Donna

Wow! Great thread! I am the pickiest eater alive! I never knew there were others out there like me! I hate salads and all veggies except corn and potatoes. I LOVE potatoes. Must be the Irish in me. But keep the sour cream. Just lots of butter and salt. I'm a salt freak. I think it's my mother's fault. She tried making me eat foods I hated as a kid so I would bury them in salt so I couldn't taste them. I always get my cheeseburgers plain. Keep all that crap off them. I do put ketchup on fat french fries though. I hate mustard and mayo and especially baked beans. I won't even wash dishes with those things on them. I hate my foods to touch each other on my plate. I like everything plain and I hate most everything on the menu at fancy restaurants. I don't like wine either, just give me a beer. I hate cottage cheese, too! Yuck! And yogurt! I hate everything slimy. I wouldn't dream of touching sushi. I don't like pasta either. Hmmmm I think it would have been easier to list what I do like ... plain meats, potatoes, bagels, pizza (extra cheese and pepperoni, not much sauce... definitely no chunks of tomatoes!), bread and chocolate. Just pepsi (not diet), no coffee or tea. I hate milk, too. I drink calcium OJ instead. No pulp! Blue Skies, D

Emmie - check your e-mail. Blue Skies, D

Wow! You got me beat. I thought I was weird having a nephew a year and a half older and another one 3 days older (my mom and sister were pregnant at the same time!) Blue Skies, D

I'm with Kevin. I have 5 older sisters. There are 9 years between me and my next closest sister. She has been saying she wants to jump but always seems to have an excuse to put it off. Of my kids, my middle son is the only one I don't think will ever skydive. He is definitely not a risk taker. Skies, D

Lori - I'm so sorry to hear about your son. My heart goes out to you. I don't share it often either but I'm on a bereaved parent call list. I hadn't gotten a call in ages but had just happened to get one from a mom who had lost her 3 year old son right before I read this thread so it kind of brought a lot of memories back. I think Zennie is right. I'd love to go back and change this one thing in my life but I can't and it has shaped who I am today and how I think. I remember shortly after my daughter died that I had gone to this support group and we were suppose to write down something positive that had come from losing our children and I thought they were all absolutely nuts! What could possibly be positive?!?!?! Today I can see many positives. Beyond the 2 other children I now have, I also have a much greater appreciation for many of the simple things in life and get a lot of joy from them. I can truly cherish certain moments... probably like we all feel during a skydive. The complete surrender to ecstacy of right now. I think my life is much richer because of it. Thanks to all of you for your support and caring. It means a lot. I'm sorry to all of you who lost friends, parents, grandparents etc. Skymedic - sorry to hear of your cancer. I hope all goes well. Beat it again! I'll be thinking of you. Skies, D

Holding my 3 and a half year old daughter as she died. Skies, D

Hey Michelle!! I had been wondering what happened to you. Sorry to hear about all your troubles. Glad your dad is doing better again. Glad things worked out with your eye so you could jump again. And congrats on jumping right back in!! I know how difficult it is after you've been away awhile. You're an inspiration! Way to go girl!! It was great to read a story of yours again. Thanks! Skies, D

Ya. We call them paragods. Skies, D

Go Ann!!! Put that idiot in his place!

Sorry to hear about your femur, Pyke. That sucks. I could really relate to how much work it is to get ready to go out and about getting comfortable sleeping as I had ACL reconstruction surgery in my knee last month. (6-12 months before jumping again). Hang in there. It will get easier. I wish you the best!! Hope you have a speedy and complete recovery. Skies, D

I have had what I call "heart thingies" since I was in my late teens. All of a sudden my heart would flutter and feel weird and feel like it skipped beats. It used to scare me but after a while I stopped worrying about it since nothing else happened. When I was in my late 20s and happened to mention it to my doctor she had me wear a monitor for 24 hours. The results were that I had runs of supra ventricular tachycardia (SVTs). I was told that lots of otherwise healthy people have them and MOST of the time have no trouble from them. She told me if they really bothered me I could go on medication to control them. I decided not to. I'm now 41 and still have them. I tend to notice them before falling asleep at night, maybe just because everything else is quiet then and they are more noticable. Sometimes they are strong and last for a while and I get a little nervous but usually just shifting into a different position makes them go away. I like to put my finger on the pulse in my neck when they happen. You can actually feel the speeded heart rate and the skips. It's kind of cool. They have never given me any trouble. Just make sure that all doctors know about this before anesthesia or anything. My oral surgeon refused to take out my wisdom teeth at his office and had me do it in the hospital instead. I did fine. Same with the knee surgery I just had. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless your doctor gives you reason to be concerned. good luck and let us know what your doctor says. Skies, D

Glad you mentioned the differences in surroundings, Gemini. I had been reading the posts thinking you were all crazy but I guess if you have lots of outs and a big landing area maybe it's a bit different. It seems other parts of the country (and world) jump in higher winds than my area does. Where I jump in New England there is a big landing area but lots of surrounding trees and stuff. I know our dz is on the conservative side, too. I myself tend to not go up when the ground students because I am underloading my canopy and I don't make good penetration in wind. If the winds get up around 17-20 mph they usually shut the plane down. The rule of thumb I was also taught to go by was if the difference between wind and gusts is 10 or more to stay on the ground. Like someone else said it is usually people in the 100-200 jump range that will keep jumping the longest. They are getting confident in their abilities and have been lucky enough to not get in serious turbulance or other wind situations yet. There are a few respected experienced skydivers that I watch when the winds kick up and they sit, I definitely sit. As they say, it's better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here. Skies, D

I love my necklace and anklet! I'm dying to wear them but I have to wait until after Christmas because I got my daughter a set, too. She is going to love it!! I can't wait to see her face when she opens it. I'll have to take a picture and post it. Thanks, Pammi!

My dz still uses ripcords though they did change the location from the right front hip to the BOC area. The reason they kept ripcords though was the greater chance of a student being in an unstable position at pull time. They said the spring loaded pilot chute has a better chance at catching clean air and not getting wrapped around you like a throw out pc. Made sense to me and I've known quite a few people deploy while unstable or on their back etc, including me and my husband, and we all had no problems. A few scrapes and bruises but good canopies. I didn't have any trouble converting to throw out on jump #25 but I did practice a lot ahead of time and I was nervous and at THAT time wishing we had just learned on throw outs from the beginning. Skies, D

I thought it was every time you saw 1-800-SKYDIVE?

Hang in there, Larissa. When the time is right you will do it and you'll do fine and it will be that much more special. I have faith in you girl!! Skies, D

I have a Triathlon 190 and I propack it according to Aerodyne's video. I'm the one that asked about packing them on another thread back in August because my husband had gotten slammed on his twice. He had been using the small rubber bands and not doubling them. Since then we both use small bands on the first 3 stows and then the larger ones on the rest (that are thinner because of no cascades) and double them and it seems to be working great. He hasn't been slammed since and mine has always opened nice. I roll the nose about 3x on each side, he rolls his about 4 or 5. I found mine sniveled a bit too much when I did that..... as it is I still get about 700 ft. snivels. He rolls his tail quite a bit. I just give it about 4 rolls. I was doing it tighter for a while and started getting off-heading openings. I went back to how I had been doing it and it stopped doing that. I have the video if you'd like to borrow it. I'll gladly mail it to you as long as you eventually send it back. Send me an e-mail with your address at skydivers@net1plus.com if you want me to send it. Good luck! I think you'll love your Triathlon. My husband and I both love ours. Oh... also I know an old timer that has a Triathlon and has been flatpacking it for years and is very happy with it. Skies, D

That's great!!! Hope your PT goes well! You have good motivation any way! Hope you are up in the air again soon! This weekend will be my last chance to jump for the next 7-9 months so I can relate. Skies, D

I still can't believe you landed on that median strip, Don! Skies, D

Sounds incredible. What a treat, eh? My daughter and I saw a gorgeous sky tonight and I had similar thoughts. I was telling her how lucky we were to see such a pretty painting by Mother Nature. Skies, D

I am almost positive I had nothing to do with any virus in any way. Skies, D

I never really thought about it before but I've always worn the same sneakers. I do know that they have one more jump than I have! A TM asked to borrow them while I was packing one day because his student had shown up in flimsy sandals that would have fallen off in freefall. I think they had a good time without me. Skies, D

Same here. I'm not sure it will ever change for me. I just go with it. I do force down a cracker or two on the drive out just so my stomach isn't totally empty and then I bring a bagel or something with me for after my first jump because then I'm suddenly starving. Skies, D

Zennie - I have heard of those virii and that's why I was trying to find out more info in case I had somehow unknowingly sent a virus but the thing is at that time I had just gotten a new computer and didn't even have an address book set up yet and I never use IE or Outlook. I didn't know if there could be similar virii though that somehow attach themselves to outgoing e-mail. There was no attachment on my post or at least I didn't put one there. It was just text. Ann.. for gosh sakes... I don't hate you. All I was trying to do was to find out what happened. I'm so sorry about your site and I certainly don't want it happening to anyone else so I'd like to know how it happened and how it could be prevented. This is my last response to this nonsense. Skies, D

I have an ankle bracelet that I would never jump without. It is a little angel/child on a crescent moon with a star and reminds me of my late daughter and I feel like I have her with me on every jump. I also bought the jumpsuit I wore on my first tandem because I liked it and felt it was lucky. When I was a student and using DZ gear I always tried to get rig #6. I feel like it saved my life on my tree jump and whenever I see students using it now I tell them they got the lucky rig. Oh... and I have to use the same pen when writing in my log book. That was one of my first instructor's fault as he had mentioned most people have some lucky superstition thing in skydiving and that his was always having to use black pen in his log book. Skies, D