GrumpySmurf

P.S. Alcohol RULES when it gets me laid!!!! hehehehehhe A female needs alchohol to get laid??? Something in this picture seem very Salvador Dali-ish - in otherwords, twisted.

"is to be careful dating anyone who doesn't let you do what you want." May I be so bold as to alter this a little bit: "is DON'T DATE anyone who doesn't let you do what you want." Otherwise it's a mixture for trouble in the long run. If ya don't like what I do, then you ain't gonna like me.

Thanx for posting the website - all I can say about his custom work is ... wow! Those are some sweet designs - the only thing I would be worried about is beating up the helmet and scuffing the paintjob - like the inevitable smack of the helmet off the bar inside the door. But still sweet indeed.

Sounds like a plan for when things slow down in the rainy season ;) Seems anything is legal in that country, if you have enough money.

It's exactly what g/f wants to do - start an Adventure Tourism Company there - sort of her life longer dream - with all the contacts she has in the travel industry in Costa Rica (she works for United Airlines and seems to know everybody even remotely related to travel in the country) - I honestly think she could pull it off. Either that - or partner with the other adrenelin junkie places and have an arrangement to promote each other to customers - much like hotels and sighseeing tours do there. The biggest costs are going to be a jun(k/p)ship - looking at about 50 to 60K on a 1960 to 1970 era 182 (to run 2 tandems per load - or if you get real adventurous, introduce an AFP like program with 1 j/m AFF after a pair of tandems - that way you can put out 2 students per load as well), you're gonna need a pilot, 2 tandem/(AFF instructors - you could get away with SL/IAD folk if you really wanted to attract the local population into the sport) who can speak both English and Spanish, and who don't mind working for peanuts (cause there won't be much return on investment for a LONG time) - need 4 tandem rigs for quick turnaround, assume 4 to 6K per tandem rig (I'm guessing here) - if you want to do real student training, factor in all the rigs for students as well at 3 to 4 K each - have one packer, who is gonna need S/R rigger ticket as well, since ya don't wanna be shipping rigs to another country to get reserves repacked. And one cute chick for manifest - and if she can be qualified to teach the tandem class (and FJC, if needed), that owuld be best - you are set. Then you need land - somewhere near where your partner operations are gonna be (the bungee jumping, the rafting, etc) - then you need to clear cut it to place down a field - land costs in Costa Rica are about the same as the US it seems, and you will probably need to pring a pretty big cash 'present' to the local gov't to allow you to tear apart part of the rainforest. With all this said and done I think the real killer is gonna be fuel - since fuel costs in Costa Rica are relative murder. Just thoughts.

"If you have marketable skills, it is much easier to get a NAFTA visa." Yeah but they only last a year at a time and after 2 renewals, INS generally starts giving you crap about changing the TN-1 to a H-1B - thankfully the US INS inspector at Vancouver Int'n was in a good mood and gave me a minor scolding, but approved me anyways. And my understanding is that a TN-1 is not allowed to apply for a Green Card, since the TN-1 strictly states the holder only intends to stay in the US for a non-permanent basis - which the Green Card application would violate. But I am no lawyer - consult one if you need these questions answered. Forget Cali man, if you want to order anything at McDonalds in freakin' Wisconsin, you gotta know Spanglish - 'Sanchista, No oevoes, si?'. Quite the culture shock at first.

" and the sex can be good too... " I thought that was typical female Plan 'B' for when the Duracells ran out?

I'm guessing the white water trip involved running the Pacuare from Tres Equis? G/f and I did it last spring (she can't swim - I realized when someone says, "I can't swim" - it really means, "I'm scared to death of water, and no matter how big the life vest, I am going to panic the moment I hit said water." Opps. ). I know there is a 16 mile or so Class V river section (during the dry season of all times??) that one company runs, but can't seem to find it - though woman said I will be doing this one alone - she is more willing to jump off a bridge than run another river. I can arrange that - if it doesn't involve a waiver, it ain't fun. La Naranja huh? Would you recommend them?

Oh my gAWD! They've gotten to him - someone, quick, get this man some bad beer, high cholesterol food and a football game - he must be saved.

Female...Honesty.... Female..Honesty.... FemaleHonesty... Like I suspected - they don't together very well - just teasing, well, kind of.

But I didn't marry any of them, mind you. My mama taught me: You don't marry for the money - you divorce for it - and she went and proved it - twice. I'm starting to think mail order brides would be preferable to a local here in the US - at least if you don't like 'em - you can return them for a refund, so I hear *heh* They might even have a discount, buy one, get one free?

You would probably have an easier time getting an engineering-esque degree, a H-1B visa and having a company sponsor you - my understanding is, you are 'higher priority' since you posses jobs skills that are in demand. An ex- of mine married a Yank guy and spent 4 years trying to get a Green Card, quite the pain she said. Man, let me tell you - every Yank girl I ever dated had serious issues, I think it's pretty much a cultural thing in the US for women to require therapy of some sort or another. *runs for cover*

I started with Mile-High out in Arnprior with the old IAD progression (they since moved to PFF) - they were of the opinion that with my move to the US, most DZ's would look at my skill progression and fit me into thier program as best they could - the PFF progression looked fairly similar to AFF in the skills grid (I went AFP, which, in my not even remotely humble opinion *heh* blows the two of them out of the water - but it's not cheap). By the time I went back to the sport, I was so non-current, I volunteered to start over with AFP 1 (but managed to avoid the tandems). But I guess my opinion boils down to - the more time you get with a qualified instructor, the better off you are in the long run - even if that extra time is due to a skeptical DZ requiring you to do an extra level or two of PFF/AFF - money is easy to replace, you are not.

Hmm, I posted a reply this morning and it never showed up - odd. Oh well. Chi-Li (g/f) has all the contact info, she has pretty much taken care of everything thus far... It seems the 'manifest chick' they have has only done 3 S/L jumps in her life so the concepts of 'have own gear' and 'fun jumper' seemed a bit beyond her - I guess they don't many, if any, non-Ticos. I want to have a little tete-a-tete with the DZO(s) on thier opinion on fun jumpers to make sure they are kosher with me posting the contact info - just in case they have a Skydive Las Vegas opinion of outsiders - never can be too sure - though I don't see how publicity could hurt them. I was thinking if you could pull together a 182, a pilot, and 2 Tandem instructors, you could make a relative mint in the interior country next to the zip-line tours, the bungee jumping bridges, and white water rafting from all the Canuck and Yank tourists - zip through the trees, jump off a bridge, run a river, and launch out of a plane, all in one weekend. On the off days, you could offer flying sight seeing tours or something? Will be back on the 18th, will post results then.

Do it! Do it now! Come to the Dark Side. No more of that 1000% sales tax or 10,000% income tax, no English vs. French thing (there are only two languages spoken here in Yankie land - English and that one spoken by McDonalds Employees - I think they call it Spanish?? j/k - thank gawd g/f doesn't read this forum or I would be in for a serious arse whoppin' at this point :) )

Noticed I wasn't the only person who asked about this on the forum. G/f managed to track down the group for me tonight in San Jose, CR and found the following: Seems there is a group operating out of somewhere near Esterillos on the Pacific Coast, flies a C-206, 8 core divers (ages running between 35 and 50, jump numbers hovering around 300 to 500), they teach S/L progression - trying to bring the sport to the region. Lift tickets are astronomically high (around $40 US) due to high plane costs (anything that has a internal combustion engine is going to cost you an arm and a leg in Costa Rica - you don't want to the know the automotive taxes on car purchases - like 60 to 80%!!!). Seems they follow the norm of students first priority on loads. Landings are normally on the beach. Not an FAI affliate member DZ. They normally run loads once every two weeks to a month. They seemed cool with me showing up. So I will be swinging down to the country the week after next with woman to visit her family and will try heading out to the coast to track these folk down, follow up and (hopefully pics) to follow.

A bartender and I got the idea to start our own addition to the X-Games - Street Skeleton. *heh* Any takers to be the ginuea pi..err..pioneer?

I asked the old man once about the slug idea with a sawed-off shotgun (which would land one in the Federal slammer very quickly in Canada) for bear removal. He was of the opinion that the slugs were too close, especially at short range to kill the bear outright - that '00' Buck would be a better idea so to collapse both lungs at once - especially if your aim is off due to needing an underwear change. He and a friend got the idea to make a 'bear' gun by sawing down a DB 12 gauge and configuring it so that only 1 trigger was present to fire both barrels at once. He near took his shoulder off and pitched himself back a good 15 feet. *heh* Then there was that story when he tried tripling the recommended powder load for this musket he had been given - took quite a while for his eyebrows to grow back (blew the thing clean in half) - or when he was patroling one of the highways in Newfoundland outside St.John's and came across a moose and tried his hand at hunting with a .38 service revolver - picture a RCMP squad car pull up to a butcher shop with a moose on the hood, out of season.

It is a common trend if hiking in the region between BC and Alberta to keep your pots and pans hitched up on the outside of your pack to create the most gawd awful racket you could - tends to scare most of the locals off. Alot of the BC Ministry of Forests personnel carry .357's if they are doing any real backcountry surveying, though our neighbour down the road (who worked for MoF in Price George) pointed out it generally will do little more than tick off an angry Brown or Grizzly. We are part of the food chain, and not nessacarily always at the top.

Can understand - and will be forgiven if you promise to key every and any Cayenne you see in a parking lot, ok? *heh*

...and become this weeks poster child for Amnesty International when they toss your butt in prision for having fun.

Funky pics of the trip to Europe. Aside from that just one comment, you left the 's' out of Boxster. *heh*

Pulled this: ************************************************************ AIRCRAFT CESSNA CARAVAN Ramblers' primary aircraft is a modern turbine Cessna Caravan - Seats 16 jumpers Very fast, modern & comfortable CD player, TV and video dubbing station! ******************************************************** In the Plane??? A CD Player, TV AND video dubbing station??? Wow. Why don't they toss in a hot tub while they are at it? Have a flying Marriot Resort to altitude.

Alot of people own porches, usually they have 2 - out out front, and one out back - me, I don't have one, since I rent an apartment and all. But aye, that junkpile of a 986 is mine, seems to be how most people recognize me (it's 4 wheels and an engine just like any other car) *shrug* But if you can drive stick, come find me next time I'm at the DZ, there's a loop of I80 and Dayton road I let people take it for a spin on (once I get to know them, they just have to ask, I only say no if they have been drinking, if it's dark out, or they believe they are the re-incarnation of James Dean) - and you will never need anything past 3rd gear to do it either. Glasses nope, sunglasses yup - pretty much permanently attached - sunlight makes me sneeze.

I guess it makes reference to the legions of woodlice that going to exit the premises in search of something tastier to munch on? Such as poor Tee.