So I've been working with Mur for a little while now, learning how to be a parachute rigger. That is someone, qualified, and certified to pack the reserve parachute, as well as being able to make minor canopy repairs, overhauls, and inspections of equipment. It seems like the natural progression for me, being someone who supports skydiving by packing the main parachute for a whole bunch of people. Plus some of the better canopy pilots out at the DZ are the riggers, and they are well respected, oh and it's just cool. So Mur has taken me under her wing for now, showing me the basics before I go take Dave Dewolf's course in January, which is going to cost me an arm, and possibly a leg. An investment that I think is well worth it. Learning all these things is very interesting, and I can pack a reserve fairly well, so long as you don't count bagging it. I've only done that well a few times, and stowing those lines is still a bit tricky. I've also now sewn together a fair few of walk around training harnesses for our students to go along with the new gear, and I'll be making some more of them this week as well.
Last night was an entirely new project for me, one that I didn't work on much at all, and was more just instructional. There was an 8" or so tear in one of our tandem canopies near the tail. So Mur was patching it, and I got to watch and help out a bit. Tonight I'll probably practice patching some canopy material, not on an actual canopy yet, because well my sewing skills are not super amazing... yet. They are improving and pretty quickly actually, but I don't really feel comfortable poking holes into a parachute and then possibly having to re-do it because I can't sew well enough.
Oh I also graduated from my cane yesterday, and I'm now walking unassisted other than my schweet boot. I'm pretty pumped about that, even though my foot/leg are sore today I'm going to stick it out baby!
JOTD:
The Crusades - Because when God gave Moses the 5th commandment, he was jk jk lol.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Ocho de Mayo!
So instead of cinco de mayo, we had ocho de mayo at the drop zone, since well cinco was on Wednesday, and ocho was Saturday.
"Patron on the rocks, and I'm ready for some shots!"
So we're having this big Mexican fiesta style party after the club meeting and everything. I've got two bottles of tequila, along with three different kinds of margarita mixes. A few other people also got more bottles of other stuff, a few bottles of patron floating around for shots. Mary and I worked on some rigging in the morning, sewing together and finishing 3 walk around harnesses, then heading out to the dz for the party, and for me to re-assemble all the student gear and pack those up.... huge fucking parachutes -grumble-.
"Patron on the rocks, and I'm ready for some shots!"
Anywhoo, we have our club meeting, with a taco bar for everyone, and enjoy the food, get the updates on the club. Do two initiations, which are always good shit. Kimmy and Chad became permanent members. All in all I believe I had about 5 shots of patron, and 4 margaritas before heading out to the bar. I ate two tacos during the club meeting, thereby fulfilling my sustenance needs for the day... kinda. Had a whiskey and coke that was stronger than I make them for myself, which is pretty scary to be honest.
"Patron on the rocks, and I'm ready for some shots!"
Also had 3 bombs at the bar, I managed to get Prigge, and Kimmy to buy said bombs for me, don't ask me how I don't much remember that part. Drank about 1/2 of Lisa's cranberry vodka and danced for a lil while and what not. We went back to the club, and I was pretty much drunk as a skunk, and ready to pass the fuck out. So I did. Within what I believe was about 10 minutes, I was throwing up... all over the couch I was sleeping on. B-Mart had to wake me up and force me to help him clean up my vomit... It was pretty much disgusting. I threw out the shirt I was wearing because it was totally covered, smeared even, and it was a nice shirt. One that Meghan bought me, so I'm fairly confident it looked 1/2 decent on me. The two cushions that took the brute of the attack got thrown over the balcony, and B-Mart took them into the showers and hosed those off, while I attempted to clean up the couch and carpet as best I could. B-Mart showed up with a steaming bucket of bleach water, which worked really well actually. The next morning I couldn't even tell where on the couch I had thrown up, except after I hurled I became pretty conscious and my memory worked, probably because the sudden lack of booze pissed me off... not sure. Now I owe B-Mart huge, because he stayed up for an hour or so to clean up my mess, which is just disgusting.
On Sunday morning, every time I walked past the vending machine, I bought B-Mart a Dr. Pepper, the soda he likes, and just kinda told him he looked thirsty. It's a small start and I think I spent like $1.50 or $2.00 which isn't even close to what his help was worth, but at least it's something. So for now I'm trying to figure out the best way to pay my debt to him.
A few things can be learned from my ordeal:
-It's great to have good fucking friends.
-Tequila rocks, until it's coming out, that's just unpleasant.
-Don't go to the bar after 12:30.
-And of course, Nothing good happens after 2:00AM
Random Joke:
Facebook -- Making it acceptable for strangers to be creepy since 2004.
"Patron on the rocks, and I'm ready for some shots!"
So we're having this big Mexican fiesta style party after the club meeting and everything. I've got two bottles of tequila, along with three different kinds of margarita mixes. A few other people also got more bottles of other stuff, a few bottles of patron floating around for shots. Mary and I worked on some rigging in the morning, sewing together and finishing 3 walk around harnesses, then heading out to the dz for the party, and for me to re-assemble all the student gear and pack those up.... huge fucking parachutes -grumble-.
"Patron on the rocks, and I'm ready for some shots!"
Anywhoo, we have our club meeting, with a taco bar for everyone, and enjoy the food, get the updates on the club. Do two initiations, which are always good shit. Kimmy and Chad became permanent members. All in all I believe I had about 5 shots of patron, and 4 margaritas before heading out to the bar. I ate two tacos during the club meeting, thereby fulfilling my sustenance needs for the day... kinda. Had a whiskey and coke that was stronger than I make them for myself, which is pretty scary to be honest.
"Patron on the rocks, and I'm ready for some shots!"
Also had 3 bombs at the bar, I managed to get Prigge, and Kimmy to buy said bombs for me, don't ask me how I don't much remember that part. Drank about 1/2 of Lisa's cranberry vodka and danced for a lil while and what not. We went back to the club, and I was pretty much drunk as a skunk, and ready to pass the fuck out. So I did. Within what I believe was about 10 minutes, I was throwing up... all over the couch I was sleeping on. B-Mart had to wake me up and force me to help him clean up my vomit... It was pretty much disgusting. I threw out the shirt I was wearing because it was totally covered, smeared even, and it was a nice shirt. One that Meghan bought me, so I'm fairly confident it looked 1/2 decent on me. The two cushions that took the brute of the attack got thrown over the balcony, and B-Mart took them into the showers and hosed those off, while I attempted to clean up the couch and carpet as best I could. B-Mart showed up with a steaming bucket of bleach water, which worked really well actually. The next morning I couldn't even tell where on the couch I had thrown up, except after I hurled I became pretty conscious and my memory worked, probably because the sudden lack of booze pissed me off... not sure. Now I owe B-Mart huge, because he stayed up for an hour or so to clean up my mess, which is just disgusting.
On Sunday morning, every time I walked past the vending machine, I bought B-Mart a Dr. Pepper, the soda he likes, and just kinda told him he looked thirsty. It's a small start and I think I spent like $1.50 or $2.00 which isn't even close to what his help was worth, but at least it's something. So for now I'm trying to figure out the best way to pay my debt to him.
A few things can be learned from my ordeal:
-It's great to have good fucking friends.
-Tequila rocks, until it's coming out, that's just unpleasant.
-Don't go to the bar after 12:30.
-And of course, Nothing good happens after 2:00AM
Random Joke:
Facebook -- Making it acceptable for strangers to be creepy since 2004.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Meh
So, it's that time of year when all the young'uns are getting excited for their summer of leisure, the college kids are stressing over up coming exams, and I'm just excited to see the sun for more than just a few hours a day. For some reason there have been gale-force winds around the DZ the last few weeks, which has severely limited the number of jumps being made. This is no good, I need money and can't get said money without packing parachutes, the DZ needs to fly the pretty new plane we just got in order to make that a financially sound decision. Oh yeah and it's also Cinco de Mayo.
I don't really care that today is a Mexican holiday, however I will use it as an excuse to party. I'm not quite sure if I'll actually be doing anything today, but we're having an Ocho de Mayo fiesta on Saturday at the club. I've taken it upon myself to decide that this is also going to be a margarita night. So within the next few days I'm going to have to pick up a couple bottles of tequila, mmmmm delicious, and some margarita mix and ice and whatever else we'll be needing. Hopefully people will be very receptive and give me some money back. After looking up margarita recipes online, I think we will have a few different flavors to choose from and fun will be had by all.
Nothing really all that fantastic to report as of recent, since there hasn't been much jumping, and I've just been hangin' around the house. I think Sam wants to hang tonight so I might head over there, depends on the weather, if it's clear and we're jumping I'm going to go have to try and make some $$ if not, well then maybe it's time to play beer pong baseball that I learned about from survivingtheworld.net which is a pretty much hilarious webcomic.
Anywhoo I leave you with this message:
If you have a cane and are not a senior citizen, it's still acceptable to yell at the whippersnappers running on the lawn.
I don't really care that today is a Mexican holiday, however I will use it as an excuse to party. I'm not quite sure if I'll actually be doing anything today, but we're having an Ocho de Mayo fiesta on Saturday at the club. I've taken it upon myself to decide that this is also going to be a margarita night. So within the next few days I'm going to have to pick up a couple bottles of tequila, mmmmm delicious, and some margarita mix and ice and whatever else we'll be needing. Hopefully people will be very receptive and give me some money back. After looking up margarita recipes online, I think we will have a few different flavors to choose from and fun will be had by all.
Nothing really all that fantastic to report as of recent, since there hasn't been much jumping, and I've just been hangin' around the house. I think Sam wants to hang tonight so I might head over there, depends on the weather, if it's clear and we're jumping I'm going to go have to try and make some $$ if not, well then maybe it's time to play beer pong baseball that I learned about from survivingtheworld.net which is a pretty much hilarious webcomic.
Anywhoo I leave you with this message:
If you have a cane and are not a senior citizen, it's still acceptable to yell at the whippersnappers running on the lawn.
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