[OT] To Sky-Dive @ Eighty-Five

Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
thinking??????

Pat wrote:

Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
thinking??????

Maybe he never got over being called a wimp?

Seriously, more power to him. I think it takes guts to skydive at any
age.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

"Pat" wrote in message
...
Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
thinking??????

Why not? He jumped on his 80th. I jumped on my 70th and my 71st. A friend
who was dying of cancer jumped a couple of months before he died.

In the first place, it's probably safer than driving on the freeway,
especially if you do a tandem jump with an experienced jumper. In the
second place, the view is incredible, and it's an experience a relatively
small percentage of people ever have. In the first place, overcoming a fear
is very empowering.

Joy

He did jump on his 80th birthday. He does the tandem thing. More power to
him, his son is always trying to out do his Dad lets see what he does!!!
"Joy" wrote in message
...
"Pat" wrote in message
...
Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
thinking??????

Why not? He jumped on his 80th. I jumped on my 70th and my 71st. A
friend who was dying of cancer jumped a couple of months before he died.

In the first place, it's probably safer than driving on the freeway,
especially if you do a tandem jump with an experienced jumper. In the
second place, the view is incredible, and it's an experience a relatively
small percentage of people ever have. In the first place, overcoming a
fear is very empowering.

Joy

On Dec 3, 9:16*pm, "Pat" wrote:
Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
thinking??????

My friend's mom went parasailing on her 80th birthday. I thought that
was pretty cool. It
sure impressed her great-grandchildren. :-)

Sherry

On Dec 4, 2:42*am, wrote:
Pat wrote:

* Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
* intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
* thinking??????

Maybe he never got over being called a wimp?

I doubt that anyone seriously thought of the elder GB as a wimp. This
won't be the first time he has exited an aircraft while it is in the
air and this time it won't be on fire.


Seriously, more power to him. I think it takes guts to skydive at any
age.

I always liked and admired him, even though I often disagreed with
him, and I try not to let my opinion of his son change that. Good luck
to him in his dive.

--
Will in New Haven

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 21:16:16 -0600, "Pat"
wrote:

Did anyone else see the NBC Evening News where they said George HW Bush
intends to jump out of an airplane on his 85th birthday. WTF is he
thinking??????


"I'm only going to live once, I may as well do as many of the things
I've dreamed of as I can"??

I think it's cool and I am very sure they'll take special
precautions for him.

Sara

Joy wrote:

Why not? He jumped on his 80th. I jumped on my 70th and my 71st. A
friend who was dying of cancer jumped a couple of months before he died.

I was thinking of you when I saw that post.

In the first place, it's probably safer than driving on the freeway,
especially if you do a tandem jump with an experienced jumper. In the
second place, the view is incredible, and it's an experience a relatively
small percentage of people ever have. In the first place, overcoming a fear
is very empowering.

If your heart survives the experience, that is.

As for overcoming a fear, I don't know that doing something once is
enough. When I was younger, I had a fear of flying (yes, I didn't even
like to fly in planes, much less jump *out* of one!). But after taking
many trips, I've more or less gotten over it, although I'm always
anxious in the few days preceeding a long flight. I manage to get
through the actual flight, at least, though I confess to using chemical
aid.

It definitely took me quite a few flights before I got used to it
enough not to be a total wreck.

All that said, there is something about skydiving that appeals to me.
But maybe not enough to actually do it. I did try parasailing once,
which scared the crap out of me, but was worth it.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

wrote in message
...
Joy wrote:

Why not? He jumped on his 80th. I jumped on my 70th and my 71st. A
friend who was dying of cancer jumped a couple of months before he died.

I was thinking of you when I saw that post.

In the first place, it's probably safer than driving on the freeway,
especially if you do a tandem jump with an experienced jumper. In the
second place, the view is incredible, and it's an experience a
relatively
small percentage of people ever have. In the first place, overcoming a
fear
is very empowering.

If your heart survives the experience, that is.

As for overcoming a fear, I don't know that doing something once is
enough. When I was younger, I had a fear of flying (yes, I didn't even
like to fly in planes, much less jump *out* of one!). But after taking
many trips, I've more or less gotten over it, although I'm always
anxious in the few days preceeding a long flight. I manage to get
through the actual flight, at least, though I confess to using chemical
aid.

It definitely took me quite a few flights before I got used to it
enough not to be a total wreck.

All that said, there is something about skydiving that appeals to me.
But maybe not enough to actually do it. I did try parasailing once,
which scared the crap out of me, but was worth it.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

I have sky dived, Para sailed, bungee jumped before when I weighed less and
a lot younger. Was it worth it YES IT WAS. Would I do it again depends
on what is for dinner ;-)

wrote
| When I was younger, I had a fear of flying (yes, I didn't even
| like to fly in planes, much less jump *out* of one!). But after taking
| many trips, I've more or less gotten over it, although I'm always
| anxious in the few days preceeding a long flight. I manage to get
| through the actual flight, at least, though I confess to using chemical
| aid.
|
| It definitely took me quite a few flights before I got used to it
| enough not to be a total wreck.
|
| All that said, there is something about skydiving that appeals to me.
| But maybe not enough to actually do it. I did try parasailing once,
| which scared the crap out of me, but was worth it.

The worrisome thing about such an elderly fellow doing it is the fact that
first of all, he's had both hips replaced already, and back surgery, and
finally, he's old enough that a jolt like landing from a sky dive could
damage thinned bones and/or joints.

As for me, I would jump out of trees and off of roofs as a child, because I
believed I was able to fly but just hadn't learned the technique yet. I
believed this because I flew in my dreams, and because there was a time when
I didn't know the technique for riding a bicycle or for "sailing" around on
ice skates. By the time I was a teenager, though, I had a morbid fear of
heights.

My father and I used to go across the river to Canada (from Detroit) to play
snooker and buy a certain type of whiskey that was much cheaper over there.
He had to make frequent trips because there was a limit on how much of it
could be imported duty-free after a short trip. There are two ways to drive
from Detroit to Windsor - a bridge over and a tunnel under the Detroit
River. I was too afraid to go on the bridge, and my father was too
claustrophobic to enter the tunnel. So he would drop me off at the tunnel
entrance and let me take a bus to the other side, while he drove over the
bridge.

How does one go from being willing to jump down from high places, to being
unable to bear even being up there? These days I am afraid to stand on a
footstool. I think I would enjoy the sensation of "flying" but I'd probably
never get up the nerve to "take off".

(At to planes, I don't mind as long as there's a solid floor. But I hate the
physical sensation of traveling at super-sonic speed and the altitude of a
jet. I much prefer a small plane.)