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Posts Tagged ‘Birthday’

Day 11: On the Road Again…

We hit the road early today (well, yesterday now), as Stefan and Garrett had a flight they weren’t willing to miss. We dropped them off around 11:00am for the first leg of their West Coast adventure. I tried to chronicle what I could of this day with my best photojournalistic eye, but was shot down by my proof editor refusing to allow my posting of the images without extensive editing.

Did I mention it was/is Joshua’s birthday today…? I granted him executive privileges all through the day reminding him that the preferential treatment he was receiving was because of his birthday. Immediately following this declaration, I quickly reminded him that “today is your birthday; tomorrow is not.” (heheheheheh) – We treated him to a “Smorges”-borden at the Golden Corral for lunch and we dined at his favorite eatery (sigh) Arby’s for supper. (The things we do for love…)

Our journey took us mostly by highway today making for a very quiet and scenic drive…until we landed on the periphery of a tornado warning in Northwestern Alabama for around two hours of our drive. It was exciting if not taxing for that little piece of the drive anyway. About the time we crossed the Tennessee border, the boys called to let us know they arrived in Los Angeles safely and were proceeding to their hotel; we heard from them a little later once they got settled in to their hotel.

We settled in to a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Nashville for the night and plan to hit the Creation Museum in Kentucky tomorrow. I’ll try to do better with my photojournalism….maybe a good night’s rest will help.

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It started over two years ago. We, Laurie and I, thought it’d be cool to do something special for Garrett’s 16^th birthday; something cool like skydiving. Well, for all its “coolness” we couldn’t get past the age restrictions that prevented Garrett from being allowed to jump, so…we waited. Fast forward two years.

Garrett turned 18 in January and we gave him a computer printed receipt for a skydiving adventure with me (dad). Unfortunately, the weather in Western, NY is not exactly ideal for January skydiving, so we waited. In the meantime, during our wait, I put on my “winter coat” (which consists mostly of colorful calories and carbs aka excess weight aka “fat”). When we approached a better season for jumping, I was in desperate need to drop a few pounds to slide in under the weight limit for jumping. I started some serious cardio workouts and tried to moderate my insatiable eating habits (have I ever mentioned how much I love food?). Ultimately, I reached the weight goal and we had our date set for the jump.

June 26, 2009 – Rochester Skydivers

We arrived at the jump site for our introduction and training brief. Both Garrett and I were repeatedly asked by our friends and family; “Are you nervous??? Are you scared???” Our repeated answer was “no.” To be honest though, I did have some reservations…but not regarding the act of jumping out of a plane. My fear was that I would do something to irritate the jumpmaster. I didn’t want to be “that guy” they invariably talk about in the break room. You know the guy; this is the dude they make fun of because he couldn’t get anything right… Anyway, I didn’t want to be that guy.

So we got our training and we were assigned first spot in the jump order. We got suited up and strapped up with all our harnesses, headgear, and goggles. We got crammed into the little single engine plane; yes, crammed in. Remember, I mentioned I had to lose some weight to jump? Well, just for the record, I’m no longer the aerodynamic, svelte, BMI (body mass index) poster boy I was back in my 20’s (who am I kidding…I never was, but I digress). Ok, we’re in the plane and we take off. It seemed like it took us 15 minutes to get up to the 10,000 foot jump level (ok…no more weight jokes). Read the rest of this entry »

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