Jarcie

Why don't you just move out here? P.S. - Congratulations, Skye!

Thanks, Beth! I'll miss carpooling with you! When I get back, you'll have your D and be an AFF-I, and I'll be doing my currency jump with you! Thanks, Mark... I can't wait to take you up on your offer of a jump ticket at Elsinore when I get back from Africa...

Thanks, guys!

Thanks! Nope, I got lots of hugs, lots of video, a card, a balloon, some food from our barbecue, and signatures for my log book, but ... I made it out of there pie-free! Maybe they thought I'd be expecting it...

He's on staff in Hollister now. Lucky for us!

Congratulations, Michele!

I wanted to say a special thanks to everyone who hustled to make the sunset load last night so I could do jump #100, which will be my last jump for a while. We did a speed star (I was base ): skydivexxl, Phlip, crapflinger2000, adamT, Pablito, redtwiga, Cliff, Mike A. on video, and Karl (fishbone), who gets double thanks for packing 5x as fast as I could so I could make my last two jumps. Also thanks to flymysky, who stayed to rip lots of video for me afterwards, SkyOCiel, who was on the load in spirit, Tim & Mo, who were very accommodating and encouraging, Girlfalldown, with whom I finally got to jump this past weekend, and TheAnvil, for a valiant effort to make it out from Florida (I mean Texas...). I miss you guys already! Blue skies... I'll see you again before we know it...

I'm finished working. One last weekend of jumping, Then gone for two years. I'm wrapping things up, But it doesn't feel real yet. Where did the time go?

I don't know what the sport was like before the coach rating existed, but I've found the rating helpful. The coach rating let me know who was qualified to help while I was working on my A. It also gave me an alternative way to ask more experienced people to jump with me. Did experienced people with ratings sometimes jump with me for free? Of course they did -- pretty often, in fact. Did they sometimes find me and ask me to jump with them? Sure. If I wanted to jump with a more experienced person and practice certain skills, was I willing to pay for it? Happily. I'm not a bottomless pit of money, but I also know that it's not fair to ask experienced people with ratings to fun jump with newbies all day. If I wanted to jump four times, and I didn't want two or three of those to be solos, I could pay for one or two coach jumps. Or I might just pick up someone's slot. But I didn't feel like I had to wait for the experienced people to ask me to jump with them once or twice a day. I found it helpful to have an alternative. Just my 2 cents, from a recent student's perspective. I only had one person tell me that he didn't want to fun jump with me because he'd be taking business away from the other coaches. I thought that was pretty weird, and I still do. If you're not charging me, you're not stealing anyone's business. I don't know how things work at your DZ, of course, but if you're qualified and want to fun jump with the newbies, it seems strange that anyone would would get upset. Edited to add: I agree that 100 jumps seems kind of low for a coach rating. I know I'm nowhere near ready to teach anyone. My coaches all had >300 jumps, most of them >500.

Lisa -- I'd ground myself until I had medical insurance and could get the problem fixed. We're talking about your spine. I'm not medical expert, but I'd be worried that damage to your spine could affect you for the rest of your life. I'm sorry to hear this is happening. It sucks. But your health is so key to a fulfilling life. I only have 51 jumps and less than a year in the sport, so I may not understand how badly you're jonesing, but nothing is worth more than your health. Personally, I'd go into debt to get and keep health insurance. What if you had an accident on a jump? OK, enough of the newbie shooting her mouth off. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Vibes, Jennifer

He does have a nice avatar. Shall we give him a swoon? Edited to add a swoon for Pop: Swoooooooooooooooooooooooooon

Mike, don't be jealous just because we're not swooning for your avatar. Anyway, Keith claimed him first.

How about this one? Swoooooooooooooooooooooooooon

Does anyone recognize this celebrity? I know it's not James Van Der Beek.

Have you thought about the theme songs from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Brady Bunch"? Those should help get you through the day.