wstrnstar

Time passes. Ankle all healed up and hardware removed. Spent a bunch of down time after a total shoulder rebuild (unrelated) and I'm going back in a couple of weeks to pick up where I left off. Went to DZ for the first time in a year to set it all up yesterday, a half-dozen folks welcomed me by name as an old friend they were glad to see back. In the meantime, I've pretty much run the gamut from being called stupid to my face to being threatened with divorce whenever the subject of jumping came up and it was impossible to deflect the conversation. To those folks I am indebted, they've helped make my resolve an almost tangible thing and have provoked a whole lot of examination of the folks I've been hanging with. I never imagined some of them had so little poetry in their souls. Most of all, I owe everybody that took the time to reply here with sage advice and/or best wishes a debt of gratitude, it's been a long time coming. I feel like a man just released from solitary. Blue skies...

Wendy, many thanks for the post; I make light of it to a degree in my own post but truth is, I was not prepared for the level of pushback I got and am still getting from folks I have always had very good relations with otherwise. I'm a 60yr-old athlete, accustomed to physical stress and hard hits all my life so I never imagined I'd catch this kind of flak from people that are frequently right there beside me when heart-stopping moments are coming down. All joking aside, I'm learning that I'm going to have to spend some time gently (and in some instances, not so gently) re-educating folks who apparently were under the impression that I was a grownup just because I have a white beard. And you're right, it's just something I'm going to have to get used to and diplomatically steer the conversation away from. The whole idea of jumping comes so naturally to me, apparently it doesn't to just everyone. Have learned that the best thing to say when asked about the ankle cast is that I twisted it in a fall and imply that that is as much as I want to discuss it.

Sooo, the short version. Guy gets the classic birthday gift of tandem jump, makes tandem jump and realizes 2ft out from the aircraft door that life will never, ever be the same. Time passes, as do AFF1-7, all the while guy is being endlessly, relentlessly hammered with the equivalent of "you'll shoot your eye out" by friends, family, pretty much anybody that knows. Guy begins to be almost secretive about jumping, weary as hell and faintly pissed off at all the blather coming from people who haven't a clue but are quick to offer a really negative opinion. Guy breaks ankle on AFF7 landing, dumb move (asymmetrical flare), annoying as hell but nothing traumatic but also nothing he can readily downplay. Now the vultures attack in force, sounds like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir all howling "Had enough of this nonsense now? Gonna start acting your age (60) at last?" Question: Anybody know of where I can come by a whole new circle of friends and a new family while I'm waiting for the cast to come off and get the hell back up there?