skybytch

Seventeen years ago today. I was 24.

For me, yeah probably. For everyone else? I dunno.

He just put HMA lines on his Velocity. He's been so fucking shiny and happy since then I'm ready to kill him.

It is! Really! I swear! Okay, so that's not stopping me. What's stopping me is the pile of homework due on Monday that I'm currently ignoring (soy estudiante perezosa ) and the fact that I have to go pick up my shiny happy boyfriend from the dz in a few hours.

Hanging out at the dz really isn't bad when you're broke. Many skydivers will offer a jump ticket so you can jump with them. It's even okay if they don't offer cuz you know that next week or the week after you'll probably be able to afford to do one or two skydives. Hanging out at the dz when you can't jump because your body isn't cooperating makes for an angry, bitter skydiver. Being around all those shiny happy people seems to reinforce the fact that no matter how much money or how many jump tickets you have in your pocket, you can't get on a load. Period. And it's even worse when you can't spend the day drinking to numb the pain cuz the directions on the prescription bottles say do not take with alcohol. Yeah. All those shiny happy people at the dz can kiss my angry bitter grounded ass.

I think Larry wants you.

Some people would say that skydivers who have children are irresponsible. After all, they chose to bring a life into the world, how dare they engage in activities that could cause their child to go through life without a parent?

The kid traded that for a dirt bike before I went to FL. The Yamaha 600 I was riding last year got sold a few months ago; it hurt my neck too much to ride it.

A classic pair of 1965 Feet. They still work great.

LMAO!! Same issue here. I read faster than he does so I think I should go first.

I used to feel the same way. Wasn't gonna buy into the hype. They couldn't possibly be worth reading if the whole world was so into them. And then someone tricked me into listening to the first one on a road trip a couple years ago... You have no idea what you're missing. They really are that good.

It comes out on the 21st. I'm sure I'll be done with my first reading by the 23rd at the latest, and then we'll have to listen to the audiobook on the drive up there. So if you're gonna wait til after LP to read it and you don't want any spoilers... you probably won't want to talk to me during the boogie.

I killed Santa Claus because I love marijuana. He had some good shit, man.

Hire a good tax lawyer, a CPA and somebody who's good at investing, set up trust funds for each of my family members and a few close friends and then continue to have fun going to school.

You can, if you know the right people. Shipping is expensive though; those cases are heavy. Lucky for me, I know at least one of the right people.

Nah. Don't bother with all those fad diets. Just get a nice methamphetamine addiction going and you'll all be skinny in no time.

You forgot to mention the on-call strippers and "happy ending" massage "techs".

I'm carless at the moment (and my neck hurts when I try to ride my bike) so I've recently discovered the joys of walking. Besides being good exercise, walking is free, it can be fun and I think it provides some mental benefits too. I'm amazed at how much sharper I feel in class now that I'm walking to school instead of driving. You may think you can't fit walking into your schedule, but you probably can. Get up 15 minutes earlier and do a lap around the block before breakfast. Take 15 minutes out of your lunch hour and go for a short walk, or walk to and from wherever you're going to eat instead of driving. When you get home, leave your stuff in the car and do a lap around the block before you go inside. Grab the s/o, kid(s) and/or dog(s) and go for a walk after dinner. Search your local area for hiking trails; put lunch and some water in a backpack and go do a weekend morning or afternoon hike. On the theory that every little bit of exercise helps - if where you need to go (work, store, school) is close to home, walk to and from instead of driving. If where you have to go is far enough away that you have to drive, park the car waaaaaay out there instead of grabbing the closest space you can find.

Go Fast. There is no other energy drink.

Don't do it that way!!! Pain is bad!!! Start by replacing one cup of coffee with a glass of water. After a couple of days, replace another cup of coffee with a glass of water. Etc... I never made it to completely caffeine free, but I did reduce my intake from 4-8 cups of coffee and 6-12 diet Cokes per day to 2 or 3 cups of coffee per day with no headaches.

To bring this back on topic, was that at Perris? I know they used to offer WC to instructors if the instructor wanted to pay into it; do you know if they still do?

I disagree. For many people health insurance costs more than what they would spend on skydiving in any given month and in most months they get absolutely nothing out of the money they pay the insurance company. I've watched skydiving get more and more expensive over the past 17 years. One of the things that bothers me most about today compared to when I started is the "yuppification" of the sport - it's gotten so expensive that only people who make over a certain amount of money can afford to do it. Telling people that if they don't spend $2000+ per year on medical insurance they shouldn't skydive seems to me to be yet another thing that will put jumping out of reach of an awful lot of people. I'm with you on that and I haven't had medical insurance since 2003. I think that people who jump without medical insurance (or the financial resources to pay for any needed medical care up front themselves) should actively work to limit their risk factors (ie don't swoop, don't do big ways, jump big canopies, not jump when they are at less than 100% mental/physical capacity, not jump when conditions are less than perfect, be anal about gear maintainence, don't do tandems, etc). They should also be prepared to spend the rest of their lives, if necessary, paying off any medical bills they run up because of their choice to skydive without medical insurance. Just like skydiving in general, jumping without insurance can be a calculated risk. Yes, someone who actively works to control their risk factors can still get hurt; shit happens. But they are, imho, less likely to get hurt than those who take more risks are and therefore have less need to spend ridiculous amounts of money every month for something they are less likely to use.

Try supporting yourself and a child on $20k/year and then tell us that everyone can afford health insurance. Try getting health insurance that's not a job benefit (ie not through a group plan) when you have a pre-existing condition and then tell us that everyone can afford health insurance on $20k/year. Try making $20k/year cover housing, food, utilities and transportation expenses in an area with a high cost of living (ie California) and then tell us that everyone can afford health insurance on $20k/year. Not everyone can afford health insurance.

No one is saying that you aren't entitled to make good money for what you do. But it was your choice to do it. Some people don't have those choices - not everybody has the brains to go to med school, not everybody can afford to get even a bachelor's degree. Just like a skydiving instructor should know that paying for an injury is up to them, you should have known that you may have to treat people who are uninsured when you chose your career. You can still choose to not treat uninsured patients by going into private practice. I sure hope that you don't display this same attitude at the bedside of any uninsured patients you are forced to treat...

This proves that you is one old monkey. Here's to 26 more!