Zennie

Yeah, I'm guessing a pressure seal in the door went kerflooey. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I should be leaving DFW about now for Houston. Instead I'm still in Indianapolis waiting for the 4:30 flight to leave. We take off this morning, and about 20 minutes into the flight I hear this big WHHOOOSSSHHHHH!! sound coming from up by the main cabin door. This was sort of an unusual sound so I start watching the stewardess. By the look on her face this was an unusual sound to her as well. She sort of stands back from the door, gets on the cockpit phone, then gets in her seat and starts going over emergency landing procedures all the while telling people not to panic. Naturally most people were pretty freaked out. By this time it became pretty clear to me that the pilot had the plane under control, so I wasn't as worried, but I had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. The pilot hauled ass to prolly around 7-8K or so. Naturally, this freaked the others out even more. We made it back without incident but at least I got a nice little adrenaline rush out of the deal. Cool thing about skydiving is that you're around planes so much you sort of know what's going down (no pun intended) and it doesn't bother you as much. I'm sure others here have some really good airliner horror stories to tell.... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I'd say climbing ability, in a general sense is very important unless you plan on jumping only bridges. Now the climbing equipment and methodology may differ, but you will almost definitely have to climb an antenna at some point. In fact, I'm very seriously considering making one of the climbers part of my exercise regimen. And with cliffs, you will also need at least some basic climbing skills, especially for remote cliffs or cliffs you're trying to open up. I've even heard of people climbing buildings... like the XXX for example. Not my bag, but it is done. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

And lest I forget, thanks Narci for sharing your tradition. What a great way to keep the holiday spirit alive. I never realized how many people wind up by themselves during the holidays. I sort of took it for granted being married for years and having a pretty close family. I'm trying to envision what it would be like to be by myself on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I'd prolly do what you do... find some similarly situated friends and have a good time in their company. That's really what it's all about... sharing time with those people who are important parts of your life... family or not. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Take it from a transplanted Yank. Cajun fried turkey RULES! I turned on my Yank relatives to it last Thanksgiving. Didn't tell them beforehand (cuz we knew their reaction would be the same as yours) and they commented on how great the turkey was. It's not at all what you think it would be. It's not greasy. Basically what happens is the skin is immediately cooked crispy and it locks everything else inside the turkey. So the meat stays really juicy & doesn't dry out like the baked stuff. We'll usually inject ours with marinade the night before. Yummers! And like Slappie said, it only takes about 40 minutes to cook. Aw man, now I'm getting myself all hungry.... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Congrats grandma Sassy! And yeah I agree you don't look like a grandmother. Just live by my motto: "You're only as old as you act." - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I assume you have charts in the manual for dialing in fallrates by manipulating the weight of the shot and/or length of the streamer? - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Just out of curiosity, how often did you do front riser turns on your 170? - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

If ramon ever has a dream about you bouncing, you better take up golf. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Next time I'm around let's do it! It will be sooner rather than later. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

How 'bout "Jump buddy"? Sufficiently vague, but vaguely sexual, given the skydiving context. Seriously, I'll either just give her name or throw in the "g/f" depending upon the context. Most people can figure it out or will ask. Not that I have that problem right now, nor do I really want it. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Tabasco hasn't done much to me hot-wise for ages. Heck, I'll pour it on saltine crackers just to jazz 'em up a bit. Freebird's has a pretty good habanero sauce you can have them put on your burritos. I'm still looking for a Thai place here in town that can kick my butt. Found one in Indianapolis, but not here. I walked in and they have the usual Mild, Regular, Hot, Very Hot, Thai Hot. So I ask for the Thai hot, as I usually do. The lady goes "Are you sure? It's really hot." I'm like, "Yeah. Yeah. I'm used to it." She's like, "No. I'm serious. This stuff is really hot. Only the Thai cooks eat it." I'm still going "Seriously, it's OK. I can handle it." So she sort of shrugs and walks off. I get my food a little later. Take a couple bites and think "Nice! This has a little zip. At least they actually made it hot for a change." About five bites into it I'm gulping down water by the gallon and eating all the crackers in sight. I fought it valiantly, but only managed to finish about half. It's those slow burns that are the most deadly. They sneak up behind you and hit you across the back of the head with a shovel when you aren't looking. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Also did the Hackett bungy in Vegas. That was by far the most terrified I've been doing something. This may seem weird to people, but as far as fear goes, I was most scared (by a large margin) on my bungy jump, followed by my first skydive, then my first BASE jump. Now perhaps this is due to the order that I did each... bungy first, skydiving second, BASE third. Since I had sort of gotten past that initial falling thing with bungy, skydiving wasn't quite so scary. By the time I had gotten around to BASE, I had had a parachute open just fine for me about 425 times. Plus I was jumping the bridge so it was pretty low pressure. My second BASE jump, from an antenna, was definitely scarier than the bridge jump. Having done all 3, I'd like to do a bungy jump again just to see if it's still scary. I'm thinking it won't be. Skydiving and BASE are just fine with me. Skydiving for the fun, BASE for the rush. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Rodeo. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I kind of agree and disagree. I see BASE and skydiving as subcategories of parachuting. But the skill sets needed to be an accomplished (and safe) skydiver are very different from those needed to be an accomplished BASE jumper. Heck. Even within skydiving there are dramatic differences in the skills required for each subdiscipline... RW, freeflying, CRW, S&A, swooping. BASE requires skills similar to those required in several skydiving disiplines... tracking, body awareness & canopy control primarily... but they are used in different manners and environments. And there are many skills unique to BASE... launch stability, aerials, site analysis... When someone talks about BASE & skydiving in the same breath I try to emphasize that they are very different sports requiring different skills and having different safety issues. They both require the use of a parachute, but beyond that they are quite different. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

236 TAS - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Did anyone read the picture caption? Apparently these reporters don't think too highly of our "sport". Guess they've never tried climbing an 1100 foot antenna with gear. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

You lurk Blinc too, eh? - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

A-NI-MAL!!!!! - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Ah OK. My bad. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Man, I gotta start thinking about what I wanna do for my 500th. I do FF big way & hybrid shit all the time so I need to do something different. Mr. Bill is temping, but I may jump a round. My rigger has a Piglet that he said he'd let me jump. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Whoa! Whoa! They are two separate incidents. Both at Spaceland. The first one is Shane (& I feel like an idiot because his last name escapes me right now), the second is Chris Salin. The year did not start off very well for Texans. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

The other thing I've found that helps is to just sort of completely relax myself right after I pitch. If I just let the canopy do it's thing & keep my body relaxed & symmetric, I seem to get much better headings. It seems like my worst line twists were when I immediately reached for risers. And adding "corrective" inputs while the canopy is hunting for a heading always seems to do more harm than good. Just my $0.02. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Ooops. Wrong thread. I always liked Obsession. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Liz always liked Eternity. **shrug** - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon