peacefuljeffrey

Holy Moly! ...With how many aboard? I'm enjoying Sebastian's Skyvan lately, which makes just above 1,000 feet per minute with a relatively full load... Can't complain. I LOVE going out the tailgate relative to the side door of the Otter (but I do so love the Otter as an airplane, period!)! I haven't jumped lots of planes yet, but in a dream once, back around '91, I somehow jumped from an F-15 Eagle! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The DZs that I have jumped at in my 144 jumps have been very good about familiarizing me with the airport and surrounding area (respect to Sebastian and Skydive Palm Beach!). That said, I have never had to land out, but I've had a pair of close calls, one closer than the other. Both occurred at Pahokee, FL. On one, I was spotted pretty far Northeast, especially given the paradox of I was a newbie and needed a short spot, relative to experienced jumpers under fast canopies, but would always get a longish spot because being a belly-flier opening at 5,000, I was last out all the time! (Yes, I know I could have asked for a go-around...but I didn't want to confront what would have occurred if I began asking for a go-around for just me on load after load...) I was northeast of Pahokee, and although I was aware of the potential need to spot a good LZ off the airport as it was looking grim for making it back to land in, I still fixated on landing in... and when I came over the road and the fence at the edge of the airport, my feet were quite nearly between the crowns of two palm trees that stood along the edge of the fence. I scared the crap out of myself on that approach, let me tell you. But the important thing is that I didn't get hurt learning a big lesson about landing out if you gotta.

What on earth were they having to do that for? Does anyone else feel that they kinda have the ability to disregard/shut out pain, especially if they know that it's not the result of anything that's going to cause lasting damage to their body? I sometimes practice at focusing on the idea that my mind is utterly independent of whatever my body is feeling, so that I can be aware of something that hurts, but almost pretend that it's not happening to me, so that I can get past it. Anyone else do that? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I watch every time, too. When I was a little kid, my dad would take me along when he would go back to my elementary school after-hours when they had a blood drive. I don't think I ever watched his donation, though. But it instilled in me the desire to give blood to help people out, so I made a regular practice of it from high school until about age 31, when they suddenly started saying that you couldn't donate if you'd visited England in such and such span of time, and for 3 months or more. So now they won't let me donate anymore. (What I'm wondering is, if people who were in England then can't donate in the U.S., what are they doing for blood IN England?? Doesn't that kind of rule out the population? If they ever say that I can donate again, I surely will again. I always look. I remember a phlebotomist telling me to look away one time, and I was like, "Nope, I always watch when you do this." I kinda like seeing it. Since I never flinch about it (it hurts less and less the more you do it) there's no harm in watching, right? And I'd be more inclined to flinch if it came at me as a surprise anyway! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

"Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh... you don't have to go, oh oh oh, oh oh..." Good ol' Led Zeppelin! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I HAVE NOT SEEN DRUG USE AT THE DZ. I know that some people now and then smoke pot, but while I have seen it done after hours, I cannot say that it goes on anywhere at any time that it would affect skydiving safety. I was just wondering about the snuff. And expressing that I'm not as crazy about beer as many skydivers seem to be. Now, with that said, I plan to drop the subject. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Wow! I've never run into that with the peeps that I hang out with. What DZ makes you feel that way? Oh, no way would I say that the DZ makes me feel that way, because actually the DZ is great. I'm talking about some individuals, or a general tenor, among skydivers. Actually, what I think I'm doing is overblowing it in my mind... allowing the beer-is-nectar-of-the-gods sense that prevails here to mix with the "beer-light-is-on" attitude that you see among some at a DZ... I guess I was just hoping that I wouldn't run into quite so many people who drink sooo regularly and value beer so highly, because it makes me feel a bit alienated, since I'm not a big fan of beer or inebriation. I don't mean that I'm seeing drunkards stumbling around the DZ. Actually, the atmosphere there is friendly and upbeat and I don't have cause to complain. (I would appreciate a hold on speculation of where I'm talking about -- and since I jump at 2, 3, 4 dropzones intermittently it wouldn't be appropriate anyway for that reason alone.) The SNUFF thing, though. That struck me a bad feeling. I doubt that the DZ management knew of its use on the plane; the only ones responsible are the ones who did it. But I don't know what snuff does to you; hence I can't say it was out of line to have/do it on the plane, or that they did something wrong. But I did ask someone right then, "Hey, what's that stuff do?" and the response was that it does for you what a cigarette would do to someone who doesn't smoke -- a little buzz. I dunno. Don't pay any attention to me. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Well, I haven't lost any friends personally (thank heaven) but you're right. Hear hear. All the other "hates" are pretty damned petty compared to this one, I think. My sympathies on the loss of your friend(s), Lou. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I know people who are good skydivers, but I have never met one yet who seems to come across as a "skygod." The ones I know always seem willing to give asked-for advice, and are willing to invite new-ish people onto their freefly jumps and stuff. (and the RW guys too) What I hate is the attitude that you're a skydiver, so you must smoke/drink/do drugs to excess, and that lots of beer is a requisite for being around the DZ. And I was pretty aghast when some people introduced a container of snuff (snuff?! Who the fuck actually has snuff?!) ON THE PLANE AT 10,000 FEET. WTF?! Isn't "catching a buzz" the same as skydiving under the influence? 'Cause if that's not what doing the snuff was about, I am not sure what the point was. So what if there was an emergency at the moment everyone was sitting there "enjoying" their buzz? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The "nothing to hide" test is a logical fallacy and does not excuse invasions of privacy. Period. I'm sure you aren't concealing illegal weapons and drugs in your bedroom. Does that mean you shouldn't mind if the government wanted to come in and check, "just to make sure"? Of course not. So why should your body be any different? A drug test, if you are not found to be acting as though under the influence (which would constitute probable cause, in my view) is a warrantless search. PERIOD. The only problem is, usually at some jobs, and the military, you are understood when you join up to have ceded your rights in this area. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

CATS have more rights than PEOPLE do... When was the last time you heard of a CAT busted for eating CATNIP?! Shit, imagine being able to buy POT in Walmart!! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I have heard of people losing their jobs due to providing an "unusually" diluted sample. That's some seriously fucked up shit right there. So in other words, if your urine contains the drug products, you're fucked.... AND If your urine doesn't contain the drug products, you're fucked. And all of this because the world continues to demonize recreational drug use, for no particularly good reason. I'm a NON-drug user and I think this is insane. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I was hoping so. I read those and thought, "How, at law, could any of these cases succeed, when the exculpatory evidence exonerating the defendants is right there in the facts?" If you were shooting a chained dog with a pellet gun in its own yard, not only would the owners not be liable for bites you sustained because you were stupid enough to get in reach of the chain, you'd be charged with animal cruelty. The suing over tripping over your own kid... how could anyone be held accountable for not restraining YOUR kid when YOU should have been doing so? And the "cases" about trauma resulting from committing crimes?! I thought that the commission of a crime (such as being found in a person's house after burglarizing it!) would exonerate the homeowners and their homeowner's insurance company. Shit, if I am in my house and I shoot a home invader, I KNOW I do not stand exposed to him suing me for damages resulting from the gunshots, because if the law recognizes my legal right to have fired, it recognizes that I am protected from being sued for doing so. Right? I'm pretty sure that defending against a criminal attack allows you to harm someone without their being able to sue you for doing so, as long as your reaction was justified and reasonable. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

P.S. I LOVE your sig! That is the funniest frickin' thing I've seen all month, by far!! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

You will never hear me say "put that thing away"! Yes, but what is the proper storage place, anyway? What if our idea of it differs from yours? Sorry, I don't think spooning is possible without an erection! And better to have it when it's not "needed," than to need it when you don't have it! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Hey Jim, that still doesn't say you're jumping! So... your weather's cooperating... Are you? Miss you 'round here, dude. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

It's windy, overcast and maybe rainy here in WPB, so I'm not driving 1.5 hours to Sebastian just to find that it's the same. Good thing I have the spinach/meat lasagna I made last night to comfort me. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

LOL!! And "Crunchy DEAD Frog with Bones"! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

This was very informative. Thank you! Not that I need the information, since I totally don't do any drugs -- and I don't get tested at work anyway -- but I like knowing how/why the products they market work. I am strongly against drug testing, and in fact I have gone so far as to say I would tell them to shove their job up their ass if they started to institute testing at my work. (Press operators, I am told, still get tested, but not office workers.) I think it is a true invasion of privacy, and what makes it worse is that it's by NON-law-enforcement personnel, who have even LESS business doing it. So are you saying that they'd label a person as "drug suspect" if they had no detectable levels of the drug metabolites in their urine, but the urine was "diluted"??! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

What I hate about my office: People who fuck up and don't do their jobs right are NEVER censured for fucking up, and the environment is so "paranoid-PC" that you will get into more trouble for "making someone feel uncomfortable" by alerting them to what they're doing wrong than they will for continually doing a shitty job. You have to simply knuckle under and accept the half-assed way many of the employees do their work, because you are "harassing" them if anything you say "creates a hostile work environment." I am told stories about a guy who used to work in my office before I started there, who rose to the level of office supervisor, who used to berate people when they fucked something up. HE GOT RESULTS. Now, they are so damned mamsy pamsy about stuff that nothing EVER gets corrected. The managers just shrug their shoulders about people not following proper procedures, even after we hold meetings to discuss and alert the staff regarding how to properly do things. Rather than tell people, "If you don't correct this problem, you'll be written up/docked/fired if it continues," they are so afraid to insult or offend anyone that they don't do a friggin' thing. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Well, of the animated shows... Of the live action ones, Firefly is the greatest.

But we all do that, some literally and some figuratively. I may be confused, because when they said "whuffos," I was thinking paying tandem customers... and at my DZ I'm always sociable and outgoing and friendly to them. I like to let them see me share their joy and enthusiasm about their skydive -- but I'm not connected with the tandem operation. I just usually watch them watch their videos and then congratulate them with a big smile.

That is really cool! I love getting double-yolked eggs, but unfortunately it's happened pretty rarely. I rank them up there with peanuts that have three nuts in one shell -- awesome!!

I am not drunk now Won't be drunk for quite some time I don't drink that much So much stuff goes on Man it makes me glad I'm sane After so much shit -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

YES!!! LOL! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"