CanuckInUSA

The CPC is awesome. But you really need to be running gates many many many times in practice before you attempt to run them in the higher stress realms of competition. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Ever have those "yo-yo" emotions where one day you think you can do it and then the next day, you think WTF I should leave this for the experts only to be followed by ... I can do it. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Not that I'm supporting Clinton, but couldn't the same be said about Bush? Why the hypocricy? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

He was too young for World War I and too old for World War II. But he did help build parts of the Trans-Canada highway through northern Ontario which meant blasting through tons and tons of granite (if I'm not mistaken). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

My 100 year old grandfather passed away today. My mother’s father, my last remaining grandparent who celebrated his 100th birthday on December 8th, 2006 passed away today in the hospital. I’m not sure if my current emotions are correct or not, as I am anything but distraught right now. Maybe this is because I view life different now (skydiving has been a blessing and a curse in my life), but Lloyd Erb (my late grandfather) lived a good life, was a good man and he will be missed. But he was 100 years old and we all know that none of us is getting out of here alive. So instead of condolences, please join me in celebrating his 100 years of life. BSBD Gramps … I’ll see you when I get there. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It's a great song. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I've been buying so many new tools and supplies for my current (yes ambitious) home renovation project that the employees at some of my local hardware stores (a couple of Home Depots and a couple of Ronas) are starting to give me weird looks ... like weren't you just in here a couple of hours ago and/or not you again. But my tools collection is getting close to being complete. Oh I take that back. I don't think I'll ever have a complete collection of tools. My tool collection is slowly becoming more thorough. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Am I to understand that you want me to smuggle a bunch of toilets into the USA. LOL ... yah I could see myself going to the tank if Customs was to catch me. Besides one of the three toilets in my place is a 1.6 gallon verson (6 liter for those who follow metric) and it's works better than it's two larger cousins who will be replaced with smaller ones when I get around to reno'ing the bathrooms they're in. So are you peeps doing something different to your 1.6 gallon shitters versus than what we're doing? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Congrats on your new digs Miami. Don't do what I did when I first bought my home in '93 (spend the first few years in ignorance of not knowing how to properly maintain and modify the dwelling) and educate yourself as much as you can (maybe you already know this stuff, maybe you don't) on not only home maintenance but also certain home renovations. Learn what you can about how your home has been wired, how your home is heated and/or cooled, learn what you can about how your home is insulated, where the mechanicals are, how they work, what condition they are in, etc, etc, etc. Learn the basics of how to troubleshoot your furnace, water heater, map out your electrical panel and what switches and receptacles each circuit controls and don't overload a given circuit if it's already carrying a heavy load. In other words learn how to become a plumber, a carpenter and an electrician. Plus don't be afraid to punch a hole in the wall to investigate what's hiding behind it (ie: potential water damage in a room, improper heating/cooling and sound insulation). Walls are easy to rebuild though a good drywall mud job isn't always an easy task. Do your homework and make sure you know what to do before you start a maintenance/reno job and/or hire a contractor to do the job. It will be much easier to spot a shoddy contractor if you've educated yourself on what needs to be done on a certain job even if you've decided not to do the work yourself. But remember that if there is something wrong with your dwelling (such as mold in a bathroom as an example), it's not going to fix itself by ignoring it. Homeownership is very rewarding. But it is a lot of work. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I highly recommend that the originator of this thread slow down, not worry about swooping for at least a few hundred more jumps and just get the feel for canopy flight. There is no harm in playing with some swooping techniques up high, but he really should not be bringing it down low to the ground anytime soon. For shits and giggles, if he wants to read Brian Germain's book then go ahead and pick up a copy. It is a good read. But you don't learn to swoop from a book nor do you learn to swoop from asking people on the internet about it. You learn to swoop by spending time under canopy, staying current, flying a wing appropriate to your skill and experience level all preferably under the watch ... call it coaching if you want ... of an experienced, knowledgeable canopy pilot who has a knack for being able to teach canopy control to others. Swooping rocks. But it is very unforgiving of the errors that we make up there. One of my friends is dead thanks to a swoop gone wrong. RIP Josh ... I'll see you when I get there. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Best investment I've ever made. The house has easily double since I purchased it and I'm hoping to have trippled my investment once I'm done. I miss skydiving, but there is more to life than jumping right. I didn't just say that did I? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Thanks for your input and I agree with much of what you've said (plus much of what you've said is already very much public knowledge for anyone who paid attention to the HGTV type home reno shows). My house is not a million dollar house, so I won't be outfitting it with million dollar type features trying to fool people into thinking it's a million dollar home. But I do want to upgrade the kitchen and bathrooms to (possibly) get into into that 1/2 million dollar range and I'm all about upgrading my windows and exterior doors for pure efficiency sake as one only needs to be seated next to one of my leaky windows on a cold Canadian night to see how inefficient they are. As far as some of the other ammenities (new doors, electrical switches and light fixtures) those are all just relatively inexpensive upgrades to match the new bathrooms and kitchen. The electrical switches have already been swapped out and the existing light fixtures are rather dated. The interior doors aren't cheap. They are supposed to be these pseudo sound proof or at least they are not hollow doors and are supposed to have some sound proofing qualities. I'm supposed to be taking delivery of the new doors this weekend (I already have all of my new closet doors piled up on my living room floor ready to be painted once I finalize my color schemes). My garage door is showing some warpage, but it's still very much functional and I may or may not replace it. It's low priority right now just as the deck is low priority. But I do need to figure out (pretty soon) if I want to keep the flooring in my bathrooms and laundry room or if I want to tile them or do something else to them. But believe it or not I am looking at these reno projects as ways of having some fun, occupying my free time and empowering my homebuilding knowledge and experience.

Hey Turtle it's really not all that cold here. Yes every once in a while a blast of real arctic cold air does hit us. But you'd be surprised at home much building is going on this this province even now during the winter months (especially here in Calgary as well as up in Fort McMurrary where the oil is). Being in Alberta is less than ideal for us skydivers. But from an economic point of view, it is the fastest growing economy in North America and there is no shortage of work. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Hey Turtle I forgive you for having such a short attention span (Turtles never were know for being fast), but all this info is in the original post. But let me re-cap. Yes my plans are very ambitious. They started off as (let's just paint the house and sell it and buy something smaller). But I have since changed my mind. I am leaning towards fixing the place up and living in it for years to come (since buying something smaller in my market isn't necessarily going to save me any money). Anyway, I have no specific time frame. I'm am targeting the Spring of 2008. But that's not set in stone and who knows maybe I could do it all before then (not the deck, if the deck happens it will be in the summer of 2008, but the deck is low priority). I am still working on fixing all the renter's abuse in my basement before I start painting it (I'm starting in my basement and working my way up since it was pretty much me with the help of a friend who did that work and I am most familiar with what needs to be done there). Plus while I wait for windows and bathroom cabinets to be built, I hope to have educated myself more on plumbing (including doing some proof of concept tasks on some test pipes before I move on the the real thing). The first bathroom I tackle is a small 1/2 bath and in between all of this, my brother is also building a custom home through a general contractor buddy of his (it's just finishing the drywall mudding stage) and I hope to be able to sit in on some of the work they do for their bathroom tiling as well as kitchen installation phases to learn a thing or two from these guys. Plus I am supposed to talk to my brother's general contractor pal about my kitchen plans, but you know how things go when there is more work than there are workers. Us little guys tend to get low priority. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The vast majority of the work I will do is to be done by myself saving myself a lot of money in labor (I'm in a very tight labor market right now living in the fastest growing economy of North America). My bathrooms are not big, so I believe I will learn a lot about my skills levels up front (to know whether or not I can do my kitchen by myself). Plus replacing my interior doors and light fixtures are no brainers. I did learn a lot about home renos 10 years ago when a knowledgeable buddy of mine taught me how to build walls, wire them and dry wall them them the right way. But not being a professional, there are still some risks. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I currently owe $34,000 CDN on a house worth somewhere around $400,000+ and my debt is in the form of a home equity line of credit (I don't even have a traditional mortgage). So I am in a position to make this work as long as I don't rush things and do them right the first time. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

As long as society doesn't crumble, I am living in the fastest growing economy in North America (Alberta) since we are in the process of ramping up our Oil extraction capabilities to help service you guys down south. So Real Estate is a hot-topic around here and homes prices are going up. Plus my house is in the middle of the area I live in ... meaning I am not the big guy on the block nor am I the little guy. I'm in the middle (the best place to be) in a good desireable area. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

When is spending money and increasing debt load the right thing to do and will all the spending I’m now doing and going to be doing within the next year or so hurt the amount of jumping I’m going to be able to do? I’m back living in my 25 year old house (I’ve owned since ’93) after a 9 years absence (and dealing with 9 years of renter’s abuse) and I am in the early stages of some fairly ambitious home renovations. I plan on: - overhauling all three bathrooms. - overhauling the kitchen (haven’t decided on a budget yet, but it won’t be cheap). - replacing most if not all of my windows and exterior doors. - replacing all interior doors and interior closet doors. - replacing all electrical switches and light fixtures. - replacing all door + window casings and baseboards. - replacing all carpets in the house. - replacing the non-carpeted flooring with either tiles and/or new linoleum. - might possibly go with hardwood flooring in some parts of the house (not sure). - patching some holes in the walls. - painting the entire house. - fixing the oak woodwork in the house which the renters abused and defaced. - either painting or replacing the garage door. - possibly extending/enhancing the deck in the backyard. - many, many, many other miscellaneous tasks. So far I’ve spent about $6000 on about 20% of the paint needed, on all my interior doors and closet doors, on about 50% of my new light fixtures and about 75% of my new bathroom fixtures, on some new tools and many other miscellaneous products to get the job done. I am looking at some bids for my bathroom cabinets and counter tops (likely about $8000-$10000 for all three bathrooms) and another $12000 to replace five windows, two external doors and my patio door (I will still be left with another 40% of the windows which may need to be replaced in the future but they are in decent enough shape for now unlike the ones which need immediate replacing). I still haven’t decided on exactly what will happen to the kitchen, but I am leaning towards knocking out a wall, expanding it and doing a total re-gut. Most of the work on the house will be done by myself (saving a lot of money in labor, but of course that will come at a cost of my time and I risk not being to do the job(s) as well as a seasoned professional might do (but at least I won’t fall victim to the handy-man I will fix it for cheap scam). But all external work on the house (windows and doors) will be contracted out since I have no experience in that realm and being in the frozen tundra it’s kind of important for that stuff to be done right (and I am only talking to reputable, not cheap experts). Depending on how my self-done bathroom renovations go, I may decide to tackle the kitchen all by myself or I may decide to hire a reputable contractor to help. I do want to make sure that the kitchen turns out nice. So when push comes to shove I can easily see myself spending $30,000 - $50,000 in materials (and some labor on the windows and external doors). I have no set time limit, but I’m thinking I’m looking at getting it all done before the Spring of 2008 (maybe sooner depending on how much additional debt I’m willing to absorb). I definitely don’t plan on give up jumping. People will still see me out at the DZs once the snow melts. But I do believe that spending the money to upgrade my house is a good thing to do. It gives me something to do (besides wasting time posting on the internet) and I think it will empower me with the skills and knowledge to tackle any sort of plumbing, electrical and carpentry need around the house. Oh and I did (with the help of a knowledgeable friend) develop my basement about 10 years ago, so I have some experience tackling certain aspects of home renovations. I just need to bring myself up to speed on some plumbing and tiling skills (and of course paying attention to interior designing trends couldn’t hurt). Of course I could ignore all this, sell the house as is, cut-away, live on a DZ in some beat up trailer, jump my ass off and become poor like the rest of my full-time skydiving brothers and sisters. But not being a yank, I can’t make a living being a full-time skydiving bum up here in Can’a’dia. So I am leaning towards do the responsible thing-a-ma-bob. This will hurt my swooping. Oh well, I never was going to be one of the best anyway and I am happy with where my current swooping skills are. So when is spending money a good thing? We know we can’t take it with us? You know our money ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

As much as I'd like to be jumping (more specifically I'd like to be swooping), since I now live in the frozen north, I will be doing home renovation projects this weekend. I'm in the early stages of a total redo on the house after 9 years of renters abuse (yes I do plan on gutting my kitchen as well as 3 bathrooms ... but that's a few weeks/months down the road) and the house is 25 years old and in need of some TLC. But this weekend, my tasks are to finish some electrical work, fix a toilet, finish patching up the vapor barrier on the basement foundation, do some sanding on some patched holes in the wall, some sanding on some baseboards in the basement and possibly start laying down some primer paint on the basement ceiling. So no football (or at least only minimal football) for this camper this weekend. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Way to go Maa-haa (aka Marat). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Does that mean that Tyler is moving to CO or have Jess and Chuck moved back to the SE? Either way, those are three cool cats.

Unless we've walked a mile in their shoes, we shouldn't be judging these people. Their daughter is severely disabled, she can't not think for herself let alone care for herself and likely won't live more than another 10 years or so (don't quote me on that figure). I actually think these parents are doing the right thing for themselves and ultimately their daughter. They could easily throw her into an institution and be done with her. But no they want to be with her and care for her and love her while she's still with them. Like I said, we shouldn't be judging these people unless we've walked a mile in their shoes. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

You've been watching C-SPAN lately, have you?? Dude I grew up in Quebec. I don't need to watch C-SPAN to know what's going on there. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Okay even though I said I was going to work (I’m there now) and I know my employer (who’s most likely reading this message since it’s no secret that the technology to intercept TCP/IP packets exists and has been around for years now) would much rather myself working as opposed to posting on a political forum. But I do want to follow up on a few things I said last night. Can Alberta currently service the entire world’s oil demands? No not in our current capacity. Skinny is not wrong in saying that extracting the oil from the tar sands comes at a cost both financially as well as environmentally. We are in the process of trying to ramp up our production by building new infrastructure. There is a reason why there is a labor shortage here in Oilberta and that is because there is more work to be done than there are people and our infrastructure (things like affordable housing, schools, hospitals etc, etc, etc) is not reacting fast enough to meet the demand of the fastest growing economy of North America. Anyway once the new infrastructure is in place (assuming a Quebec politician isn’t given the mandate to cut off the economic head that feeds it’s socialistic mouth), will Alberta be able to service the entire world’s daily demands? No … I was still wrong in saying that Alberta will be able to supply the entire world with it’s daily demands of oil. But we here in Alberta definitely will be able to provide a lot of oil to our neighbor to the south (well once again assuming a Quebec politician isn’t given the mandate to cut off the economic head that feeds his socialistic mouth). But it won’t be cheap. I thought I addressed that point in my first post. But it doesn't have to be $100/barrel. If I'm not mistaken anything over $40/barrel and the tar sands are a viable option for oil from a friendly neighbor. Plus I thought I also mentioned that we humans need to start using alternative energy resources. I don't dispute that we humans have done damage to this planet. But Kyoto is not the answer. Since when was buying credits off of another nation going to clean up the environment. Kyoto is a dog ... and so is Belinda Stronach. Welcome to the West skinny (well once you get back from that cesspool where you’re getting your medical treatment). Hopefully you will find the same economic and social opportunities I found after I left Quebec all those years ago. You obviously are allowed to vote for anyone you wish. But just remember that a vote for Stephan “Yeehah” Dion is a vote which will cripple the Western economic head that feeds the Eastern socialistic addiction. Not only is freedom not free, but neither is universal heathcare. It would be nice to find a medium between Canada’s overly generous, overly inefficient and overly broken universal healthcare system and the free for all ultra expensive system of the USA. But the socialists of Canada just can't fathom the idea that their system of governing is very much broken on this issue. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Facts ... who's facts yours? Who's got oil in this world? Many nations do (some stable some not so stable). The world is not on the cusp of running out of oil like you're claiming. Stop spreading your scary "the sky is falling" lies. If you want to slame GWB for making the Middle East unstable and making OPEC react. Then sure I'll be on your side. But if you're trying to spread fear that the boogie-man has told you. Then we've got issues. Why the #### do you think I left that cesspool 16 years ago (besides the pure-lain discrimination). I left because the people leading that province are arrogant, corrupt and incompetent socialists who don't know what an honest days work means. Speaking of work, I need to go do some. Have fun with this one people and don't believe all the scary stories that skinny keeps telling you. If you don't like the price of crude, look to OPEC and GWB for the reason why. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over