ntrprnr

D'oh. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Heh. :) Good thought. AmEx makes you pay at the end of the month in full, (except for their optima card,) so they make their money in merchant fees, and a yearly fee to the customer. Still, though... Will be fun to give it to a cashier and see what they say. It's actually heavy. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

This makes me somewhat happy today. Lenny the Misfit Caterina dumps baby Lenny on her boyfriend, then moves to town and gets married to someone else. Neither Lenny's father nor his mother is willing to give Lenny their family name, so he is known only by the name of the mountain under whose shadow he was born: Lenny Albano. An unwanted child, Lenny grows up strangely in this remote, rural neighborhood without access to comic books or video games. Estranged parents. Odd relationships. A badly broken situation. But his imagination is intact. Is your imagination intact? Long walks in the hills surrounding Mount Albano cause Lenny to fall in love with animals. He loves them so much that he buys caged creatures just so he can set them free. How Lenny makes his money is unimportant. But how he spends it reveals his soul. How do you spend your money? People laugh when Lenny becomes a vegetarian. He doesn't care. People have laughed at him since the day he was born. Lenny hides from them by taking journeys in his mind. He goes exploring, deep inside his own head. Lenny is amazed by the things he finds. Lenny scribbles his thoughts in journals and draws little pictures in the margins. Although no publisher is willing to publish these random thoughts, Bill Gates recently paid 30 million dollars for just one of Lenny's journals. Lenny is very smart. But Lenny's deep curiosity causes him to be easily distracted. Although lots of people are willing to buy his paintings, rarely can he stay focused long enough to finish one. Lenny isn't completely alone in his quirky curiosity. When Lenny is 40, a man named Chris sails west to look for the east. Go figure. Long after Lenny dies, the world realizes how far ahead of his time he'd been. Sigmund Freud said Lenny "was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep." But we no longer call him by the name of the mountain under whose shadow he was born. We choose instead to call him by the name of the village he was from. And for some strange reason we insist on calling Lenny of Vinci, "Leonardo." I think Lenny would have laughed had he known. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

My new AmEx arrived - and it's no other reason than a marketing promotion, but it's made of Titanium. It's an actual METAL credit card. Even though it has no more value than my old plastic one yesterday did, it's still quite cool. It's actually metal! Very cool. Never had a metal card before. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

A good question indeed. While I'm not dumping it all and leaving today, I am taking the day off. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Yeah, but you're fucking weird. Normal people don't have that much luck. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Among other things, yes. :) _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Quitting your job (or in my case, terminating all my clients,) packing the car and the cats, and just blowing out of town, with no idea where you're going or when you might (if ever) come back? _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

I posted this somewhere else... My Labradoodle (no jokes, please) managed to open the door to the apartment, get into the elevator, get downstairs, and get into the lobby before being tackled by my doorman and held until I got home. I assume it was the part Labrador that did it. The part Poodle was all like, "Watch my nails, you oaf!" _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Let us not forget that adrenalyn tires us the hell out - fast! I sleep better when I've jumped than any other time at all. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Watched three people land before me at the Ranch 20 minutes ago. They all stood it up. 90 seconds later, I come in, wind had shifted, good 40 foot slide. But no low turn. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

I have been there and I have overcome the need to end my life. Anyone that wants to talk about it can PM me anytime. Life does get much better! Me too. Email, IM, phone call, whatever it takes. Been there, and will ALWAYS be willing to talk about it. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

My first book hit Amazon today. It hits shelves on Dec. 6th, but is available for pre-order. :) Lest I piss off the man, I won't list the URL for Amazon here. PM me if you have any desire to know. But, 33 and a published author - not too shabby. :) _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Just learn to jump at the Ranch, where the wind goes from 0 to 20 to 0 on one ride to altitude. What's "into the wind" on the way up is "no wind" or "downwind" on the way down. You learn to land downwind really fast. Glad your friend will heal, JJ... _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Agreed with everything Dbattman posts - A few more from my experiences: If you do get stopped, ask if they can swab the bag instead of taking everything out. Normally they'll be ok doing that, as they're only looking for explosives. If they still want to take it out, you have the right to be there and watch EVERYTHING they do, and also the right to request it be done by a supervisor. Just be nice. I find that the nicer you are to the TSA drones, the quicker you get through, and the less likely you are to get the anal probe. ntrprnr, victim of about 250k miles a year on the road. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

With a push down handle, your dog can also get out of the apartment, push the elevator button, get in the elevator, get out into the lobby, and walk towards the front door, all on his own, before fortunately being tackled by an alert doorman, who holds him until you come home. Yes. Seriously. Stupid (er... smart, I suppose...) dog. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

I was thinking something similar... I didn't jump, but went to a friend's beachhouse in the Hamptons, thinking that just this once, I wouldn't hate the Hamptons with every fiber of my being. Of course, I did, was miserable, and came back Sunday morning, to bad news, more bad news, and then even more bad news. :-( Just goes to show me - I should never go to the Hamptons. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Done and done. Blue skies. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

If someone else's existance was made a bit better by someone being here, however briefly, then that someone's was a life worthy of being called a life. I never got to meet you, Shannon, but enjoyed reading your posts, and once gave you cat advice. Fly free. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Well done. Congrats! _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Anyone on IM? At my parent's house for a BBQ, and showing my Grandma how VOIP works - but no one's on my IM list who has audio/video on their IM.. Wanna show Grandma how it can work with audio/video, since her sight is failing a bit... So, if you're online and wanna do a good deed: Yahoo IM: geekfactory MSN IM: [email protected] AOL IM: PShankman ICQ: 4512996 Thanks! _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Sittin on my balcony, typing away, and this rumble starts... Next thing I see is the Blue Angels, flying in formation up the Hudson River, RIGHT over my balcony. Was THAT close. HOW COOL! _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

My freshman year roommate in college turned me onto them - Ball and Chain was the first song I ever heard of theirs. Been a fan ever since. :) _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Hey guys... So this coming Sunday the 28th of May marks one year since I got strapped to a Hungarian man named Danish and fell out of a plane for IAF-1 over Gardiner, NY. Sunday marks one year since my life changed, and since all that shit that I used to take so damn seriously, (work freakouts, client crisises, my investors yelling at me, my being 33 and single, etc., etc., etc.,) took a step downward on my "must freak out about" list. A year since I discovered the beauty of the sky. Technically, close to six years since my first tandem, but a year since it started changing me. A year since I discovered this world of people I never before knew existed. A year since I started making some truly amazing friends. A year since I allowed myself to broaden my horizons and open up my world to what I had heard existed, but had never desired to experience. A year since I had to learn how to answer the "why would you do that?" question. A year since I realized that the majority of people criticizing me for doing this really don't, and probably never will, understand why. A year since I learned that as creative as I've always thought I was turned out to be about 1/1,000,000th as creative as I now am, thanks to some well placed and neural passageways, newly created by the endorphines produced by my reaction to this sport. A year since I became a skydiver. Thank you to everyone here who's taken the time to answer my questions, however stupid they might have sounded. Thanks to everyone at the Ranch for the advice that started on day one and has never stopped, yet has never felt unwanted. Thanks for letting me discover things about myself that I didn't know. Thanks for helping me grow. Have a happy, fun, and SAFE holiday weekend. (Or just a happy safe and fun weekend, for our international friends.) And thanks. "I don't know why I come here, but I know I'll never leave, it's the only place I wanna be. Yeah, yeah, yeah." -Uncle Kracker. Peter Otherwise known as NTRPRNR. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

Damn, those pilot chutes launch fast. time I ever did it. Interesting thing. When I pulled my cutaway handle, it didn't strip entirely through the housing. I pulled all the way down to a fully extended arm, then went for my reserve. I'm assuming I would know to go for my reserve after I feel myself go back into freefall, but it kind of surprised me when I finished pulling the reserve handle and there was the cutaway handle, still hanging there. Is it not supposed to strip entirely clear? Edited because I'm a spelling dumbass. _______________ "Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?" "Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."