rgoper

Hook: how was colorado? i bet it's nice to have a change of scenery!

hey guys and gals, i'm a "veteran" now!

you've certainly been given sound advice from your colleagues. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

billvon: congrats on your achievment!

it is indeed a sad day when our societie's moral values have dropped like anvils in the atlantic. it's a shame some people don't want to get a "haircut, and a real job" if we keep this B.S. up, how long before regulation takes over? i've dealt with "nuisance" suits all of my life in my industry, and at one time or another, i've had to offer "counter motions" to the court to ward off persistance on the prosecution. it's a joke. clay i reccomend, that you and i run for pres/vice pres next election, we could rule the world, not to mention head jobs under our desks while on the phone with the minister of isreal! we'll run on the independant ticket, no way we'll lose! Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

to the family and friends of Seth Karp, of team "Jetstream" my deepest regrets, and heartfelt condolences for the immediate family and friends. Blue Skies Forever "Brother" Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

i am really overwhelmed at how far the development of these "hybrid" cars have come. from the belt with squirrels to having to feed them peanuts for power to this. well, folks, as many other issues there is a different spectrum on this topic, and the mentality that goes along with it. how many jobs are we going to craete/distroy, by less fuel consumption? what will be the time line be when all thiss happens? for guys like me, who make ther're living retrieving hydrocarbons for energy's sake, i don't have a particular "fuzzy feeling" about hybrids. there heavy, slow, and if you think about it, the engine RPMS are too high without battery assisstance for any extended engine life. i'm a "new millinium" kind of guy, but if we choose this path, how many of us would get on a commercial jet on a cloudy day? bill, i'm not slamming your car, i'm an engineer by trade, just a petroleum engineer, but i have a lot of common sense, and it tells me, when and if this technology is perfected, your grandchildren may purchase the first models. my views as usaul, are intended to spawn provacative thought, just to keep the ol' "grey matter" active. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

damn engineers! Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

they really do obscure perifiraral vision, and for freeflying it is absolutely imperitive that you have a panaranic view. helmet naufacturers are on this, the designers and engineeres are all over it! i just purchased a bonehead "Havok" not the worst thing that ever happned, i like it.

all this legal "mumbo-jumbo" does is take the whole situation out of context. next thing you know we've got grown up individuals pointing fingers in blame, when in fact the primary concern should be the subject of conversation. no matter how many lawsuits are filed, will money bring him back, will money make the family feel better, the dzo? are is the whole cherade an act of absolution? it's all ludricrous. one day, our growing litigious society is going to put the "stop to all our fun" Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

**We did plan the dive on the ground and were all on the same page...** good man! this is good info to share with others, and it goes to show you, even when you do everything right, something can go wrong. but my take is on this, if it wasn't planned on the ground..........then what? so hats off to the "safe sky divers!" plan your dive, dive your plan!

**You can't get big booty hoes for $500. You can only get regular ones.** ok, i'm busted, so i'm a cheap bastard!?!?

i'll take large big booty hoe working corner on sunset strip for $500.00 please! Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

not to critique the incident, but for my learning information only, did all of you plan the dive, before going up? or was it just sort of adlibbing? the point i'm trying to get to, is this seems like the "first link" in a chain that could have formed sometime/somewhere. just so we can all learn from it. thanks for sharing your story, this is the exact type of feedback we all need to hear about, even if it was our own fault, we can make a difference in someone else's jump, even if it's just one jumper that can be spared, the effort has certainly yielded it's investment. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

**PS: "under the canopies that send jumpers to their deaths"???? man, I'm not the most Nazi's of the canopy Nazis, but i cant agree with a staement like that....** Remster: i'm confident that the following explanation will clear this up for you, as the remark was not intended to be inflamatory. what i meant by the remark, is someone mentioned getting the story after a fatality straight, my remark was intended to show that even the dzo's can have a different inturpretation of events leading to sky diving incidents. the remark was also intended to show that the dzo is not under the canopies that the jumpers are, (and generally the only person who does know what really went wrong is most unfortunately the jumper) thus how much do they know what actually happened? in the untimely event of an incident, who's story is "the real deal?" all of us could break it down into our own perspectives. i think Chris Schindler had an excellent post on this "area" in talkback today, about a jumper under canopy with line twists. billvon also touched on a subject in the las vegas dz subject, while i'm opposed to sky divers, and they're heirs suing a dz, or dzo, i'm also opposed to the dzo(s) suing someone else for monies spent during a litigation, maybe we should have the dzo sign one of our waivers as well, makes for provacative thinking... Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

this has not been a good day. blue skies forever John. my sincere condolences to his family, and friends. Man killed in Pasco skydiving accident Authorities are investigating the death of man who was killed during a skydiving accident Sunday in Zephyrhills. Officers found John F. Anderson, 49, of Brandon, lying in an open field near Skydive City shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday. His parachute had never deployed. The Pasco-Pinellas Medical Examiner's Office has been called in to investigate. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

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**I am crying along with you. Every day, I notice my 10 1/2 year Old English Sheepdog/mix slowly find the right way to lay down! I dread the day we have to let him go.** i know there just pets, but i'm astounded and overwhelmed at the amount of emotion they can draw from the human spirit. my father (ex-gi) always told me animals didn't have souls, i don't believe him. they get happy, and sad, and even get there feelings hurt when you scorn them, and they always love you back unconditionally, which tells me they in fact do have souls. and having said that, if they have souls, and a spirit, i know theres a doggy/kitty/pet heaven, there's just got to be. i can't believe you've been through this before, it really is devastating emotionally. my wife took all of his pictures down, and vacuumed the house, removed his drinking and food bowls. the house is so empty now. to all who have pets, i know you can relate, and i'm sure that your old english sheepdog is a noble animal. i'm blaming myself today, for letting bear go so long, and looking back at it in retrospect, i was being selfish, and for that, i hope he's not mad at me right now, hopefully he's chasing rabbits, or cats, or whatever it is they do in "pet heaven" Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

thanks everybody, this really helps. i never thought losing an animal could hurt so bad. i was getting ready to head to the dz when all of this went down this morning, i didn't even mind missing diving today. (i couldn't have anyway) over the years we have sold so many of our "aussie babys" to people from as far away as oklahoma, arizona, the word gets out. i've heard of stories like mine from customers, some of them even wait 2 or 3 years before they buy another pup, because they don't want to get attached to another dog like that again. but then, oh, to see the smiles on ther're faces when they come and pick up ther're new aussie baby!

.......family today. as most of you who know me, i live in a "one horse town" between austin, and houston, called "giddings" we refer to it (and have since high school) "where the men are men, and the sheep are nervous" i've been raising austrailian shephards since 1980, "Wieder's First Class Aussies" i've sold over 2400 pups through the years. i'm an ASCA certified breeder. back in 1989, my wife (edith) and i decided to buy one for the house, for an "inside" dog, someone to watch the house while we're gone, since there excellent watchdogs, and very terrotorial as well. for about the last year "wieder's first class Chauncey Bear" has been having trouble getting around, it's traditional that this particular breed develop displasmia, whether male or female. he had trouble getting up and down the stairs, etc...he was 14 years old, thats 98 in dog years. but we loved this dog with all of our hearts, and souls. last evening he did not "come to bed" in the corner in our master bedroom, i went to see after him, he was in my office, and couldn't get up, (he was crying, we had been giving him about 6 advils per 24 hours for pain) his hips had all they could take. these dogs are medium sized animals, about 45-50 pounds when full grown. so i literally picked him up, and carried him to his "bear bed" in our room. this morning at 07:00 we got up, and he was still in a lot of pain, and we knew the end was near for about the last year and a half or so, so you'd think this would be easy, but it isn't. i made the decision to put the love of our life to sleep, to spare him of any more humiliation, pain or suffering, but today is a holiday, i forgot about that one. i went into the pasture to dig his grave, the ground was VERY hard, pick and shovel, ALL the way. my wife comes to the field where i was and helped me, we finished (one of the hardest things i've EVER done, by the way) went back to the house and the vet, an A&M compadre came out and put bear to sleep, i had no idea how much it would hurt, none. bear went peacefully with his dignity and spirit intact. he's NEVER let another human being touch him, except family members without being muzzled, this morning when i took him out side for the last time, he walked out on his own, barely, but he did it, he sniffed the vet's leg, pissed on the front driver's tire, and we put him on the tailgate of my 1977 3/4 ton farm truck, and "let him go home" then we took him to his grave, and covered him, both of us devasted emotionally, we buried "Wieder's First Class Chauncey Bear" in a grave full of our tears. my only hope is he's chasing bunnys in heaven right now, and that he's not mad at me for letting him go. i know in the past i've made some pretty rude comments about animals, (for which i'm extremely apologetic for) but that's just the "macho" side of Richard, not wanting to "get close" to anything, so it won't hurt when he loses it. i took some jpegs of "Bear" just before the vet arrived, i'll post one, grieving still..................."Bear Dog" RIP...... 11/11/1989-05/27/2002 Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

as do i, yours. we have to set the "bar" for our future father's and mothers of america. i believe as well, there are a few mothers out there misstreated as well, while a minute percentage compared to males, but they deserve justice as well, as do we, good, or bad. more to come on this issue, believe me. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

**If only it was that easy! Some DZs might argue that a death at a DZ is well known enough for a annonymous report to be connected to them, and if there are inacuracy (or if the DZ doenst like the report) it could be easy for them to get the lawers out.** are you referring to the same dz's that take our jump money, and require us to sign about 3 dozen forms of indemnification? mentioning the dz's location, and DBA is nothing that "joe blow" can't find out. as far as how it happened, how many dzo's are under the canopies that send jumpers to there deaths? disclosure of this type of information shouldn't be harmful. what about disclosing whether the use of an RSL, AAD, canopy manufacturer, container brand? if it's ok to disclose this much, the other shouldn't represent a concern. the way this data can help us, would be to put an end to meaningless rhetoric, and inuendos after such an incident. 99.9% of the details and stats are public information anyway. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

**Why didn't I do this years ago?** live and learn!

it's a vivitar, DSC-350 with a preview and 193 mb storage, i need to get some more fms for it, but i'm on the "learning curve" with it. it has a "red eye" feature on it, i think that's what does the trick there. i actually had a way better picture of the same one posted, but by the time i picked out my "frame" for it, it was too big to post, so i had to post the pre-edit version. i told my wife that this now means i MUST have a sony for flying with. (she actually bought me this little one to try and appease me) NAINGHT! but it was a surprise. i'll be coming up with more jpegs to post. take care, be safe! Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

my wife bought me a new digital camera today!