Michele 1 #51 June 6, 2004 QuotePlease don't fly out here in July with intentions to kick my ass, Sunny One. Hah, no need, Sunny One...because I am local, and I will gladly kick Rosa's tiny patootie should she even think of it. And if that doesn't worry Ro', then she needs to rethink what's really scary in the world. LOL! Hugs, Rosa. It's just a wee bump in the road. You'll get around it, and soon you'll be hale and hearty again, and jumping. Just take your time and get better all the way! Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #52 June 6, 2004 QuoteHah, no need, Sunny One...because I am local, and I will gladly kick Rosa's tiny patootie should she even think of it. Omg...WTF!?! Seriously, WTF did I say or do to make anyone think that I would keep jumping with my broken ankle? How funny!!! I repeat...I promise NOT to jump while my ankle is still healing...except MAYBE to do a tandem (if I can afford it and the doctor approves it) for my birthday. I MAY show up at the DZ every now and then to see a few people, so please do NOT jump the gun & immediately begin to kick my ass!!! By the way, Michele, I know how strong you are...you could easily snap me in two. I mean, you could seriously kick most people's (men or women) bum, so, yes, I finds the mere thought of that very, very frightening!!! Just so you all know, I will not be able to jump anyway because I have decided to sell my main. I want to upsize a little for when I am able to jump, again. See how good I am? Hmmm...me thinks that everyone is taking pleasure in the thoughts of kicking my little ass ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Michele 1 #53 June 6, 2004 QuoteHow funny!!! So, Miss Ro', did this make you laugh? Then my job is done! Quoteso please do NOT jump the gun & immediately begin to kick my ass!!! How about I reserve any potential patootie pounding until I see you in your gear? Fair deal? !!! Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 140 #54 June 6, 2004 Hey Rosa, so sorry for you, hope you'll be better very soon. Oh, BTW, you have very nice legs, be careful to keep'em like that.scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #55 June 6, 2004 QuoteHow funny!!! So, Miss Ro', did this make you laugh? Then my job is done! Yes, yes, yes...you made me laugh. I had been weepy until I read your last posts!!! Thank you, Michele. Thank you, too, Sunny for the posts and PMs. You are sooo sweet. I can hardly wait to see you, again. Piisfish ~ Thank you for the compliment! ((((((((((((((HUGS TO ALL)))))))))))))) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mirochristie 0 #56 June 6, 2004 OMG....WHAT AN ISSUE! I`m sorry, but I think I wrote:Quote "I would jump with a cast" Meaning, "ME"... "I" ... "YO". You do whatever you want. I`ve seen people like that in WFFC. I mean, it`s up to you obviously! But, don`t let that bad ankle keep you in bed. Go have fun. Have someone carry you. Attend to the places you were going to...Have fun. Even if you don`t jump,... go! You broke your ankle! It`s done! Live w/ it, don`t stop living cause of it. It`s not going to heal over night, right?!... Lo siento mucho. De veras! No pensé que la gente iba a responder así. Te contesté a ti. Fue a ti mi mensaje...no a más nadie! Espero que entiendas mi mensaje.LiquidSky @(^_^)@ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #57 June 6, 2004 Thank you for the post, Christie, and please don't worry about it. I am not upset or anything. Also, I am not going to jump until I am totally healed. I think that my friends overreacted because they were being protective of me. I love that they responded by wanting to "kick my ass"...lol! They obviously care about me and didn't want for me to get even more hurt. I probably would have said something similar to them. the funny thing is that I would never even have considered jumping like this. I have no idea why they would think that I would, except that maybe they were trying to make me laugh? Please don't take it personally. Thank you for being a friend. No te precupes, my amiga. Yo entiendo lo que estabas tratando de decir. No es un problema. Gracias por pensar en mi y que tengas una semana feliz, Christie. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites katiebear21 0 #58 June 6, 2004 Very sorry to hear that honey. Hope you feel better soon. We've all been there. Don't get yourself too down. PMS Hugs to ya! Katie Get your PMS glass necklace here Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites freeflir29 0 #59 June 6, 2004 That really sucks sweetheart. How many times have you heard me say "Skydiving is a lot more fun when you don't hurt yourself!" Drink your milk and heal up quick. In the mean time just make some guy wait on you hand and foot! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #60 June 7, 2004 Sunny, I love ya so much, girlie. Thank you sooooo much for calling me. Everyone is still jumping out here, so I haven't had too many calls. Gosh girlie, I really, really, really appreciate that you called me so very, very much. Sorry for telling you about the other hardships that I am going through in my life and, basically, blubbering my little heart out. You are the sweetest girl, ever. I am so glad that we're friends. All my love, my friend, ROSA Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites DownWind 0 #61 June 7, 2004 Rosa, sorry to hear you broke your ankle I wish you a speedy recovery and send {{{{VIBES}}}} your way. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites canopycandy 0 #62 June 7, 2004 Rosa, I'm so very sorry to hear about your ankle. I wish I were closer so I could help you -- or at least visit. You're such an effervescent person, I'm confident you'll be happy and smiley and running around in no time. Cheer up -- and get well soon. Big hugs from the Midwest!!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites peacefuljeffrey 0 #63 June 7, 2004 QuoteRight now, I am having a hard time with this, but I have to look at the bright side. Things always happen for a reason, right? Something amazing must be on the horizon for me to balance this out, right? Things always seem to work out for the best...eventually, when I stay positive. I just have to give it some time. It's really hard to stay positive, right now. Can anyone help me out by sending me some love, prayers, vibes, support. I need it right now. Ohhh, chica, you didn't even have to ask for that stuff -- it was pouring out of me the moment I read your header! I'm so sorry to hear this bad news -- feels worse because today was the first day I got to jump in two months so it was a good one for me. But no more about me: I want you to know that I and we all love you (even those of us who haven't yet met you in person) and are beaming love, prayers, vibes and support to you at this very moment and will continue to until you're healed and flying again! Blue skies, -Jeffrey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Snowwhite 0 #64 June 7, 2004 QuoteThat really sucks sweetheart. How many times have you heard me say "Skydiving is a lot more fun when you don't hurt yourself!" Drink your milk and heal up quick. In the mean time just make some guy wait on you hand and foot! Make him wear a g-string while he does it. It's so MUCH more fun that way!skydiveTaylorville.org freefallbeth@yahoo.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #65 June 7, 2004 QuoteMake him wear a g-string while he does it. It's so MUCH more fun that way! Oh my gosh... I am not sure about the g-string, though. I prefer my men...er...man (?) nude. Sigh...wouldn't it be nice if someone could just kiss my boo-boo and make it all better? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites freeflir29 0 #66 June 7, 2004 QuoteSigh...wouldn't it be nice if someone could just kiss my boo-boo and make it all better? I'm certainly willing to give it a try! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites flyangel2 2 #67 June 7, 2004 QuoteSeriously, WTF did I say or do to make anyone think that I would keep jumping with my broken ankle? Never mentioned that you were thinking that. I just felt it was a good idea to cut that thought off at the pass in case a newbie were to read that. I will mention that if you are thinking about doing a Tandem, go back and re-read what I wrote. I'm sure there will be a Tandem JM jump in here and give his/her's advice on that subject.May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #68 June 7, 2004 QuoteNever mentioned that you were thinking that. I NEVER did think that. This is directed to everyone, in general, not Mar: Please reread the posts that I wrote. Mirochristie posted something that has NOTHING to do with what I would do. I NEVER said anything to anyone online or off about jumping before I am healed. I would NEVER do that. I am not irrational...nor is my mind easily swayed by what others say or write to me! I have NEVER even broken any bones before, and I plan to never break anything else if I can help it. I am quite conservative and want to heal properly. I am a VERY conservative skydiver and a conservative person, in general. For the record, my intent was never to even do a tandem. This idea was recommended to me by someone else, and I was going to look into it tomorrow. However, I would never do it if it is not adviseable or acceptable by the tandem masters at Elsinore. Even if it was, I may not have done it because I worry more than others about things like hitting the door on the way out, having a tumble as we land, etc. Like I said...I am quite conservative with my body and my health. I am NEVER one to loose my reasoning. Those who know me know how ludicrous this idea of jumping with a cast on is to me. Mar, I owe you an apology if my initial post was directed towards you and was not coming across the way that I intended. Thank you so much for caring and for helping me and the others who may be reading this. You're a doll! (I mean that.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Michele 1 #69 June 7, 2004 Wow, Rosa, you're certainly not yourself right now. HUGS to you, sweetie...didja get chocolate? That makes me feel better sometimes. Mar said: QuoteNever mentioned that you were thinking that. I just felt it was a good idea to cut that thought off at the pass in case a newbie were to read that. I think she was just mentioning it because so many people read these posts, and some people don't know better at first. Of course you know better. Of course you will be doing exactly what your Dr. says...but what about those poor newbies who think "hey, there's an idea!".... I hope you get back to being cheerful and happy again soon, Rosa. Pain is temporary, the sky is permanent. HUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGS to you. Mar isn't coming after you at all, nor are those who posted patootie pounding potential (ahem...). Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites lewmonst 0 #70 June 7, 2004 hey rosa, be patient, you'll heal. I have seen people jump with casts, but I would not recommend it to you. There was a tandemmaster who had a full calf-to-foot cast, he would hobble up on crutches and meet his students, they were like "you're kidding right"... of course not. He explained to them how he doesn't need his feet in freefall and he just slid in on all his landings. Someone got his crutches after he got on the plane, and took them to him when he landed. It was amusing, but he did a good job. peace lewhttp://www.exitshot.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #71 June 7, 2004 No chocolate and no pain meds, either! Michele, I am LMAO, again, at your post. I LOVE you and you are for some reason making me totally hysterical with the "patootie pounding" posts! I am NOT upset at you or Mar or anyone AT ALL. I am simply wanting to prevent a hassle online. When I saw Mar's last post, I thought that it would be misrespresenting me and my views on jumping with a fricken cast on. I wanted to clarify that I am NOT going to do that and NEVER said that I would do that before I was bombarded with posts and PMs about it. You know that most people don't read through entire threads, and they would be posting and PMing me to death with their views on this subject. I already thanked Mar for being so frank via a PM. I was responding so the world wouldn't be pissing me off by sending "don't do it" PMs. I am pissed off enough as it is. Mar, Michele, Sunny, I love you guys...as well as everyone else that wrote or called me. Please let that whole other thing about "jumpng with a cast"go. I think that it's a lame (lol!) idea! Let's get back to sending me love and vibes, please... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Michele 1 #72 June 7, 2004 Quote No chocolate and no pain meds Damn, girl. Don't you have a pharmacy that will deliver? I've got several near my house; I'm sure you've got one near you...let your fingers do the walking, and check out those pharmacies via the net. And I'll just bet you can convince them to deliver some chocolate, too. And getting back... HUGHGHUGHUGHUGHUG! VIBEVIBEVIBEVIBEVIBE! Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #73 June 7, 2004 Thank you. I must go lie down...feeling really nauseaus...ugh... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tinkerbelle 5 #74 June 7, 2004 Hi there VanillaSkyGirl, Sorry I wrote a book, but I am just sitting here all alone and lonely at home on a Sunday night, and I have something very important to share! I am very encouraged to hear so many people come out of the woodwork to wish you well, as do I. It always frustrates me to see all the fair weather friends in our skydiving community these days. One example of this that was particularly apparent was when a team guy I know was very badly injured landing his new parachute. His head even struck the ground requiring a shunt to be put into his cranium to bleed off the extra pressure building within his skull. Even though I did not know the guy beyond the occasional greeting in passing at the DZ, and he did have a sweet, doting wife to care for him, I immediately went out and got him a couple potted plants of colorful flowers wrapped in colorful paper with bows that he could later plant in the garden, a card, and a couple big creature balloons to look at and keep him company in his otherwise stark, bleak, lonely hospital room. It was my intent to bring his something festive to make him smile. I guess it worked 'cause while walking around the hospital people asked me where the party was. I didn't stay long but to ask his wife how he was doing, to let him know I cared, and to drop off the mood lifters to cheer him up and give him something to look at besides the barren white walls and all the machinery sticking in him. The next weekend the first thing I asked when I got to the DZ was how he was doing. To my amazement, no one knew, not even his own team mates. None of them had gone to see him or even called him, despite his being in urgent care just 15 minutes from the DZ! I thought, what kind of friends and team mates are those? Completely inconsiderate, selfish, fair weather ones, for sure! Recently another friend of mine, a fairly new jumer, was hurt for the first time. He called me up horrified that even though everyone was his buddy at the DZ as long as he had something to smoke and beer to share, and some had even borrowed large sums of money from him, after he broke his tibia and fibula, he was all alone at home, and no one had even bothered to call to see how he was doing. Up 'till that point he said he had always bragged to non-jumpers about the cameradie among skydivers, that is was like a big, close knit family, about how when you share in such an extreme, life-threatening sport, that it builds a very strong bond among jumpers that surpasses any other you may have with a non-jumper. Yet when he got hurt, not even the DZ owner, who he had expected to at least call once to check on him, seemed to care. He said the only people to call and stop by were his non-jumper buddies. I shared with him my similar experience, and we agreed that it seems our sport is filled with all too many selfish, ego-centric, self-righteous people who tend, for the most part, to just be fair weather friends. Skydiving has become so competitive, it's almost as if these days people care more about the fact that an injured person just leaves them the opportunity to move up in the pecking order or assume that person's slot. There was a not too far fetched joke at the 300-way about how some of the paticipants may be found mysteriously dead off in the bushes, while some of the alternates would be in the bathroom wiping the blood off. Lately I have even heard people say, "Hurry up and scrape the dead guy off the runway, we're trying to skydive here, and he's in the way, and the darned paramedics are taking too long. At least just scrape him to the side, so the airplane can get by." I have also heard, "Isn't he dead yet. I wish he'd hurry up and die, 'cause we're burning daylight, and we've got to get off at least a couple more jumps!" I have even asked for a moment of silence in the bar for the guy who died at the DZ that very day, but no wanted to, cared to, nor would they even take a moment away from their beer drinking to grant him that tiny consideration. We get so jaded with people dying and being injured at the DZ, that we forget that they are people, and that is a life we are talking about. If it were you, which it could just as easily be, no matter how careful you think you are, you would probably want others to care, and not just blow you off. as if you suddenly weren't important just because you got hurt. From my own personal experience, I used to be quite the force to be reconed with on the DZ. Everywhere I went people wanted to jump with me and be my friend. Yet since I broke my neck, and am unable to jump like I used to, it's like I am of no use any more. Since I was always too busy with school work, over 10 years of cllege studying the hardest stuff, and working to support myself, and maintaining a whole house full of fish tanks including 4 several hundred gallon reef tanks, and being on a ski team, ice sating, sailing, rock climbing, and dancing, the only social life I maintained since I was 18 years old, 'till now at 36, was at the DZ. So even after I got hurt, I sill used to go out to the DZ for the cameraderie. Before I was injured people used to always come running up to me when I arrived on the DZ to ask if I wanted to get on the next load, and everyone wanted me to sign their logbook. Though not being able to join in on the fun playing in the sky, even though I would try to communicate with the people on the ground, after a while, they just started walking by me as if I wasn't there. Long ago I wanted to make a T-Shirt that read, "If you don't skydive, you don't exist!" in the same vein as the one that reads "I skydive therefore I am". I wanted so much to still feel a part of the jumping, watching the dirt dives and the video, even though it felt much like watching people eat chocolate cake while starving and not being able to have a bite. I used to always feel sorry for non-jumpers. I never knew what they did on weekends to get their thrills and blow off steam. If ever I had missed a weekend in the past, to study for an exam, or even if it was raining, I would get heavy withdrawals. In fact even if I only got in one day, or if I hadn't done my usual at least 4 jumps/day, I felt somehow unfulfilled. It is hard to lose your favorite activity as well as your entire social life, both at the same time. It feels as if I committed some sort of crime and am being punished and ostracized at the same time. After getting hurt the pilot and DZ owner used to let me sit in the right seat of the plane, and he even let me fly. It wasn't jumping, but it was at least better than sitting on the ground, although it was kind of depressing watching everyone exit, as if I was missing the party. The pilot used to insist I put on my seat belt during exit just to be sure I didn't follow them out, since he knew how much I wanted to. Unfortunately one of the nasty, jealous bitches at the manifest made a big stink about it and threatened to call the FAA if he didn't stop letting me do that. I think she was just angry 'cause her boob job didn't fix her personality and afford her any more attention than a girl who hadn't had gone to the expense of doing that was getting despite her petite frame and natural breateses. Women can be so jealous, mean, competitive, and bitchy sometimes! Like being an American in Europe, I am often embarrassed to be a woman. At the Convention, often Paul Fayard, who owns the all the Cassas, lets me go for rides. Also, I never liked to pack, but now I feel good packing with everyone else, 'cause it almost feels like I am a skydiver once again. Having jumped for so long and having had a very diverse skydiving carreer, I have a great deal to share. I even married a guy in the military when I was 19 even though we never lived together, just so I could jump with the military's sport parachute club for 4$/year out of their blackhawk helicopters at Fort Ord (where Skydive Monterey Bay is now since Clinton closed the base and turned it into a black ghetto of low income housing bringing the criminal element to our otherwise peaceful Central Coast that is more like a war zone now complete with a puppet black mayor). With them I got to do lots of demos including those for the American Legion where Martha Rae used to come visit, did demos out at Vandenberg Airforce base, the Laguna Seca Speedway race track, etc.... When I lived in Hawaii, I was even a member of the Pacific Forces Exhibition Skydiving Team, PACFEST, with whom I got to do demos, and training exercises with the rest of the airborn troops out of all kinds of cool aircraft including blackhawks, shanooks, C-130s, C-141s, and even was among the first group of people to ever get to jump out of the military's new C-17, like a C-141 on steroids. I have lots of experience I love to share about the good stuff I know as well as what to avoid doing to not get hurt. I love talking about skydiving as much as everyone else. I too used to always tout what a cool family the skydiving world was before I got hurt, yet since then, they have all but abandoned me. I don't even bother going out to the DZ any more 'cause not only is it hard to watch everyone else have fun, but the people there, especially the fairly new jumpers can be so cruel and insensitive toward their fallen camerads. If you get hurt it's as if you are suddenly and untemench, or a lepor. I used to teach SCUBA through NAUI's HSA (Handicapt SCUBA Association), so I used to spend a lot of time hanging out with para and quadra plegics. An injured skydiver is often treated like someone in a wheelchair. People act toward them like they were born that way. When people walk by they often refuse to make eye contac, and just turn their heads away pretending they didn't even see them, as people also do to homeless people. I wish people would realize that just like a wheelchair bound person, they are that way because they just had an accident, which could happen to anyone at any time, especially while engaged in some dangerous activity. And yes, skydiving is dangerous! Once at Eloy I heard some fairly new jumper telling some specatators that skydiving was no more dangerous than driving down the freeway. I chimed in that in fact it was dangerous. The guy told the people not to listen to me, that I didn't know what I was talking about. Well, on his very next jump, that fool, who obviously didn't have enough respect for what he was doing or just how careful he needed to be, had a canopy collision at 100 feet, hooking into a guy upon his final approach, and died! Luckily the other person was not too badly injured. The same applies to homeless people. They are just people like you and me, but have just fallen into a hole they can't seem to get out of. Often they are just overly sensitive individuals who have had a bad experience, and it has left them unable to cope with life. Skydivers, injured people, wheelchair people, and homeless people are all just that, people, who all deserve the same amount of consideration and attention. Beyond that, it is the case that the latter actually deserve more attention and consideration, since they are already suffering from their circumstances, so to then have people just blow them off, ignore them, and turn the other way as if they aren't there, only further hurts their self esteem, which is obviously already suffering. It is a good thing to care for your fellow humankind. You can't change the World, but you do have the power to make a huge impact on our skydiving community in the realm of stoping just a second to care about those around you who have had the misfortune of having been injured. It makes me sad to see people like Bill Ottley, who was the shit in his day, yet now people don't even bother to say "HI" to him any more. I have cruzed around events with him in his golfcart, only to notice that very few even take the time to talk to him, which I know would really make him feel good. Also when Bob Sinclaire broke his foot showing everyone at the World Cup in Eloy why we don't jump rounds any more, no one seemed to even care. I went to check on him in his bus a couple days later, and he hadn't moved from his bed. His pee bottle was absolutely black from dehydration. I dragged him kicking and screaming to the VA in Tucson. It was even hard to find a couple people to even take a minute out of their day to help me get him from his bed in the back of his bus into my car. At the hospital the doctor said he was so dehydrated he would have to take some shots to thin his blood every day for a week before they could operate. The doctor asked if there was anyone around to help him out in the mean while. Never one to ask for help or demonstrate vulnerability, he of course replied, "Yeah, sure, there are 1000s of jumpers out at the DZ where my bus is parked." Sure there were, but out of all of them, not a single one but me cared enough to even look in on him. This is very sad since Bob is one of our cultural icons! He has been jumping for over 50 years, and has more diverse experience than any other jumper alive! He could tell jumping stories for days straight, years even. He even has photo albums of all that jumping! He basically innovated skydiving photography and stunt work and had a parachute school in Hollywood from the 50s through the 80s! He took Johnny Carson on his first parachute jump. He has done a phenominal amount for our sport, and yet when he got injured and needed help and a friend to talk to, everyone was just too busy doing their own thing to even care that one of our skydiving pioneers, who had been hurt right in front of everyone, needed someone to care. I insisted behind Bob's back that the doctor admit him to their long term care facility 'till the operation. I even went down to Tucson every day to take Bob a hamburger from McDonalds since he wouldn't eat the hospital food. At least there all the old veterans would congregate in his room to listen to jumping stories, especially when I was there. The point of all of this is that there used to ba a lot more cameraderie in skydiving, and as Bob likes to say skydiving used to be 10% jumping and 90% story telling and socializing, but now it's only 10% socailizing and 90% skydiving. He insists the soul of jumping is disappearing and being replaced by a bunch of selfish, competitive individuals who don't seem to care to support nor care for each other any more. This needs to change. Skydiving is supposed to be a social activity in which people jump together, play together, drink together, share stories together, and enjoy each other's company. I love Eloy for that very reason, that it is a place of congregation for many Europeans. I just love going to the bent prop where on any given night you can hear stories and learn stuff including politics, technology, travel, living, housing, society, flying, skydiving, etc... about Austria, Germany, Engand, Canada, Ireland, etc.... If we don't start caring more about one another, that very unique aspect of cameraderie that makes our skydiving family so special may just vanish all together. I just want to remind people not to forget that Skydiving is as much a social activity as it is a sport. And since any one can themselves get hurt at any time, people ought to be a little more considerate toward the injured, for your time will come sooner or later, and when it does, just like Vanilla Sky Girl, you will feel bad and want people to care and not just cast you aside and abandon you as no longer useful or worthwhile. I don't think anyone can jump for any length of time and not get hurt at some point. It's just a matter or when and how bad. So remember the Golden rule, the one about treating others as you would have them treat you. And when someone you know of gets hurt, reach out to them and let them know you care. Don't just toss them aside as if they suddenly don't matter any more. Unlike voting in which it seems since there are so many people in our country, one little vote might seem insignificant and inconsequential, our sport is so small, that if everyone makes just a little effort in this direction, it would have vast consequences and make our sport just that much better, more of the close knit, supportive family it could and should be, more like it used to be. I am thinking about you my Dear! You are in my prayers! If I had enough money, which I don't since I got hurt, and my medical bills are so high, I would send you some flowers. So since it's the thought that counts, think of me sending you some flowers, OK?! Tinkerbelle Rehab is for quitters. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Misslmperfect 0 #75 June 7, 2004 hmmm....was that really neccessary???? rosa, best wishes hun - but i already told you that tink - nevermind could someone delete this?? good lordOh Canada, merci pour la livraison! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next Page 3 of 5 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Reply to this topic... × Pasted as rich text. Paste as plain text instead Only 75 emoji are allowed. × Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead × Your previous content has been restored. Clear editor × You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL. Insert image from URL × Desktop Tablet Phone Submit Reply 0 Go To Topic Listing
katiebear21 0 #58 June 6, 2004 Very sorry to hear that honey. Hope you feel better soon. We've all been there. Don't get yourself too down. PMS Hugs to ya! Katie Get your PMS glass necklace here Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflir29 0 #59 June 6, 2004 That really sucks sweetheart. How many times have you heard me say "Skydiving is a lot more fun when you don't hurt yourself!" Drink your milk and heal up quick. In the mean time just make some guy wait on you hand and foot! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #60 June 7, 2004 Sunny, I love ya so much, girlie. Thank you sooooo much for calling me. Everyone is still jumping out here, so I haven't had too many calls. Gosh girlie, I really, really, really appreciate that you called me so very, very much. Sorry for telling you about the other hardships that I am going through in my life and, basically, blubbering my little heart out. You are the sweetest girl, ever. I am so glad that we're friends. All my love, my friend, ROSA Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites DownWind 0 #61 June 7, 2004 Rosa, sorry to hear you broke your ankle I wish you a speedy recovery and send {{{{VIBES}}}} your way. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites canopycandy 0 #62 June 7, 2004 Rosa, I'm so very sorry to hear about your ankle. I wish I were closer so I could help you -- or at least visit. You're such an effervescent person, I'm confident you'll be happy and smiley and running around in no time. Cheer up -- and get well soon. Big hugs from the Midwest!!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites peacefuljeffrey 0 #63 June 7, 2004 QuoteRight now, I am having a hard time with this, but I have to look at the bright side. Things always happen for a reason, right? Something amazing must be on the horizon for me to balance this out, right? Things always seem to work out for the best...eventually, when I stay positive. I just have to give it some time. It's really hard to stay positive, right now. Can anyone help me out by sending me some love, prayers, vibes, support. I need it right now. Ohhh, chica, you didn't even have to ask for that stuff -- it was pouring out of me the moment I read your header! I'm so sorry to hear this bad news -- feels worse because today was the first day I got to jump in two months so it was a good one for me. But no more about me: I want you to know that I and we all love you (even those of us who haven't yet met you in person) and are beaming love, prayers, vibes and support to you at this very moment and will continue to until you're healed and flying again! Blue skies, -Jeffrey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Snowwhite 0 #64 June 7, 2004 QuoteThat really sucks sweetheart. How many times have you heard me say "Skydiving is a lot more fun when you don't hurt yourself!" Drink your milk and heal up quick. In the mean time just make some guy wait on you hand and foot! Make him wear a g-string while he does it. It's so MUCH more fun that way!skydiveTaylorville.org freefallbeth@yahoo.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #65 June 7, 2004 QuoteMake him wear a g-string while he does it. It's so MUCH more fun that way! Oh my gosh... I am not sure about the g-string, though. I prefer my men...er...man (?) nude. Sigh...wouldn't it be nice if someone could just kiss my boo-boo and make it all better? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites freeflir29 0 #66 June 7, 2004 QuoteSigh...wouldn't it be nice if someone could just kiss my boo-boo and make it all better? I'm certainly willing to give it a try! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites flyangel2 2 #67 June 7, 2004 QuoteSeriously, WTF did I say or do to make anyone think that I would keep jumping with my broken ankle? Never mentioned that you were thinking that. I just felt it was a good idea to cut that thought off at the pass in case a newbie were to read that. I will mention that if you are thinking about doing a Tandem, go back and re-read what I wrote. I'm sure there will be a Tandem JM jump in here and give his/her's advice on that subject.May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #68 June 7, 2004 QuoteNever mentioned that you were thinking that. I NEVER did think that. This is directed to everyone, in general, not Mar: Please reread the posts that I wrote. Mirochristie posted something that has NOTHING to do with what I would do. I NEVER said anything to anyone online or off about jumping before I am healed. I would NEVER do that. I am not irrational...nor is my mind easily swayed by what others say or write to me! I have NEVER even broken any bones before, and I plan to never break anything else if I can help it. I am quite conservative and want to heal properly. I am a VERY conservative skydiver and a conservative person, in general. For the record, my intent was never to even do a tandem. This idea was recommended to me by someone else, and I was going to look into it tomorrow. However, I would never do it if it is not adviseable or acceptable by the tandem masters at Elsinore. Even if it was, I may not have done it because I worry more than others about things like hitting the door on the way out, having a tumble as we land, etc. Like I said...I am quite conservative with my body and my health. I am NEVER one to loose my reasoning. Those who know me know how ludicrous this idea of jumping with a cast on is to me. Mar, I owe you an apology if my initial post was directed towards you and was not coming across the way that I intended. Thank you so much for caring and for helping me and the others who may be reading this. You're a doll! (I mean that.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Michele 1 #69 June 7, 2004 Wow, Rosa, you're certainly not yourself right now. HUGS to you, sweetie...didja get chocolate? That makes me feel better sometimes. Mar said: QuoteNever mentioned that you were thinking that. I just felt it was a good idea to cut that thought off at the pass in case a newbie were to read that. I think she was just mentioning it because so many people read these posts, and some people don't know better at first. Of course you know better. Of course you will be doing exactly what your Dr. says...but what about those poor newbies who think "hey, there's an idea!".... I hope you get back to being cheerful and happy again soon, Rosa. Pain is temporary, the sky is permanent. HUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGS to you. Mar isn't coming after you at all, nor are those who posted patootie pounding potential (ahem...). Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites lewmonst 0 #70 June 7, 2004 hey rosa, be patient, you'll heal. I have seen people jump with casts, but I would not recommend it to you. There was a tandemmaster who had a full calf-to-foot cast, he would hobble up on crutches and meet his students, they were like "you're kidding right"... of course not. He explained to them how he doesn't need his feet in freefall and he just slid in on all his landings. Someone got his crutches after he got on the plane, and took them to him when he landed. It was amusing, but he did a good job. peace lewhttp://www.exitshot.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #71 June 7, 2004 No chocolate and no pain meds, either! Michele, I am LMAO, again, at your post. I LOVE you and you are for some reason making me totally hysterical with the "patootie pounding" posts! I am NOT upset at you or Mar or anyone AT ALL. I am simply wanting to prevent a hassle online. When I saw Mar's last post, I thought that it would be misrespresenting me and my views on jumping with a fricken cast on. I wanted to clarify that I am NOT going to do that and NEVER said that I would do that before I was bombarded with posts and PMs about it. You know that most people don't read through entire threads, and they would be posting and PMing me to death with their views on this subject. I already thanked Mar for being so frank via a PM. I was responding so the world wouldn't be pissing me off by sending "don't do it" PMs. I am pissed off enough as it is. Mar, Michele, Sunny, I love you guys...as well as everyone else that wrote or called me. Please let that whole other thing about "jumpng with a cast"go. I think that it's a lame (lol!) idea! Let's get back to sending me love and vibes, please... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Michele 1 #72 June 7, 2004 Quote No chocolate and no pain meds Damn, girl. Don't you have a pharmacy that will deliver? I've got several near my house; I'm sure you've got one near you...let your fingers do the walking, and check out those pharmacies via the net. And I'll just bet you can convince them to deliver some chocolate, too. And getting back... HUGHGHUGHUGHUGHUG! VIBEVIBEVIBEVIBEVIBE! Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites VanillaSkyGirl 6 #73 June 7, 2004 Thank you. I must go lie down...feeling really nauseaus...ugh... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tinkerbelle 5 #74 June 7, 2004 Hi there VanillaSkyGirl, Sorry I wrote a book, but I am just sitting here all alone and lonely at home on a Sunday night, and I have something very important to share! I am very encouraged to hear so many people come out of the woodwork to wish you well, as do I. It always frustrates me to see all the fair weather friends in our skydiving community these days. One example of this that was particularly apparent was when a team guy I know was very badly injured landing his new parachute. His head even struck the ground requiring a shunt to be put into his cranium to bleed off the extra pressure building within his skull. Even though I did not know the guy beyond the occasional greeting in passing at the DZ, and he did have a sweet, doting wife to care for him, I immediately went out and got him a couple potted plants of colorful flowers wrapped in colorful paper with bows that he could later plant in the garden, a card, and a couple big creature balloons to look at and keep him company in his otherwise stark, bleak, lonely hospital room. It was my intent to bring his something festive to make him smile. I guess it worked 'cause while walking around the hospital people asked me where the party was. I didn't stay long but to ask his wife how he was doing, to let him know I cared, and to drop off the mood lifters to cheer him up and give him something to look at besides the barren white walls and all the machinery sticking in him. The next weekend the first thing I asked when I got to the DZ was how he was doing. To my amazement, no one knew, not even his own team mates. None of them had gone to see him or even called him, despite his being in urgent care just 15 minutes from the DZ! I thought, what kind of friends and team mates are those? Completely inconsiderate, selfish, fair weather ones, for sure! Recently another friend of mine, a fairly new jumer, was hurt for the first time. He called me up horrified that even though everyone was his buddy at the DZ as long as he had something to smoke and beer to share, and some had even borrowed large sums of money from him, after he broke his tibia and fibula, he was all alone at home, and no one had even bothered to call to see how he was doing. Up 'till that point he said he had always bragged to non-jumpers about the cameradie among skydivers, that is was like a big, close knit family, about how when you share in such an extreme, life-threatening sport, that it builds a very strong bond among jumpers that surpasses any other you may have with a non-jumper. Yet when he got hurt, not even the DZ owner, who he had expected to at least call once to check on him, seemed to care. He said the only people to call and stop by were his non-jumper buddies. I shared with him my similar experience, and we agreed that it seems our sport is filled with all too many selfish, ego-centric, self-righteous people who tend, for the most part, to just be fair weather friends. Skydiving has become so competitive, it's almost as if these days people care more about the fact that an injured person just leaves them the opportunity to move up in the pecking order or assume that person's slot. There was a not too far fetched joke at the 300-way about how some of the paticipants may be found mysteriously dead off in the bushes, while some of the alternates would be in the bathroom wiping the blood off. Lately I have even heard people say, "Hurry up and scrape the dead guy off the runway, we're trying to skydive here, and he's in the way, and the darned paramedics are taking too long. At least just scrape him to the side, so the airplane can get by." I have also heard, "Isn't he dead yet. I wish he'd hurry up and die, 'cause we're burning daylight, and we've got to get off at least a couple more jumps!" I have even asked for a moment of silence in the bar for the guy who died at the DZ that very day, but no wanted to, cared to, nor would they even take a moment away from their beer drinking to grant him that tiny consideration. We get so jaded with people dying and being injured at the DZ, that we forget that they are people, and that is a life we are talking about. If it were you, which it could just as easily be, no matter how careful you think you are, you would probably want others to care, and not just blow you off. as if you suddenly weren't important just because you got hurt. From my own personal experience, I used to be quite the force to be reconed with on the DZ. Everywhere I went people wanted to jump with me and be my friend. Yet since I broke my neck, and am unable to jump like I used to, it's like I am of no use any more. Since I was always too busy with school work, over 10 years of cllege studying the hardest stuff, and working to support myself, and maintaining a whole house full of fish tanks including 4 several hundred gallon reef tanks, and being on a ski team, ice sating, sailing, rock climbing, and dancing, the only social life I maintained since I was 18 years old, 'till now at 36, was at the DZ. So even after I got hurt, I sill used to go out to the DZ for the cameraderie. Before I was injured people used to always come running up to me when I arrived on the DZ to ask if I wanted to get on the next load, and everyone wanted me to sign their logbook. Though not being able to join in on the fun playing in the sky, even though I would try to communicate with the people on the ground, after a while, they just started walking by me as if I wasn't there. Long ago I wanted to make a T-Shirt that read, "If you don't skydive, you don't exist!" in the same vein as the one that reads "I skydive therefore I am". I wanted so much to still feel a part of the jumping, watching the dirt dives and the video, even though it felt much like watching people eat chocolate cake while starving and not being able to have a bite. I used to always feel sorry for non-jumpers. I never knew what they did on weekends to get their thrills and blow off steam. If ever I had missed a weekend in the past, to study for an exam, or even if it was raining, I would get heavy withdrawals. In fact even if I only got in one day, or if I hadn't done my usual at least 4 jumps/day, I felt somehow unfulfilled. It is hard to lose your favorite activity as well as your entire social life, both at the same time. It feels as if I committed some sort of crime and am being punished and ostracized at the same time. After getting hurt the pilot and DZ owner used to let me sit in the right seat of the plane, and he even let me fly. It wasn't jumping, but it was at least better than sitting on the ground, although it was kind of depressing watching everyone exit, as if I was missing the party. The pilot used to insist I put on my seat belt during exit just to be sure I didn't follow them out, since he knew how much I wanted to. Unfortunately one of the nasty, jealous bitches at the manifest made a big stink about it and threatened to call the FAA if he didn't stop letting me do that. I think she was just angry 'cause her boob job didn't fix her personality and afford her any more attention than a girl who hadn't had gone to the expense of doing that was getting despite her petite frame and natural breateses. Women can be so jealous, mean, competitive, and bitchy sometimes! Like being an American in Europe, I am often embarrassed to be a woman. At the Convention, often Paul Fayard, who owns the all the Cassas, lets me go for rides. Also, I never liked to pack, but now I feel good packing with everyone else, 'cause it almost feels like I am a skydiver once again. Having jumped for so long and having had a very diverse skydiving carreer, I have a great deal to share. I even married a guy in the military when I was 19 even though we never lived together, just so I could jump with the military's sport parachute club for 4$/year out of their blackhawk helicopters at Fort Ord (where Skydive Monterey Bay is now since Clinton closed the base and turned it into a black ghetto of low income housing bringing the criminal element to our otherwise peaceful Central Coast that is more like a war zone now complete with a puppet black mayor). With them I got to do lots of demos including those for the American Legion where Martha Rae used to come visit, did demos out at Vandenberg Airforce base, the Laguna Seca Speedway race track, etc.... When I lived in Hawaii, I was even a member of the Pacific Forces Exhibition Skydiving Team, PACFEST, with whom I got to do demos, and training exercises with the rest of the airborn troops out of all kinds of cool aircraft including blackhawks, shanooks, C-130s, C-141s, and even was among the first group of people to ever get to jump out of the military's new C-17, like a C-141 on steroids. I have lots of experience I love to share about the good stuff I know as well as what to avoid doing to not get hurt. I love talking about skydiving as much as everyone else. I too used to always tout what a cool family the skydiving world was before I got hurt, yet since then, they have all but abandoned me. I don't even bother going out to the DZ any more 'cause not only is it hard to watch everyone else have fun, but the people there, especially the fairly new jumpers can be so cruel and insensitive toward their fallen camerads. If you get hurt it's as if you are suddenly and untemench, or a lepor. I used to teach SCUBA through NAUI's HSA (Handicapt SCUBA Association), so I used to spend a lot of time hanging out with para and quadra plegics. An injured skydiver is often treated like someone in a wheelchair. People act toward them like they were born that way. When people walk by they often refuse to make eye contac, and just turn their heads away pretending they didn't even see them, as people also do to homeless people. I wish people would realize that just like a wheelchair bound person, they are that way because they just had an accident, which could happen to anyone at any time, especially while engaged in some dangerous activity. And yes, skydiving is dangerous! Once at Eloy I heard some fairly new jumper telling some specatators that skydiving was no more dangerous than driving down the freeway. I chimed in that in fact it was dangerous. The guy told the people not to listen to me, that I didn't know what I was talking about. Well, on his very next jump, that fool, who obviously didn't have enough respect for what he was doing or just how careful he needed to be, had a canopy collision at 100 feet, hooking into a guy upon his final approach, and died! Luckily the other person was not too badly injured. The same applies to homeless people. They are just people like you and me, but have just fallen into a hole they can't seem to get out of. Often they are just overly sensitive individuals who have had a bad experience, and it has left them unable to cope with life. Skydivers, injured people, wheelchair people, and homeless people are all just that, people, who all deserve the same amount of consideration and attention. Beyond that, it is the case that the latter actually deserve more attention and consideration, since they are already suffering from their circumstances, so to then have people just blow them off, ignore them, and turn the other way as if they aren't there, only further hurts their self esteem, which is obviously already suffering. It is a good thing to care for your fellow humankind. You can't change the World, but you do have the power to make a huge impact on our skydiving community in the realm of stoping just a second to care about those around you who have had the misfortune of having been injured. It makes me sad to see people like Bill Ottley, who was the shit in his day, yet now people don't even bother to say "HI" to him any more. I have cruzed around events with him in his golfcart, only to notice that very few even take the time to talk to him, which I know would really make him feel good. Also when Bob Sinclaire broke his foot showing everyone at the World Cup in Eloy why we don't jump rounds any more, no one seemed to even care. I went to check on him in his bus a couple days later, and he hadn't moved from his bed. His pee bottle was absolutely black from dehydration. I dragged him kicking and screaming to the VA in Tucson. It was even hard to find a couple people to even take a minute out of their day to help me get him from his bed in the back of his bus into my car. At the hospital the doctor said he was so dehydrated he would have to take some shots to thin his blood every day for a week before they could operate. The doctor asked if there was anyone around to help him out in the mean while. Never one to ask for help or demonstrate vulnerability, he of course replied, "Yeah, sure, there are 1000s of jumpers out at the DZ where my bus is parked." Sure there were, but out of all of them, not a single one but me cared enough to even look in on him. This is very sad since Bob is one of our cultural icons! He has been jumping for over 50 years, and has more diverse experience than any other jumper alive! He could tell jumping stories for days straight, years even. He even has photo albums of all that jumping! He basically innovated skydiving photography and stunt work and had a parachute school in Hollywood from the 50s through the 80s! He took Johnny Carson on his first parachute jump. He has done a phenominal amount for our sport, and yet when he got injured and needed help and a friend to talk to, everyone was just too busy doing their own thing to even care that one of our skydiving pioneers, who had been hurt right in front of everyone, needed someone to care. I insisted behind Bob's back that the doctor admit him to their long term care facility 'till the operation. I even went down to Tucson every day to take Bob a hamburger from McDonalds since he wouldn't eat the hospital food. At least there all the old veterans would congregate in his room to listen to jumping stories, especially when I was there. The point of all of this is that there used to ba a lot more cameraderie in skydiving, and as Bob likes to say skydiving used to be 10% jumping and 90% story telling and socializing, but now it's only 10% socailizing and 90% skydiving. He insists the soul of jumping is disappearing and being replaced by a bunch of selfish, competitive individuals who don't seem to care to support nor care for each other any more. This needs to change. Skydiving is supposed to be a social activity in which people jump together, play together, drink together, share stories together, and enjoy each other's company. I love Eloy for that very reason, that it is a place of congregation for many Europeans. I just love going to the bent prop where on any given night you can hear stories and learn stuff including politics, technology, travel, living, housing, society, flying, skydiving, etc... about Austria, Germany, Engand, Canada, Ireland, etc.... If we don't start caring more about one another, that very unique aspect of cameraderie that makes our skydiving family so special may just vanish all together. I just want to remind people not to forget that Skydiving is as much a social activity as it is a sport. And since any one can themselves get hurt at any time, people ought to be a little more considerate toward the injured, for your time will come sooner or later, and when it does, just like Vanilla Sky Girl, you will feel bad and want people to care and not just cast you aside and abandon you as no longer useful or worthwhile. I don't think anyone can jump for any length of time and not get hurt at some point. It's just a matter or when and how bad. So remember the Golden rule, the one about treating others as you would have them treat you. And when someone you know of gets hurt, reach out to them and let them know you care. Don't just toss them aside as if they suddenly don't matter any more. Unlike voting in which it seems since there are so many people in our country, one little vote might seem insignificant and inconsequential, our sport is so small, that if everyone makes just a little effort in this direction, it would have vast consequences and make our sport just that much better, more of the close knit, supportive family it could and should be, more like it used to be. I am thinking about you my Dear! You are in my prayers! If I had enough money, which I don't since I got hurt, and my medical bills are so high, I would send you some flowers. So since it's the thought that counts, think of me sending you some flowers, OK?! Tinkerbelle Rehab is for quitters. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Misslmperfect 0 #75 June 7, 2004 hmmm....was that really neccessary???? rosa, best wishes hun - but i already told you that tink - nevermind could someone delete this?? good lordOh Canada, merci pour la livraison! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next Page 3 of 5 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Reply to this topic... × Pasted as rich text. Paste as plain text instead Only 75 emoji are allowed. × Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead × Your previous content has been restored. Clear editor × You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL. Insert image from URL × Desktop Tablet Phone Submit Reply 0
DownWind 0 #61 June 7, 2004 Rosa, sorry to hear you broke your ankle I wish you a speedy recovery and send {{{{VIBES}}}} your way. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
canopycandy 0 #62 June 7, 2004 Rosa, I'm so very sorry to hear about your ankle. I wish I were closer so I could help you -- or at least visit. You're such an effervescent person, I'm confident you'll be happy and smiley and running around in no time. Cheer up -- and get well soon. Big hugs from the Midwest!!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
peacefuljeffrey 0 #63 June 7, 2004 QuoteRight now, I am having a hard time with this, but I have to look at the bright side. Things always happen for a reason, right? Something amazing must be on the horizon for me to balance this out, right? Things always seem to work out for the best...eventually, when I stay positive. I just have to give it some time. It's really hard to stay positive, right now. Can anyone help me out by sending me some love, prayers, vibes, support. I need it right now. Ohhh, chica, you didn't even have to ask for that stuff -- it was pouring out of me the moment I read your header! I'm so sorry to hear this bad news -- feels worse because today was the first day I got to jump in two months so it was a good one for me. But no more about me: I want you to know that I and we all love you (even those of us who haven't yet met you in person) and are beaming love, prayers, vibes and support to you at this very moment and will continue to until you're healed and flying again! Blue skies, -Jeffrey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snowwhite 0 #64 June 7, 2004 QuoteThat really sucks sweetheart. How many times have you heard me say "Skydiving is a lot more fun when you don't hurt yourself!" Drink your milk and heal up quick. In the mean time just make some guy wait on you hand and foot! Make him wear a g-string while he does it. It's so MUCH more fun that way!skydiveTaylorville.org freefallbeth@yahoo.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #65 June 7, 2004 QuoteMake him wear a g-string while he does it. It's so MUCH more fun that way! Oh my gosh... I am not sure about the g-string, though. I prefer my men...er...man (?) nude. Sigh...wouldn't it be nice if someone could just kiss my boo-boo and make it all better? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflir29 0 #66 June 7, 2004 QuoteSigh...wouldn't it be nice if someone could just kiss my boo-boo and make it all better? I'm certainly willing to give it a try! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flyangel2 2 #67 June 7, 2004 QuoteSeriously, WTF did I say or do to make anyone think that I would keep jumping with my broken ankle? Never mentioned that you were thinking that. I just felt it was a good idea to cut that thought off at the pass in case a newbie were to read that. I will mention that if you are thinking about doing a Tandem, go back and re-read what I wrote. I'm sure there will be a Tandem JM jump in here and give his/her's advice on that subject.May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #68 June 7, 2004 QuoteNever mentioned that you were thinking that. I NEVER did think that. This is directed to everyone, in general, not Mar: Please reread the posts that I wrote. Mirochristie posted something that has NOTHING to do with what I would do. I NEVER said anything to anyone online or off about jumping before I am healed. I would NEVER do that. I am not irrational...nor is my mind easily swayed by what others say or write to me! I have NEVER even broken any bones before, and I plan to never break anything else if I can help it. I am quite conservative and want to heal properly. I am a VERY conservative skydiver and a conservative person, in general. For the record, my intent was never to even do a tandem. This idea was recommended to me by someone else, and I was going to look into it tomorrow. However, I would never do it if it is not adviseable or acceptable by the tandem masters at Elsinore. Even if it was, I may not have done it because I worry more than others about things like hitting the door on the way out, having a tumble as we land, etc. Like I said...I am quite conservative with my body and my health. I am NEVER one to loose my reasoning. Those who know me know how ludicrous this idea of jumping with a cast on is to me. Mar, I owe you an apology if my initial post was directed towards you and was not coming across the way that I intended. Thank you so much for caring and for helping me and the others who may be reading this. You're a doll! (I mean that.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Michele 1 #69 June 7, 2004 Wow, Rosa, you're certainly not yourself right now. HUGS to you, sweetie...didja get chocolate? That makes me feel better sometimes. Mar said: QuoteNever mentioned that you were thinking that. I just felt it was a good idea to cut that thought off at the pass in case a newbie were to read that. I think she was just mentioning it because so many people read these posts, and some people don't know better at first. Of course you know better. Of course you will be doing exactly what your Dr. says...but what about those poor newbies who think "hey, there's an idea!".... I hope you get back to being cheerful and happy again soon, Rosa. Pain is temporary, the sky is permanent. HUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGS to you. Mar isn't coming after you at all, nor are those who posted patootie pounding potential (ahem...). Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lewmonst 0 #70 June 7, 2004 hey rosa, be patient, you'll heal. I have seen people jump with casts, but I would not recommend it to you. There was a tandemmaster who had a full calf-to-foot cast, he would hobble up on crutches and meet his students, they were like "you're kidding right"... of course not. He explained to them how he doesn't need his feet in freefall and he just slid in on all his landings. Someone got his crutches after he got on the plane, and took them to him when he landed. It was amusing, but he did a good job. peace lewhttp://www.exitshot.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #71 June 7, 2004 No chocolate and no pain meds, either! Michele, I am LMAO, again, at your post. I LOVE you and you are for some reason making me totally hysterical with the "patootie pounding" posts! I am NOT upset at you or Mar or anyone AT ALL. I am simply wanting to prevent a hassle online. When I saw Mar's last post, I thought that it would be misrespresenting me and my views on jumping with a fricken cast on. I wanted to clarify that I am NOT going to do that and NEVER said that I would do that before I was bombarded with posts and PMs about it. You know that most people don't read through entire threads, and they would be posting and PMing me to death with their views on this subject. I already thanked Mar for being so frank via a PM. I was responding so the world wouldn't be pissing me off by sending "don't do it" PMs. I am pissed off enough as it is. Mar, Michele, Sunny, I love you guys...as well as everyone else that wrote or called me. Please let that whole other thing about "jumpng with a cast"go. I think that it's a lame (lol!) idea! Let's get back to sending me love and vibes, please... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Michele 1 #72 June 7, 2004 Quote No chocolate and no pain meds Damn, girl. Don't you have a pharmacy that will deliver? I've got several near my house; I'm sure you've got one near you...let your fingers do the walking, and check out those pharmacies via the net. And I'll just bet you can convince them to deliver some chocolate, too. And getting back... HUGHGHUGHUGHUGHUG! VIBEVIBEVIBEVIBEVIBE! Ciels- Michele ~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek While our hearts lie bleeding?~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VanillaSkyGirl 6 #73 June 7, 2004 Thank you. I must go lie down...feeling really nauseaus...ugh... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tinkerbelle 5 #74 June 7, 2004 Hi there VanillaSkyGirl, Sorry I wrote a book, but I am just sitting here all alone and lonely at home on a Sunday night, and I have something very important to share! I am very encouraged to hear so many people come out of the woodwork to wish you well, as do I. It always frustrates me to see all the fair weather friends in our skydiving community these days. One example of this that was particularly apparent was when a team guy I know was very badly injured landing his new parachute. His head even struck the ground requiring a shunt to be put into his cranium to bleed off the extra pressure building within his skull. Even though I did not know the guy beyond the occasional greeting in passing at the DZ, and he did have a sweet, doting wife to care for him, I immediately went out and got him a couple potted plants of colorful flowers wrapped in colorful paper with bows that he could later plant in the garden, a card, and a couple big creature balloons to look at and keep him company in his otherwise stark, bleak, lonely hospital room. It was my intent to bring his something festive to make him smile. I guess it worked 'cause while walking around the hospital people asked me where the party was. I didn't stay long but to ask his wife how he was doing, to let him know I cared, and to drop off the mood lifters to cheer him up and give him something to look at besides the barren white walls and all the machinery sticking in him. The next weekend the first thing I asked when I got to the DZ was how he was doing. To my amazement, no one knew, not even his own team mates. None of them had gone to see him or even called him, despite his being in urgent care just 15 minutes from the DZ! I thought, what kind of friends and team mates are those? Completely inconsiderate, selfish, fair weather ones, for sure! Recently another friend of mine, a fairly new jumer, was hurt for the first time. He called me up horrified that even though everyone was his buddy at the DZ as long as he had something to smoke and beer to share, and some had even borrowed large sums of money from him, after he broke his tibia and fibula, he was all alone at home, and no one had even bothered to call to see how he was doing. Up 'till that point he said he had always bragged to non-jumpers about the cameradie among skydivers, that is was like a big, close knit family, about how when you share in such an extreme, life-threatening sport, that it builds a very strong bond among jumpers that surpasses any other you may have with a non-jumper. Yet when he got hurt, not even the DZ owner, who he had expected to at least call once to check on him, seemed to care. He said the only people to call and stop by were his non-jumper buddies. I shared with him my similar experience, and we agreed that it seems our sport is filled with all too many selfish, ego-centric, self-righteous people who tend, for the most part, to just be fair weather friends. Skydiving has become so competitive, it's almost as if these days people care more about the fact that an injured person just leaves them the opportunity to move up in the pecking order or assume that person's slot. There was a not too far fetched joke at the 300-way about how some of the paticipants may be found mysteriously dead off in the bushes, while some of the alternates would be in the bathroom wiping the blood off. Lately I have even heard people say, "Hurry up and scrape the dead guy off the runway, we're trying to skydive here, and he's in the way, and the darned paramedics are taking too long. At least just scrape him to the side, so the airplane can get by." I have also heard, "Isn't he dead yet. I wish he'd hurry up and die, 'cause we're burning daylight, and we've got to get off at least a couple more jumps!" I have even asked for a moment of silence in the bar for the guy who died at the DZ that very day, but no wanted to, cared to, nor would they even take a moment away from their beer drinking to grant him that tiny consideration. We get so jaded with people dying and being injured at the DZ, that we forget that they are people, and that is a life we are talking about. If it were you, which it could just as easily be, no matter how careful you think you are, you would probably want others to care, and not just blow you off. as if you suddenly weren't important just because you got hurt. From my own personal experience, I used to be quite the force to be reconed with on the DZ. Everywhere I went people wanted to jump with me and be my friend. Yet since I broke my neck, and am unable to jump like I used to, it's like I am of no use any more. Since I was always too busy with school work, over 10 years of cllege studying the hardest stuff, and working to support myself, and maintaining a whole house full of fish tanks including 4 several hundred gallon reef tanks, and being on a ski team, ice sating, sailing, rock climbing, and dancing, the only social life I maintained since I was 18 years old, 'till now at 36, was at the DZ. So even after I got hurt, I sill used to go out to the DZ for the cameraderie. Before I was injured people used to always come running up to me when I arrived on the DZ to ask if I wanted to get on the next load, and everyone wanted me to sign their logbook. Though not being able to join in on the fun playing in the sky, even though I would try to communicate with the people on the ground, after a while, they just started walking by me as if I wasn't there. Long ago I wanted to make a T-Shirt that read, "If you don't skydive, you don't exist!" in the same vein as the one that reads "I skydive therefore I am". I wanted so much to still feel a part of the jumping, watching the dirt dives and the video, even though it felt much like watching people eat chocolate cake while starving and not being able to have a bite. I used to always feel sorry for non-jumpers. I never knew what they did on weekends to get their thrills and blow off steam. If ever I had missed a weekend in the past, to study for an exam, or even if it was raining, I would get heavy withdrawals. In fact even if I only got in one day, or if I hadn't done my usual at least 4 jumps/day, I felt somehow unfulfilled. It is hard to lose your favorite activity as well as your entire social life, both at the same time. It feels as if I committed some sort of crime and am being punished and ostracized at the same time. After getting hurt the pilot and DZ owner used to let me sit in the right seat of the plane, and he even let me fly. It wasn't jumping, but it was at least better than sitting on the ground, although it was kind of depressing watching everyone exit, as if I was missing the party. The pilot used to insist I put on my seat belt during exit just to be sure I didn't follow them out, since he knew how much I wanted to. Unfortunately one of the nasty, jealous bitches at the manifest made a big stink about it and threatened to call the FAA if he didn't stop letting me do that. I think she was just angry 'cause her boob job didn't fix her personality and afford her any more attention than a girl who hadn't had gone to the expense of doing that was getting despite her petite frame and natural breateses. Women can be so jealous, mean, competitive, and bitchy sometimes! Like being an American in Europe, I am often embarrassed to be a woman. At the Convention, often Paul Fayard, who owns the all the Cassas, lets me go for rides. Also, I never liked to pack, but now I feel good packing with everyone else, 'cause it almost feels like I am a skydiver once again. Having jumped for so long and having had a very diverse skydiving carreer, I have a great deal to share. I even married a guy in the military when I was 19 even though we never lived together, just so I could jump with the military's sport parachute club for 4$/year out of their blackhawk helicopters at Fort Ord (where Skydive Monterey Bay is now since Clinton closed the base and turned it into a black ghetto of low income housing bringing the criminal element to our otherwise peaceful Central Coast that is more like a war zone now complete with a puppet black mayor). With them I got to do lots of demos including those for the American Legion where Martha Rae used to come visit, did demos out at Vandenberg Airforce base, the Laguna Seca Speedway race track, etc.... When I lived in Hawaii, I was even a member of the Pacific Forces Exhibition Skydiving Team, PACFEST, with whom I got to do demos, and training exercises with the rest of the airborn troops out of all kinds of cool aircraft including blackhawks, shanooks, C-130s, C-141s, and even was among the first group of people to ever get to jump out of the military's new C-17, like a C-141 on steroids. I have lots of experience I love to share about the good stuff I know as well as what to avoid doing to not get hurt. I love talking about skydiving as much as everyone else. I too used to always tout what a cool family the skydiving world was before I got hurt, yet since then, they have all but abandoned me. I don't even bother going out to the DZ any more 'cause not only is it hard to watch everyone else have fun, but the people there, especially the fairly new jumpers can be so cruel and insensitive toward their fallen camerads. If you get hurt it's as if you are suddenly and untemench, or a lepor. I used to teach SCUBA through NAUI's HSA (Handicapt SCUBA Association), so I used to spend a lot of time hanging out with para and quadra plegics. An injured skydiver is often treated like someone in a wheelchair. People act toward them like they were born that way. When people walk by they often refuse to make eye contac, and just turn their heads away pretending they didn't even see them, as people also do to homeless people. I wish people would realize that just like a wheelchair bound person, they are that way because they just had an accident, which could happen to anyone at any time, especially while engaged in some dangerous activity. And yes, skydiving is dangerous! Once at Eloy I heard some fairly new jumper telling some specatators that skydiving was no more dangerous than driving down the freeway. I chimed in that in fact it was dangerous. The guy told the people not to listen to me, that I didn't know what I was talking about. Well, on his very next jump, that fool, who obviously didn't have enough respect for what he was doing or just how careful he needed to be, had a canopy collision at 100 feet, hooking into a guy upon his final approach, and died! Luckily the other person was not too badly injured. The same applies to homeless people. They are just people like you and me, but have just fallen into a hole they can't seem to get out of. Often they are just overly sensitive individuals who have had a bad experience, and it has left them unable to cope with life. Skydivers, injured people, wheelchair people, and homeless people are all just that, people, who all deserve the same amount of consideration and attention. Beyond that, it is the case that the latter actually deserve more attention and consideration, since they are already suffering from their circumstances, so to then have people just blow them off, ignore them, and turn the other way as if they aren't there, only further hurts their self esteem, which is obviously already suffering. It is a good thing to care for your fellow humankind. You can't change the World, but you do have the power to make a huge impact on our skydiving community in the realm of stoping just a second to care about those around you who have had the misfortune of having been injured. It makes me sad to see people like Bill Ottley, who was the shit in his day, yet now people don't even bother to say "HI" to him any more. I have cruzed around events with him in his golfcart, only to notice that very few even take the time to talk to him, which I know would really make him feel good. Also when Bob Sinclaire broke his foot showing everyone at the World Cup in Eloy why we don't jump rounds any more, no one seemed to even care. I went to check on him in his bus a couple days later, and he hadn't moved from his bed. His pee bottle was absolutely black from dehydration. I dragged him kicking and screaming to the VA in Tucson. It was even hard to find a couple people to even take a minute out of their day to help me get him from his bed in the back of his bus into my car. At the hospital the doctor said he was so dehydrated he would have to take some shots to thin his blood every day for a week before they could operate. The doctor asked if there was anyone around to help him out in the mean while. Never one to ask for help or demonstrate vulnerability, he of course replied, "Yeah, sure, there are 1000s of jumpers out at the DZ where my bus is parked." Sure there were, but out of all of them, not a single one but me cared enough to even look in on him. This is very sad since Bob is one of our cultural icons! He has been jumping for over 50 years, and has more diverse experience than any other jumper alive! He could tell jumping stories for days straight, years even. He even has photo albums of all that jumping! He basically innovated skydiving photography and stunt work and had a parachute school in Hollywood from the 50s through the 80s! He took Johnny Carson on his first parachute jump. He has done a phenominal amount for our sport, and yet when he got injured and needed help and a friend to talk to, everyone was just too busy doing their own thing to even care that one of our skydiving pioneers, who had been hurt right in front of everyone, needed someone to care. I insisted behind Bob's back that the doctor admit him to their long term care facility 'till the operation. I even went down to Tucson every day to take Bob a hamburger from McDonalds since he wouldn't eat the hospital food. At least there all the old veterans would congregate in his room to listen to jumping stories, especially when I was there. The point of all of this is that there used to ba a lot more cameraderie in skydiving, and as Bob likes to say skydiving used to be 10% jumping and 90% story telling and socializing, but now it's only 10% socailizing and 90% skydiving. He insists the soul of jumping is disappearing and being replaced by a bunch of selfish, competitive individuals who don't seem to care to support nor care for each other any more. This needs to change. Skydiving is supposed to be a social activity in which people jump together, play together, drink together, share stories together, and enjoy each other's company. I love Eloy for that very reason, that it is a place of congregation for many Europeans. I just love going to the bent prop where on any given night you can hear stories and learn stuff including politics, technology, travel, living, housing, society, flying, skydiving, etc... about Austria, Germany, Engand, Canada, Ireland, etc.... If we don't start caring more about one another, that very unique aspect of cameraderie that makes our skydiving family so special may just vanish all together. I just want to remind people not to forget that Skydiving is as much a social activity as it is a sport. And since any one can themselves get hurt at any time, people ought to be a little more considerate toward the injured, for your time will come sooner or later, and when it does, just like Vanilla Sky Girl, you will feel bad and want people to care and not just cast you aside and abandon you as no longer useful or worthwhile. I don't think anyone can jump for any length of time and not get hurt at some point. It's just a matter or when and how bad. So remember the Golden rule, the one about treating others as you would have them treat you. And when someone you know of gets hurt, reach out to them and let them know you care. Don't just toss them aside as if they suddenly don't matter any more. Unlike voting in which it seems since there are so many people in our country, one little vote might seem insignificant and inconsequential, our sport is so small, that if everyone makes just a little effort in this direction, it would have vast consequences and make our sport just that much better, more of the close knit, supportive family it could and should be, more like it used to be. I am thinking about you my Dear! You are in my prayers! If I had enough money, which I don't since I got hurt, and my medical bills are so high, I would send you some flowers. So since it's the thought that counts, think of me sending you some flowers, OK?! Tinkerbelle Rehab is for quitters. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misslmperfect 0 #75 June 7, 2004 hmmm....was that really neccessary???? rosa, best wishes hun - but i already told you that tink - nevermind could someone delete this?? good lordOh Canada, merci pour la livraison! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
