ahegeman

Clint, How is that possible? Our income tax system is stupid for sure, but at no point is the marginal rate greater than 100%. We're gettin' there, but this isn't Sweden yet. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

What the hell were you drinking? To celebrate a promotion I took a bunch of my friends out and opened up a $500 tab. 4 hours later I closed it at $525, plus a $100 tip for our hard-working waitress. Best money I ever spent in a bar. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Welcome! Yeah, those dive exits were the hardest for me. I had a phobia about hitting the door, causing me to push off too hard and over-rotate. The first two I did perfectly were when I was concentrating so hard on diving after a group floating in front of me that I didn't have time to worry about my exit. You, and I, just need to relax, present, feel the relative wind and let the exit happen. As a skybaby myself, the only real advice I can give you is to remember that by the time your instructors let you perform a diving exit, no matter how bad your exit is, you WILL be perfectly capable of quickly and easily recovering stability and progressing with your dive flow. That confidence should help you relax. Good luck on AFF! --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Got my A Saturday! My check-out dive was the last load of the day. Pretty cool. They had so many tandems I was afraid they weren't going to get to me, but they barely squeezed me in at the end. I think my ice cold keg of Shiner Bock icing down in the corner of the hangar may have had something to do with it. I then spent Sunday doing what every newly minted A license holder probably does - destroying 4-ways.

Well put, Cora. Skydiving? Paintball? Shooting? And you're a "business analyst"? You're not single by any chance, are you? Lila, I love skydiving, but you can't ever let any one thing define you. Its too easy to lose. Of course, maybe you don't really feel that way. Being a newbie myself, I certainly know how easy it is to get carried away by this new, exciting, and unique thing we do. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

How about beer? I gave the TM on my first jump a six pack of McEwans IPA. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

I'm sorry to hear about Icarus, they are wonderful little birds. It was sweet of you to put so much effort into taking care of her. However, the lady at the rehab center has no idea what she is talking about - animosity and mutual ignorance between falconers and rehabbers is foolishly common. I'm an apprentice falconer, and I currently have a red-tailed hawk. Yeah, he's nasty, but we like them like that. By far, the vast majority of apprentice falconers choose red-tails. They are easier to train, and much hardier. I know a dozen apprentices, none have a kestrel. An NO apprentice is under any circumstances allowed to take and raise a baby bird. Based on that kestrel's behavior, I can almost guarantee that it was not raised by a falconer. It was almost certainly raised by a human as it is obviously imprinted, and I can't think of any reason any falconer would want to imprint a kestrel. One of my falconry buddies also runs a rehab center for birds of prey, and what they see all the time is birds that some kid picks up and thinks would be neat to raise until deciding they don't want it any more, at which point it is released. This is common with kestrels, as they are the only raptor that will nest in the bird houses people put in their back yards. Since it wasn't raised by its parents, it has no idea of how to fend for itself, so those birds often end up being found near death, just as Icarus was. Even if they survive they can never go back to the wild because an imprinted bird will exhibit dangerous behaviors, especially come breeding season, sometimes even attacking people, but usually just not having enough fear of people to survive. Per federal raptor regulations, those birds must be permanently maintained in captivity, or euthanized. Most are euthanized, sadly. Anyway, I thought you might want some insight into what might be her story. I know those birds do have a way of capturing your heart, and now you do too. You'll never look at them the same way again. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Your mom's house . . . --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Yeah, those 60 second freefalls rock. I need all the time I can get to make it through my dive flows right now. Because of gusting winds and ATC putting a ceiling on the jump operations throughout the day, I also had the distinct pleasure of taking the airplane back to the DZ on two separate occasions. Whoopee. Talk about anti-climactic. I told my jumpmasters they reminded me of a girlfriend I once had. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Thanks for the good wishes, skymama. I did in fact bring beer. Maybe the skydiving Gods will cut me a break on the weather next weekend for it. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Well - I didn't make it. I spent all day Friday and most of today waiting for the winds to die, and it didn't help that I had to repeat level 4, but I did make it to level 5. I'll finish 5, 6, and 7 next weekend, and maybe get a couple of solos in. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Well - the weather's gonna have to cooperate a lot more. I spent 14 hrs sitting around today waiting for the winds to be low enough and the sky to be clear enough all at the same time. I guess that's part of the fun. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

I'm gonna try. I figure the faster I do it all the better I'll remember everything. Besides, its a long weekend. At 4-5 jumps/day I'll be able to make 12-15 jumps, so even if I fail a couple of levels I should be able to finish. --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry

Hey folks! I've been reading this forum for a while now, there's a lot of good stuff in here. Anyway, made my first AFF jump today - I didn't screw up too bad . It was a blast, and I passed without breaking anything. I'll be finishing out AFF (hopefully) this weekend during the 4th of July Boogie at Skydive Dallas. The instructors there are great. My JMs, Ernie and Joe, really gave me the confidence I needed. In the creepy "ha ha" category, on the way to the dz I stopped to check my mail - my new health insurance card was waiting for me. I hope its not a sign . . . What a rush. I can't wait to go back. Maybe I'll see some of you there. btw - Am I the only one who thinks it odd that the spellchecker on this forum doesn't recognize the words "AFF", "Boogie", or "skydive"? --------------------------------------------------------------- There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'. --Dave Barry