cute, altho it does get mistaken for containers of honey. the size is just enough to fit in a jacket pocket, but the lid needs to retightened now and then to keep it from leaking. i've really not found a situation where i can't pull the bear out and watch the spheres float, altho there are places here where i'm sure it's rather inapropriate, ie on the Tube (bubbling while waiting for the tube is another matter... a very perfect place, especially when a train is whooshing through another platform, swirling cool air). the bear is finding itself in a lot of pictures i've been taking lately. smiling benignly.
i don't remember when i stopped blowing bubbles as a child, but i do remember when i took it back up. in my early twenties, hapless, drifting, and invited up to san francisco for a weekend, ostensibly to a party. enough happened that weekend for me to fill up a few stories worth of a novella, and i actually turned part of that weekend into a story. among the one story, and discovering the summer cottage, and feeling closer to once mere acquaintances, was the few hours of blowing bubbles from a bottle of miracle bubbles off the rooftop of a friend's apartment, watching them whip down, oh, some long hilly street, some filled with smoke, some dropping and popping in the street with an imagined poof, some zipping away for many blocks before turning on a windcurrent around a corner and probably still going. and me telling my friends, and myself deep down, 'i'm always going to blow bubbles.'
this wasn't a promise, this was a knowing. because i still do, i still will. it's just another habit; if i don't blow bubbles for a few days, i get this feeling that something is missing. i even used the excuse of quitting smoking for blowing bubbles, but once i realized that i enjoyed smoke bubbles too much, it wasn't much of an excuse to stop. it is pleasant to know that the sight of bubbles makes people smile, and i get in conversations about it, or am known by acquaintences at cafes as 'the bubble guy', but really, i'm just enjoying the act.
a recent happenstance with bubbles. at the portland wedding, after i kissed the bride, the wedding guests all pulled out small bottles and 'showered' us with streams and streams of bubbles. the sky mirrored below and gave us a pastelly rainbow. you know, how can one get even more simply happy?
hours of entertainment in the palm of your hand
tangle | lions | toys