skydiver30960

The variety of answers in this thread highlight one of the nice things about our medical system: you can make your own decisions. I like kbordson's point about making an INFORMED decision. But, beyond that, whatever you decide is OK because it's what you decide for yourself. Make sure your families know your wishes. If there is ANY question or concern about your desires being misinterpreted, write a living will and get it into the hands of several family members. It was always horrible to watch a patient languish in the ICU when the decision-maker wasn't ready or able to make the decision to withdraw care while the rest of the family sat around muttering "he wouldn't want this..." Elvisio "hard part of the job" Rodriguez

Hell, just implement this one part of your long and involved master plan and the overwhelming majority of all complaining will stop! Elvisio "keep it simple, I say" Rodriguez

I, as I am nearly always cursed, can see both sides of this argument. I totally dig that high heels are uncomfortable and unhealthy and very hard to run away from zombies in. But I will also say that all my wife needs to do is slip into her patented LBD (little black dress) with REAL stockings (and the promise of the garter belt hidden somewhere just out of sight) and THAT pair of high heels and it is OVER. I mean OVER. I mean "Elvisio-reduced-to-a-puddle-of-hormones-that-will-do-whatever-she-asks" OVER. And while she's still smokin' hot even without the heels, they definitely put the outfit over the top. So ladies: please don't feel you need to wear heels every hour of every day. But also, please don't send them the way of the dodo. ...because MY dodo likes them very very much. Elvisio "hopefully the zombie thing never becomes an issue" Rodriguez

It figures that right after the wife and I leave the east coast, something interesting finally happens. Apparently, we are so badly missed back there that the East Coast is tearing itself apart with loneliness! Elvisio "it's all about me" Rodriguez

Congrats to the organizers for what sounds like a resoundingly successful boogie and raffle, and congrats to all the winners. Elvisio "at least when I lose the gamble here, I don't risk getting kneecapped" Rodriguez

I dig that it's an easy way to open a link but I still think if you have the intellegence to post a thread or reply on DZ.com, then you have the minimum amount of sense to find and press the "url" button somewhere along the way. Elvisio "c'mon people, it's about standards!" Rodriguez

I've owned two stickshift vehicles: a 97 Jeep Wrangler and a 99 Jeep Wrangler. The number of people who have driven both vehicles, other than me, I can count on one hand. I just can't handle sitting shotgun while somebody grinds the gears and clutch to dust. Part of me smiles because I bought the 99 when it was 11 years old with 140,000 miles on it: the clutch's maiden virtue was LONG gone by the time I got my hands on it. But it just doesn't matter: it's MY clutch, my transmission, and I can't stand somebody else hurting it. Never mind a "potential hookup:" I'm trying to get my WIFE used to driving the thing and it's a jaw-clenching, white-knuckle, tongue-biting exercise in restraint. ... especially when she misses the 2nd-to-3rd shift and instead finds 5th. Elvisio "it's the OTHER stick I like her hands on" Rodriguez

Oh yeah, I forgot: I'm at work today. It's the REST of the world that gets to party today. I won't complain too loudly though: two 24 hour shifts every 8 days = one AWESOME work schedule! Elvisio "party safe though kids, DON'T MAKE ME STOP THIS HELICOPTER!" Rodriguez

Hmmm.... first off, that sounds like it was a cool evening! Second, I'll answer your question with a question: Did they cut or pause the movie to adjust it's timing for they symphony? OR, did the Symphony need to shuffle along through the music exactly as the movie was edited? Therin lies your answer, I believe. Elvisio "Damn those Ents in the front row blocking my view!" Rodriguez

I have to grin because I thought the same thing, albeit with a less aggressive mental tone. I remember my S/L progression and how scared I was every time I started jumping from a HIGHER altitude. I knew it made no sense, but I would always gulp and think "wow, we're waaaaay up here!" Now, I watch the AFF candidates shiver and shake at the door as they contemplate exiting at 3,500 (or even on the 5,500 jump). At my first DZ we would hop and pop from 2,000 all day long. On cloudy days, that might be all you got. I must say, it was definitely an old-school DZ: in the late 90s I would say it was a 50/50 split of F111 and Zero P canopies. Only a few people flew canopies that "opened slow" like Stilettos or Batwings (). So with our fast-opening F111 canopies we could hop/pop from 2000 and reasonably expect an open canopy just a couple hundred feet later. Nowadays, jumping my current canopy (Pilot 168) I don't think I'd PLAN the same thing, but if I had to I wouldn't sweat much doing it. Anything much below that, I'm going for silver. Even though I'm not a rigger anymore, the only people who pack my reserve are people I honestly trust more than me to pack my reserve. Lowest exit: let's just say it was one of those hop/pops from a piston aircraft where I hollered "Cut!" and the salty-and-savvy pilot literally INCREASED throttle to give us more relative wind to get the nylon in the breeze! Elvisio "DZ limbo contests never end well" Rodriguez P.S. Ain't we just digging up all the old threads today? EDIT: leaving "n't" off a word really changes the meaning of the sentence...

I bet if you waited until later in the year (when average temps on the ground were lower) the chance of the chocolate melting enroute would be lower. Elvisio "I know sitting on the tarmac makes me feel like I'm melting away" Rodriguez

I can see it now, on the battlefield: Commanding officer: Soldier! Go take that hill! Soldier: No. That's not in my job description. Commanding officer: You are a soldier in this man's army! Now take that hill! Soldier: I'm taking this up with the union rep. Commanding officer: I am ordering you to take that hill! Soldier: The union and I have set an arbitration hearing regarding this matter. Commanding officer: Hearing? For when? Soldier: Four weeks from Thursday. Elvisio "Name, rank, and Local number" Rodriguez

It's only a stone's throw from Eloy! Imagine being a tandem instructor, going to student manifest to pick up your next student, and you're greeted by THIS gem of a lady! Elvisio "hauled a couple that were close to that big in my time" Rodriguez

Seriously there is something in the water here. It seems you either get preggers when you move here, or you get the fever Sigh. It's just a sign of the times. More and more, everything in the States is "Made in Korea." Elvisio "where do they put the little tag on the baby?" Rodriguez

I agree with most of the posts here. I agree that in the door I feel no (unreasonable) fear. But on the roof when I'm cleaning out the gutters or something similar, I'm acutely aware of the dangers I face. When I have the right safety gear on (rig in the aircraft or safety harness in a workplace setting) I'm cool. I wonder how I'd feel next to that door at 13,500, WITHOUT a rig on. Elvisio "sucked up the couch cushion just sitting here thinking about it" Rodriguez

I really loved the position forward of the strut. It was fun to climb out there, then dive below the strut...good times! off topic but: In the old (piston) Beaver that they used to have at GCSPC Bardstown, that used to be the best spot as well. The first person out would climb over the strut and stand on the footpegs the right seat pilot would have used to get into the cockpit. The next person out would crouch "in the V" and the rest of the launch would climb out. ...until one day the guy "in front of the strut" had an early pilot chute depolyment. MIRACULOUSLY, in one of those events that postitively CONVINCES me that God is a skydiver, the guy climbing out after him catches the pilot chute, and hands it back through the V to the guy in front of the strut! He bailed off, had a normal deployment, and all was well. Needless to say, after that, nobody was allowed to climb through the strut anymore. Elvisio "way before my time" Rodriguez

Any other strange changes in food preferences? Yeah, but like, no strange cravings for pickle milkshakes or eating chalk or anything weird like that, no? If so, well, you might want to get that checked out! And this whole thread reminds me of what would happen if the producers of "Cops" aired a show on the Food Network: NEXT: When good chocolate goes bad! Bad sweets, bad sweets, whatcha gonna do... Elvisio "...Kit Kat give you no break..." Rodriguez

Just wait until you get stuck behind someone paying for food with food stamps and then paying cash for their cigarettes, beer, and lottery tickets. But of course this WAS in Kentucky, and one thing you'll learn when you live in Kentucky is it's pretty much a capital offense to disparage the tobacco industry inside the state lines. Elvisio "couldn't see straight" Rodriguez

The Purple Nurples. Elvisio "flashback to grade school" Rodriguez

For a long but easy and fun read: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The plot is good but nothing out of the ordinary, other than the fact that it (mostly) takes place in Mumbai, India. What makes me read this book again and again and again is how incredibly he describes the Indian culture and people. I've never before read a book that makes me want to ditch everything, buy a backpack and go spend a year slumming in India. Simply awesome. And it's a thick book so it'd probably last you the whole week. Another good read, but probably too short to be of value on a trip: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. It's an commentary on the Vietnam War written in 1975 (IIRC), presented as first-rate, make-no-excuses scifi. A book (and author) that I love but would not recommend for the faint of heart: Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. VERY graphic WRT sex and the human condition; but this guy writes with a style you just won't find anywhere else. Don't say "I saw Fight Club and it sucked." Trust me, this author is definitely his own animal. Elvisio "keeper of the archives" Rodriguez

Thanks to all for the good words about the sig line. Don't worry, it's like herpes: it's here to stay! @ JohnRich: I had to go to Google and do the same search just to see it myself. I bet an alarm goes off at Google whenever the "no results" page pops up. I picture thousands of Google programmers jumping up and suddenly trying to look very busy. If nothing else, Google should have returned a bunch of Airtwardo's DZ.com threads! Elvisio "Maybe Twardo's on a crusade to increase Google's awareness of the plight of the tilde" Rodriguez

"should be illegal after six months" and "should be legal only until fetal viability" are actually just about the same thing. ATM fetal viability is right around 25 weeks or so. Elvisio "trying to remember my NICU clinical time" Rodriguez

But apparently nearly all the puppets on mainstream America's favorite kid's show are hiding one secret: Sexual deviancy: they all seem to be into fisting. Elvisio "snicker" Rodriguez

I applaud you for what is, in my humble opinion, a very Solomon-like solution. Unfortunately, I agree with posts between this post and mine: the participants in American politics are about as far from Solomon-like as one can get. Elvisio "we're SO FAR past cutting the baby in half" Rodriguez

SFW? Also, I notice that all of your (Twardo's) posts have a ~ in the title. Is there significance to you to the ~ being before or after the title text? Or is it a placemarker of sorts that allows you to scan the list of threads and easily pick out the ones you wrote? Or is it like my sig line, just something you do for no particular reason? Elvisio "enquiring minds want to know" Rodriguez