I jumped out of an airplane this past weekend

Got your attention? Good, because it’s true. I did jump out of a plane on Saturday, as did Pat. And no, it wasn’t on fire or crashing – we jumped on purpose. Tandem skydives to be exact at Jumptown in central Massachusetts. And it was AMAZING. And I will do it again. Who knows I may go so far as to get certified to jump on my own? But for now I’m still feeling the adrenaline rush from free falling at 13,000 feet. INCREDIBLE… Breathtaking (literally – I couldn’t breath for the first several hundred feet)….Totally AWESOME. Get the picture? I loved it! Pat did too – enough to agree to go again.

How did we end up jumping out of a perfectly good plane on a beautiful Saturday morning in August? I think most of you know that this was probably not Pat’s idea – it wasn’t, I take full credit. And I told him he did not have to do it with me – it was something I wanted to do. Yes I preferred if he was up there with me, but it wasn’t a requirement. I know he isn’t fond of heights, OK so he’s a bit terrified except when hiking or skiing, but take away the solid mountain of earth beneath your feet and it’s a different story. Poor guy – first the Eiffel Tower now skydiving – he must really love me or something. But he went willingly and in the final images of each of us prior to leaving the plane, he looks calm considering he is about to plummet several thousand feet in a matter of seconds – perhaps it’s because his eyes are closed and he (smartly) decided not to look down 13,000 feet. Me, not so much. This was my idea and even up into the plane as I watched others jump before me, I was smiling and enjoying myself. Then the first of the 3 tandem divers went, then Pat went, and next thing I knew I had to walk 3 feet from the end of the bench to the open cargo door. Yea, right. They have you cross your arms across your chest, to prevent you from grabbing the bar and stopping the jump. I don’t think I could have moved mine to grab that bar, though the thought definitely crossed my mind. And I didn’t walk those 3 feet – uhuhh. Al, the certified (40 years experience) jumper I was attached to basically carried me. And then there we were, at the open cargo door, the last ones to go. My cameraman was already outside the plane door, catching images of me that show a look of sheer terror on my face. I was never so afraid in my life – nothing and I mean nothing I have gone through, cancer included was as terrifying as standing there knowing I was about to jump, or to be more accurate be carried out into the open skies. My eyes are open and my face, well you really have to see it to fully understand. Al decided it would make a good video if once we stepped out of the plane we back flipped – in my mind I’m thinking, what happens if I throw up? Where does it go? Does it hit Al in the face and what will he do to me if I do that to him? Oh wait a minute, throwing up isn’t an option – I can’t breath – what if I lose control on the other end? Do I have a change of pants with me? Are they used to getting these jumpsuits back wet? Or even worse – what if I get hit with a bout of diarrhea…yikes…what did I eat last night and this morning? Is it going to hit me? Get the picture? Oh yea and this all happened in a matter of say 15 seconds – I’m a fast thinker.

And then…whoosh-we are falling. Al lifts my head so I am looking at Bryce, my cameraman. Wait a minute, this is actually quite enjoyable. OK, so the wind is whipping at us, we’re falling at like 120mph and we’re down to 11,000 feet already. Smile for the camera, OK well try to do something other than that stunned look on your face–great, now grab my hand…Whee!!Free falling, spinning round and round – this is great! Thumbs up for the camera – throw us a kiss XOXO. Gee why is Al waving his hand in front of my face? Lalalala…this is AMAZING ! I don’t want it to end. SNAP!!!! Huh? Oh…we’re at 6000 feet and Al just pulled the parachute because I missed the signal to pull. And now we’re gliding. Al points out Pat several thousand feet below me chute opened and doing fine. We take in the gorgeous views, I’m amazed at how far we’ve come already – I look up at the clouds we passed through just seconds before. I LOVE THIS! .I could stay up here all day. Look there’s the plane – already landing and readying the next load. We do some tricks and take as long as possible, but all too soon we are coming in for a landing. Al tells me to lift my legs, which I try to do but the harness is a bit tight, so I hold them up and we manage to glide in on our butts – nice and smooth and just what we were aiming for. Sad face – it’s over??? Smile for the camera; take those goggles off, Pat comes running over: how was it? AMAZING! I’m doing this again!! Final picture of Pat, Me and Al. Total time elapsed since exiting the plane? Less than 8 minutes.

Within 30 minutes of landing I had a DVD of my jump and a CD of pictures – instant gratification. Pat decided not to do the cameraman and we were fortunate that my guy Bryce realized we were together and got some shots of Pat and we even planned the jump sequence so that he could capture pictures of Pat jumping for which we were quite thankful – not that I wouldn’t vouch for him, but its nice to have physical proof that we both did this.

Some of you have asked why? Why this? Why now? We decided it was time to start crossing things off my “To Do” list. Though I’ve already said that I am not crossing skydiving off my list–I’m moving it to my “Must do on a regular basis” list. Now when I have a few hundred dollars burning a whole in my pocket instead of a massage, I may go skydiving instead. We both realize that this next surgery could be life altering for me, not in a good way. The outcome is not promising– it’s going to impact my quality of life. I will not have a bladder, but I don’t know what sort of hook up I will have – I don’t know if you can skydive with a nephrostomy – I haven’t asked. And I didn’t want to find out too late that you can’t and I missed the chance to do it. Also my leg – we don’t know if I will have full use of it after the surgery. If the nerve gets damaged and I lose the use of it I certainly won’t be able to skydive – can’t land if you only have 1 working leg – at least solo, possibly tandem. Dunno for certain, I haven’t actually looked into the possibilities I just assumed it would be better for me to do this when I had two functioning legs.

And now that it’s done it’s on to the next thing on my list. What will that be? I need to add a few more items to the list that will provide me with a rush of adrenaline similar to the skydiving. We’re thinking maybe hang gliding, bungee jumping, parasailing – it has to be fun, but relatively safe – I’m not looking at crazy stuff like street luge (but hmmm…snow luge or bobsledding perhaps??) and it can’t take years of training to reach the point that it’s enjoyable as I’m not looking to work at anything ;-) I just want to have some fun. Yea, I know, go to Six Flags and ride the roller coaster. One possibility that I have had bookmarked for like 5 years now is jump and raft, conveniently located in Maine – skydive one day, whitewater raft the next. Good possibility. This week though it’s back to earth: work, gardening, figuring out what to do with our weekly farm share – eggplant, summer squash, peppers, tomatoes, corn – yum!