tdog

If you can take a few moments out of the kitchen sink, I would like to say SQUARE ONE ROCKS. I love my rig. Dominic was a great sales guy. I told you guys in person when I was out there for a training camp that he needed a raise, regardless of his current compensation package, because he was so helpful to me. I won't ask if you gave it to him. You guys really hooked me up great when I was out there visiting before my rig came in. There were a couple rocky points along the way with delivery times, but, you guys don't make it, you just sell it, so I can't complain. Anyway... Thanks again. Travis

I just called skyride and found out which DZs in my state accept their certs... It was an easy call, "say I am visiting my friends this weekend, they live.... Do you have a jump nearby?" So, I am safe at my home DZ - but another reason not to choose the "other" DZ. My money won't go there.

I asked my potential rigger, "so what do you know about skyhooks?" The one I chose was familiar with them from the tandem rigs he packed, and owned one himself on his personal rig - so I was confident... The rest of the guys said, "well, I can read the manual." I watched it packed... If you follow the instructions, it ain't that hard...

That was plan B.... Getting one of those "cattle fence" systems and building a system that will keep the buggers away. Good idea about washing my hands. I actually thought about spraying the whole engine compartment with something they didn't like... Any ideas?

I was told of a container that was glued but not stitched on key components... The "out of state gear rigger" missed it and it lasted a jump before it started to fail and the local rigger and jumper caught the problems before she would have jumped again. My rigger told me this story, he was the first hand witness, as he was QCing my new rig and saying, "never trust anything"... I now believe it is best to have a 3rd set of eyes on a brand new rig... So no, I would not let the manufacture pack my rig.

Never again... My grandmother had a feeder in her back yard. The squirrel family was cute. Then the week of the squirrel came. Day 1. Squirrel 1 climbed the power pole and put his paw in the wrong spot on the transformer. He caught fire and took out the power to the house... Day 2. Squirrel 2 climbed down the vent to the plumbing from the roof. Landed in the sewer half way between the house and street. Toilet water filled the basement thru the drain - and cost $$$$ to cleanup... The rotor-rooter guy gave the poor animal an enema with his machine and pulled him out ass first with the blade half way up the digestive system, and showed my 75 year old grandma: "I think I found your problem, miss." I vote for a trap and a cross-city move... Never again will they be welcome on my property.

Look at the attached photos of the wiring harness in one of my company trucks. If you only have time for one, open the first one... 60 wires chewed threw by a squirrel.... AND - notice the butt-end-connectors, that was from the LAST time he did it and I issued a quick and dirty repair. And, you should see what my personal 4-runner looked like after he hit that one too. The harness is $816.00... So, there are two questions in this poll. Choose one answer from each question, please. Off to kick some rocks and bitch at the world...

If "He" is the father - than I agree. If "He" is someone on the internet flaming a kid just because he is 14, then I think the boat is in the wrong dock. Well, I never met "the kid", so I don't know... The internet is a funny thing, you never get to really "know" the person from their posts here... Seems like he was pretty honest - he told the truth - that he did not have a check. This will be a huge wakeup call for him if he is smart. He will stay defensive if he is stupid... I had a wakeup call myself a while back... I was showing someone how the collins lanyard on the skyhook worked after I packed between loads. I undid the cutaway and when I put it back I did not Velcro the handle back in... I checked my pins and bridal with the handle laying under the rig with the rig on the floor. I picked it up... As I was putting on my rig, someone showed me the loose handle... I KNOW my procedures are to check all three handles after putting the rig on incase I knock something loose as I am putting it on, and I do another check while walking to the plane, then again in the plane at 10K again, so I would have caught it myself for sure... But it sucked that I did not catch it first. Wakeup call...

King Tut was 9 when he became King of Egypt. He was 19 when he died... As our life expectancy has gotten longer, we have put less faith in the younger folk to handle responsibility and maturity. By doing that, they act less mature because they are just following the standards of our society. Without sounding like I am bragging - I owned my first company (landscaping and irrigation) at age 14, and by age 16 I was doing exclusively new installs and retrofits for remodels for commercial work for shopping centers and apartment complexes. I never went in thinking, "I am too young to negotiate this contract" - and therefore my customers never thought twice about giving me the business. The rental shops were a little worried renting tractors, bobcats and backhoes to me, but I established a track record and good terms. When I purchased my first company truck, the first sales guy asked me to "bring my father" before I could test drive it. 2 hours later I was driving off the lot and the guy said, "I thought I told you to bring your father." I said, "the other sales guy didn't seem to mind my cash, so I paid him instead." Stereotypes suck... Age means little. I look at my friends who are raising children right now. Those who "baby" their kids and "protect" them from everything have immature kids who can't handle responsibility. Those who give their kids responsibility and clear cut expectations, and have done so since they were super young, have kids who I would trust with my life. I don't think age has much to do with ability to succeed in anything - as long as the environment is right for the person to excel. So, I encourage you to not discredit this "kid" because I bet he is/will be a great skydiver. My two cents.

So, I got three cavities when I was a kid... Like 25 years ago... Every time I went to the dentist for the last 18 months, he replaced one because the old fillings were falling out... Last one - I walked in at 8:02, 2 minutes late for my 8 appointment, and left at 8:09 am with the cavity refilled and a $120 bill for services rendered. I told him, "next time, I want you to have to actually numb my mouth because I want my money's worth. I mean, no pain, no time, and a $120 bill, I should at least have to say "ouch" once for that type of money! Now, 3 years ago when I had my wisdom teeth removed... That was fun. I was awake for the whole thing, but went into shock because of the experience... My top left tooth had 7 roots and took 45 minutes of pulling to get out. The office staff of 20 lined up to shake my hand because they had never seen a tooth with that many roots or that hard to remove. Got my money's worth on that one.

No ghosts, just ESP... I have walked to the phone before and picked it up before it rang - or when I call my friends and it is busy, I hang up because I know they are calling me.

Were you at all "stuffy"??? I once was on a commercial airliner from Vegas to Denver... Something got "blocked" up in my sinuses. It was the most painful thing ever. I could "feel" every change in pressurization of the plane. (If you ever take your alti on a commercial airliner, you will see the cabin is pressurized to 5K or so, but goes up and down quite a bit)... The pain was in my jaw and face like you could not believe. In my ears too... And - I did not even feel stuffy - something was just "up" with my sinuses... 200 skydives and 150 commercial airline flights later, and never happened again... T

Ok, so I used to make a living stuffing stuff between studs, I mean – fishing wires. From completely rewiring a 100 year old house to installing burglar alarms, I think I have fished everything you can imagine in walls. Here is my method: Step 1. Pick an internal wall to put the jack. External walls have insulation and cross bracing that you can hit that will take longer – and the working space in the attic is always smaller at the ends of the house. Step 2. Take an electronic stud sensor ($15 at home depot) and run it left to right to find the studs. Try to put your jack in the center of two studs if it has no insulation as it reduces the chance of error, but next to a stud if it does have insulation as the fish tape will run between the stud and insulation much better than in the middle of the stud field. Step 3. Run the stud sensor up and down the area you plan to fish. Any cross braces or obstacles? Step 4. Drill a hole in the ceiling of the room, 1” away from the wall, DIRECTLY above your planned jack, the size of a coat hangar. Take one each coat hangar and make it straight and long. At the end, bend a 3 inch 90 degree tab. Push the long end of the coat hangar up into the attic, duct taping the 3” tab to the ceiling. If the ceiling is that popcorn texture, don’t use duct tape but instead bend some small S curves into the coat hangar at the end so it wants to stay in the hole with friction. (if you drill the hole small enough, friction is all you need anyway) You now have an easy to find location in the attic, simply look for the coat hangar or where the insulation is abnormally popping up. Without the coat hangar, you will likely have to move insulation and then take 20 measurements to find just the right spot to drill. It is much quicker to patch a tiny hole in the ceiling with Spackle than screw up and drill in the wrong spot. Step 5. Use a 1” drill bit. I prefer a flat blade bit over a hole saw bit. Find your coat hangar in the attic. Move the insulation. If you see a stud about 2” from it (you placed the coat hangar 1” from the wall, and the wall will be about ½ to 1” thick) – drill in the center of the stud… If you don’t see a stud, it means they installed the ceiling first then the wall under it, so you will have to take measurements to find the center of the wall, (I would bank on 3” away from your coat hangar assuming the coat hangar is 1” from the wall) Step 6. Cut your hole for a “remodel single gang electrical junction box” where you want the jack. I always did this last as it is hard to patch and I rather move it before I cut it, if I found, say a plumbing pipe in the way… By using an electrical junction box even for just a cable wire, your hole will be big enough to get your arm into the wall to grab the wire. Step 7. If your wall has no insulation, with wild energy shake about 2 times the height of the wall worth of cable into the wall. The shacking should bounce it off any obstacles. If you have a friend down below, they should have their hand and arm in the hole trying to find it. If you are shooting solo, you will have to go down to find it… If the wall has insulation, you will need a fish tape. Start from above and push the tape down the wall. I would make sure the hole you drilled is right next to the stud, perhaps drill another one if you missed. The tape has a natural curve in it. Push that curve so it rides along the stud, with the end trying to “dig into” the stud, not the insulation. You might have to push a lot of fish tape in the wall, like 2 to 3 times the height of the wall – eventually a part of it will come within reach of the hole. If the wall has a cross brace (and you are sure it is a stud and not plumbing pipes or something like that) – Home Depot sells a 5’ foot long drill bit (with 4’ extenders you can even make it longer, you will need 7 feet), which is also great for insulated walls because it is rigid enough to go straight down the wall, flexible enough you don’t need 6’ of attic space. It even has a hole at the end so you can attach your wire to it and use it as a fish tape. You simply push this bit down the wall to your x-brace and drill away. Once you pass the cross brace keep pushing to your jack hole, as you will need to use it as your fish tape. If you remove it, there is no way you will get your wire thru the hole you just drilled. I have used these bits from the bottom up and the top down with great success. Hope this helps. P.S. Since you are running cable, signal strength is a big issue. Make sure you make “home runs” to the cable box, so there are not multiple splitters in the chain. Also, use the best ends you can find, connectors really make a difference. Wire quality does too. Once you run the wires, if your cable company does not charge extra for cable ready TVs, I would have them come out and terminate them, as they can add boosters or filters as needed. If you are shooting under the radar, be ready for picture quality issues you will have to troubleshoot. Hope this helps.

Well, I found mine... Must have played "pin ball" off of two wals as it somehow made it's way out the balcony door to the city street below. The trajectory from the sofa to the city street below requires at least two turns or wall bounces.

What is YOUR tv remote doing in MY sofa???? Probably keeping company to the 2 lone right foot socks of mine that are stashed there as well... Oh shit, are all of you gonna put your long lost items in my sofa.... I am going to have nightmares tonight for sure. Frenchy68, I have a gray size 12 sock that is missing it's mate. I will give you back your socks if I can have mine back.

What is YOUR tv remote doing in MY sofa????

Kind of a modification of the Bruce Willis line: "I see ugly dogs, they are everywhere, and they don't even know they are ugly?" I wonder what his personality is like????

So, I have been wearing a closing pin necklace for a year. Tonight I was sitting on the sofa watching tv and spinning it around my finger. It went flying away... Now, my loft is only 1100 sqft and has concrete floors and ceilings and brick walls... There is nothing that can "absorb" necklaces in my home, and my dog said he did not eat it... I have torn the place up, can't find it. I give up... Never had this problem before. Did any of you take it when I had my back turned. If not, I have a ghost I think.

metallica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for giving me inspiration for my bedtime music... Me thinks Master of Puppets...

What was his level and how many jumps???

I only program about a week a month, I have so many things on my plate I get a lot of variety. I think I would go insane programming 40 hour weeks. Then again, I would go insane skydiving for 40 hour weeks too. I need every day to be a little different to keep my short attention span happy.

Stories like this make me want to perfect the "lost main homing beacon". I figure if they can track animals from a thing on their collar, why not sew something to the bottom inside of the deployment bag that transmits a signal. I found one transmitter designed to be glued onto turtles, sounds small enough to put in a pouch in the d-bag, huh... A friend of mine lost his main in a wide open field. I told him instead of looking out the plane window for it, he should be looking on e-bay for it, because things just don't disappear that quickly.

so why did you think it was on???

I jump to get away from this crap! But, I am writing a software app for one of the best known DZs that will run certain parts of their business... Web based. SQL backend, .net .aspx front... Jumprun, a software already out there, does a lot of what you are asking for - but not all.

oh come on, in our wonderful world you can sue someone because they have the wrong color hair, and probably win!