We had the pleasure of attending Jen’s aunt Rosemary’s wedding to Joel and it was aboard the Ninth Wave sailboat. Jen was nervous about the whole motion sickness thing, but she did very well.
Well had so much fun skydiving the first time I just had to go again. Being my second time I actually felt a little nervous since I knew what was coming when I reached the open door. On the plane ride up my jumpmaster points out that I should have had gloves. Not a big deal he says if my hands feel cold to just pull them into my suit. Then he tells me a story about one of his students that after they jumped out of the plane and he gave the thumbs up signal that means everything is good, the student pulled the rip cord. You are supposed to wait until your jumpmaster waves his hand in front of your face then points down towards the rip cord. So they don’t get a long free fall, but a super long parachute ride down. So now it’s our turn to go out the door. We walk, which is more of a waddle, towards the door. We are going to do a sideways exit. We get to the door opening and we are facing forward looking at the wing. The he says Ready, Set, Arch and out the door we go. This time as we are falling I’m aware of my body position and get into the proper arch position. He gives the thumbs up and we freefall. This time without a photographer I can look down and all around as I please, no need to look at a photographer. As I look around I can see the Boston skyline in the distance, that was awesome. A little while later my jumpmaster waves his hand in front of my face and points. Now it feels like we just jumped out and I remember the story on the plane of the student that pulled the rip cord to soon, then I realize my hands are very cold and aren’t moving too quick. By this time my jumpmaster pulls the rip cord. You only have a couple seconds to do it until they just do it. As we parachute he explains how the toggles and steering lines work. As we are about to land he has me help although he really does the work since his hands are above mine in the toggles. Then we land. The ride is over…. until next year! Jennifer came with me to take pictures of my sky dive.
On our 17th anniversary we went to Jumptown in Orange, MA to watch Jen’s friend celebrate her 25th birthday by skydiving. I thought it would be cool to watch and take some pictures. When it was time for her friend to get her jump training we were asked if we wanted to go in with her. Couldn’t pass that up, so we watched her learn how to exit the airplane and how to arch her body during freefall. Cool stuff. Then it was time for her to get suited up and get in the plane. We went over to the spectators area and waited. After a while we could see tiny people falling in the sky, and then a little while later parachutes opening. Not knowing who is who I just took a bunch of pictures. Once she landed Jen said “we need to check into this.” So we head in to find out what the cost is and when they have openings. We figured it would be another week or so, sounds easy to say we’ll do it later. They told us they had two openings on the next flight and they would give us the group discount….. OK, so sign us up! We do our flight training class and then get suited up. After we hang out for a bit walking around with these straps between your legs, now if you’re a guy… well you probably get the picture. Once it’s time to board the plane you enter and and straddle a bench facing backwards. Not a problem, but different. As we’re gaining altitude Muppet, my jumpmaster (the person you are strapped to), explains some things and starts attaching your harness to his. A little later on someone slides open the door and you hear the noise from outside, just like the window is down in your car while you’re on the highway, but you are 13,000 feet above the ground. You slide forward on the bench as others are sliding forward. I saw Jen go out the doorway with her camera man and jumpmaster. See you on the ground! A couple others go, then it’s my turn. We walk toward the open door crouching while having someone strapped to my back. As we get to the door…. wow, that ground is way down there! Oh yeah, while we were sitting on the bench I asked Muppet how we actually go out the door. He says that we will say “Ready, Set, Arch” and out we go. I ask “am I stepping out the door or what?” He says “I’m pushing us out”. 🙂 Ok so back to being at the open door 13,000 feet up. I look out and think it’s a good thing he’s going to push me. Ready, Set, Arch! and out we go, as we fall out the plane we do a flip and see the plane flying away as we fall on our back. That was so awesome! Then we turn around get in the arch position and freefall for around 30 seconds. Now this is very loud as you hear the air rushing by your ears at over 100mph, kind of like sticking your head out the window on the highway. Muppet pulls my head up so my camera man, Ben, can get video/photos of my face and not the top of my head. We were told about that in the training class, but when you are falling it’s so hard not to look at the ground. It’s mesmerizing. At 5,000+ feet Muppet moves his hand in front of my face and then points to the rip cord. I have a couple seconds to pull the rip cord or he will. I pull it and then feel a lot of pressure between my legs as we slow down from 130mph to 15mph and the parachute is open! Gotta love that. Now we can talk since we don’t have the noise of the air rushing past us. He does some tricks with canopy, pulling on one side causing us to spin fast. Then he shows how you can feel weightless, he pulls on one side then the other quickly. He then let’s me hold on and help steer while his hands are holding above mine. That was pretty cool. Time to practice lifting legs for the landing, you don’t want your feet/legs to hit the ground or you become a pivot point, not good unless you want to kiss the ground. We land smoothly and it’s over. I’m ready to go again. We get disconnected and I go over to see Jen and we they get a shot of us together.
I can’t wait to go again!
I posted the videos and pictures from both of our jumps in the Skydiving album.
My wife bought some Red Sox tickets for our anniversary and we went to my first Red Sox game. Unfortunately they lost, but it was still a great time.
Bought a new car, a 2003 Nissan Altima. Technically it’s not a “new” car, but as they say, new to me.
So, I’ve wanted a leather jacket for awhile now and finally decided to purchase one. On Friday I went to Filene’s and bought one, but when I got home and put it on again I realized it was too big even though it was a size small. The arms were, well, too big. I could fit another arm in there. So today I returned the jacket to Filene’s and went to Wilsons Leather. I spoke to a woman there who was very helpful. I couldn’t decide on a couple so she put them aside for me. I walked the mall, had dinner, drank a couple Corona Light’s with Lime – mmmmm good. After that I went back to the store tried each one on a few times and decided to buy, yeah the more expensive one. 🙂
It’s so nice though.
Just finished watching Lost In Translation for the 3rd or 4th time. The reason I like the movie has nothing to do with the opening scene, but it does add something. 😉
Green Day is awesome… and the subject pretty much sums it up.
Hmm, just about to come true.
OK, I’m back dating this posting since I’ve been too lazy to actually post to my journal.
So, last night I went to see Paul Feig, the creator of the TV show Freaks and Geeks at the Brookline Booksmith bookstore in Brookline MA. He was promoting his second book “Superstud: Or How I Became a 24 Year Old Virgin”. He was hilarious. I don’t think I ever heard someone talk so much about masturbation. He read a few excerpts from the book and then autographed basically anything you brought. During the autograph session we got to watch a few episodes of Freaks and Geeks on the big screen. Very cool!
Went to a party last night and the they had a bunch of the fireworks you can buy at the stores, but they also had the “real” ones. I was able to help them with the fuses. Amazing what comes out of those brown packages! Oh yeah, he started the show by shooting off his cannon. Doesn’t everyone have a cannon?