JohnMitchell

Ha, at least she's sitting next to the doll and not the weird, creepy guy. Flying stress . . . every trip anymore. How will the TSA lines be? Will they want to open my rig? Traffic jam on the way to the airport? Will I be sitting next to a 300 pounder?

Almost always sleep together except, like your case, in case of sickness or injury that necessitates a little separation. Broken collar bone wasn't a problem for us, but rotator cuff surgery required me to sleep in a Lazy Boy recliner for a while. Bad hacking head cold? Maybe the guest room for a night or two. But also what NWFlyer said. Whatever works for YOUR relationship.

Yeah, all the stock market news I read basically says Sears is circling the drain. I sometimes wonder if their branding just got too old fashioned. Like Normiss said, they owned catalog sales for decades. Sears used to sell complete HOUSE kits, delivered on site and built locally. Then they could sell you everything you needed to go inside that house. Sears was the place you went for everything you needed, from shovels to TVs to toys to clothing. But I think they just let all the competition eat away at their business. They now seem to be my last choice for shopping. The only reason I was in there the other day was that Vskydiver was waiting in line at the Verizon store next door and I was killing time. I did see a barbecue cover in stock I could use, but for 50% more than the same item at Walmart.

How "shorty" are you? Would a love seat do? Sorry we can't help. Wrong side of the country.

I read a recovery plan for Sears that stated their core retail strength being appliances and televisions. Last time I was in a Sears store it was dead, with the sales people outnumbering the 3-4 customers I saw in there.

That is a fundamental principle you touched on. The USPA and most skydiving instruction teaches safety. Pat Works preaches survival. He understood that sooner or later you'll find yourself outside the boundaries of "safety", where the rules won't save you. At that point you have to be prepared to survive. Thanks, Pat, for the good lessons.

Damn pilots! How you doin' today, CP? Yeah, Pat was one heck of a guru back in the day, helping pioneer a lot of the stuff we take for granted today. He's actually a former engineer and very technically savvy, but he likes to get pretty zen from time to time, realizing that skydiving can be a pretty spiritual experience for many. I'm glad to see him still writing.

I would totally expect stories like buying Sears parts, fixing lawn tractors, etc. around a real bonfire. Anything funny/interesting/crazy goes.

I once had a Craftsman lawn tractor. While still under warranty, the engine began running poorly. Trailered it up and took it to the Sears service center. Days later they said it needed a new ignition module. Fine, do it, I said. They said the part was on back order for months. I told them there was no way I could wait months, in the summer, to get my lawn tractor fixed. They said "Call the store and see if they have a new tractor in stock." I couldn't believe they would pawn their problem off on the store like that. I called the store to complain, telling them what the service center said. The guy at the store replied "Yeah, we got 'em in stock. Bring your old one down and we'll give you a new one." So, for want of one part, I got my year-old tractor upgraded to a brand new, next year's model. Great deal for me, but it was easy to see at that point that I should avoid buying stock in Sears.

Holy crap! I bet some of those injuries were very serious. Thank goodness to cars being so much more crashworthy than a few decades back. The other thing is how the driver seems to literally or figuratively be asleep at the wheel. Texting or time for a tox screen?

Where was the honeymoon? Yep, where did you guys go? Or did you make it a staycation?

Walking in after the jump, and in the packing area.

Vskydiver and I did a canopy stack into a AAA ballpark in costume many years ago. I drew the short straw and got the Santa Clause costume. She was a fantastic blonde Supergirl. Very fun, but be careful.

Come to think of it, I've done several night demos, but going into a football field or lit-up state fair doesn't feel very "dark", does it? The state fair demos we used to do at night were so cool. We had pyro flares we lowered down and lit under canopy, so we trailed white sparks across the sky. The visuals of all the rides on the midway, lit up and running, were amazing. Wish I had had video.

My unplanned water jump was a demo into Commencement Bay in Tacoma, WA on the 4th of July. The winds were high and the spotter put us out, instead of upwind, abeam the anchored barge we were supposed to land on. He was on a highly loaded 9 cell and barely made the barge. The other 7 of us were in the water. Nothing like going swimming in cold salt water wearing all your gear, a jumpsuit, and a smoke bracket on your foot. Luckily the winds were so high that when I hit my canopy remained inflated and was dragging me along. I never did have to inflate my LPU. I flipped over to see where I was going and darn if I wasn't dragging towards a nice looking boat with a great looking woman in a bikini, holding a drink. I was thinking I was going to have an amazing James Bond kind of experience when suddenly the Sheriff's boat ran up, over my lines, and "rescued" me just yards from her boat. The whole time I'm yelling "NO, go get the others. They're farther out!" My wife, Vskydiver, was watching from the shore and laughing her cute @$$ off the whole time. . . The only good thing? I had wisely left my altimeter back at the DZ.

Been there. There's been a pilot or two I wouldn't get in the plane with again.

Well, I'm still alive, and kinda proud of that.

I must be doing something right.

Not a very good pilot, in my book, sheesh.

I've seen some horrible jumpruns, esp. multi thousand hour pilots who are brand new to jumpruns but know WAY too much to listen to a skydiver. I have given 90 degree corrections in the past. That taught me to begin spotting long before the door opens. If they ain't where I like, I'll ask 'em early what the plan is.

Gyro stabilized or just mounted that way? Sounds like a bit of work.

Full face helmets are nice. Most of the current models have flip-up visors. Stay with those. Like the other posters said, a custom jumpsuit can be engineered to slow your fall rate. Ask around. Also there are techniques for falling slower and for recovering from being low. Talk to an instructor. You say you are a big guy. Honestly, if that's not all muscle, I'd look into losing weight. I've seen many people start the sport and decide it's important enough to them to drop the excess pounds. Just about everything in our sport is easier when you're lighter and more limber. This sport makes me keep my weight in check. Freeflying already? I'd stay on your belly a bit longer. Your freefall speed will be lower, you'll be able to keep a good eye on the ground, and you won't have to change body position to open your canopy. The opposite is basically true of freeflying, which makes it more of a challenge. What can you do to help the DZ? Besides paying your jump bill on time, I don't know. But you could ask them.

I'll say it again. The USPA does what it can to keep the FAA off our backs. I haven't agreed with every rule change coming from the board, but it beats the hell out of dealing directly with the federal bureaucracy in order to jump out of planes.

Thanks for writing this. It needs to be said again and again.

Wherever they go for a honeymoon I bet they don't get a suntan. . .