It's Friday, and given that surviving Friday means I get to have my weekend, it is my favorite day. In case that anticipation of the weekend wasn't enough to make my day, there was this awesome post on one of the blogs I frequent.
Check it out if you need a little "feel good" moment.
http://www.dadgonemad.com/
**editor note** Since I didn't bookmark to the specific post (silly me) it's titled "The Gift"
*I just managed to erase my entire post, so here is a shorter version.
Yesterday was in the mid 90's, so I spent the day with the Red Rocker swimming and fishing at Clark's pond.
Here she is fishing after our swim, while I'm sunning on a rock.
The view from where I sat.
Not us, but a look from the ground up as the parachuters were coming in for their landing.
The camping area was literally right beside the landing, so we were able to sit in our tents and drink (not allowed) while watching the skydivers.
Evidently, FAA regulations do not permit alcohol consumption on the grounds until the plane is grounded for the night. HG bought Brent & Kara a HUGE tent that we were able to hide our chairs and alcohol in until the drinking was allowed.
Our Camping area, with their main building & "School" under the red roof. What you can't see (amazingly) was the huge red tent to our right... that we referred to as the Taj...
In the videos you can clearly pick out this tent even from 14K feet.
See the cones? The other side of the cones is the landing area.
More to come... when I get my computer back and figure our how to load the videos on the net :-)
By the way...
Did I mention we did finally dump the Jetta? A horror story that car was. The final week we had it (while HG was vehicle shopping online) the check engine light had come back on (yet again) and the vehicle was not bogging down. I took it over to my mechanic to find out if the car would make it down south to where we had picked some vehicles we wanted to look at... the verdict was that it would probably make it down, but he couldn't guarantee it would make it back.
Comforting thought. We left our house around 7 am and headed south to make the rounds. The first vehicle we were checking out- a Mazda RX8. Beautiful beautiful car, handled like a dream and had a stock gps/mapping screen that HG fell in love with immediately. Granted it's a low pro car, I couldn't help but feel like I was in a box behind the steering wheel. HG was driving and my comment... "You know, if you get in an accident with this, you are going to die." I wasn't going for the dramatics, and I liked the car, but with the metal closely surrounding you, the Jaws of life wasn't going to be fun. The other down side, the salesman was a bit sleazy, still hadn't gotten the tires swapped over, as one of the rims was bent- and had known for 3 days we were headed down specifically for this vehicle. Plus he was unwilling to negotiate, yes it's a nice car, but it's also used... there is always negotiating room with used vehicles.
So we headed to the second vehicle, a Chevy 1500 loaded, with a plow. My favorite feature... the heated leather seats. I heart heated leather seats in the winter, Spring and fall.
The downfalls:
1) Vehicle hadn't been cleaned- it was the owners bnl, but still, your trying to sell a vehicle, clean the damn car.
2) The tires- wouldn't pass state inspection in our state.
3) Financed thru a credit union that a) wasn't open on Saturday and b) didn't finance out of state.
The salesman was very nice, was able to negotiate* in price as well as throw in 4 new tires, but we would have to come back another day to deal with the financing and have the vehicle cleaned and tires put on. Ok, not ideal. We had done our shopping online and had a list of dealers and specific vehicles so that we could get this taken care of in one day, and not get stuck broken down with the POS VW. Again, we left to go to our next option.
Dealership #3 we were looking at an 07 Honda Civic and a Chevy step side. A "playa" looking guy comes out to great us. HG tells him we are here to look at the two vehicles. Playa says, "what truck?" ,"Oh I think I sold that". HG says we saw it on the web last night. Playa says, "Oh well the web doesn't get updated frequently, like once a month or somethin'." Ok, not impressed, but these things happen. So we ask to look at the 07 Civic. Playa gets "excited" and gushes "oh we just got this in, and we've had a lot of interest on it." (Hold up... you just got this in, and it's on your web page that hasn't been updated in months??)
HG is on the drivers side checking it all out. We are going to go for a test drive so I go to get into the passenger side and oh wait, there is no seat belt. Let me rephrase that. There is a seat belt, but it's been cut. Not worn out, cut. The salesman is on the drivers side talking to HG, so I say, um the seat belt doesn't work. He looks up, "what do you mean?" The seat belt has been cut I say. He comes over to inspect it, because clearly I could be delusional. Playa sees that I'm not delusional and says "Well we can have that replaced." Yes you friggen idiot I'm aware that it can be replaced. In my experience seat belts typically only are cut when the vehicle has been in an accident and they are trying to get a person out... which leads me to ask Playa if this vehicle has been in an accident. Seems like a logical and reasonable question to me, but I must have upset his delicate sensibilities because he very quickly responds "We DON'T buy vehicles like that."
Yeah sure you don't.
Anyway, we decide to take the vehicle for a test drive anyway. We're driving down the road and I open up the glove compartment. Inside the glove compartment is the original window sticker that has all the features listed, AND the original sales receipt from the original owner. Nosey me, I'm checking out what she paid, and it happens to be less than what this dealer is asking. About then, my dislike for playa reaches the peak. I get angry...very very angry. But we think, ok we'll use this in our negotiations and we'll get a good deal. But I'm still very very angry with lying salesman. So we go back to the dealership, I'm angry so I don't say anything as HG sits down and asks Playa what they are asking for the vehicle. Playa states the price, about 1K over the cost of the vehicle new. HG wants to negotiate, playa isn't so receptive.
The tea kettle comes to a boil.
I tell him about the original sales invoice still in the glove compartment from the original owner, and how she bought the car brand new for less than what they are asking. His first response... no she didn't. No she didn't? I went to elementary school where they taught you the alphabet and how to count from 1 to 10, so don't f-ing lie to my face. I explain calmly but shortly that the invoice is in the glove compartment and that she paid X for the car, and that we were not going to pay more for the vehicle used than it was worth new. Playa tries to tell me that I am not reading the invoice right and that the owner probably put down like 4 grand... This really pisses me off, because a) I'm capable of reading an invoice and it does show how much she put down ($500) but b) don't lie to my face. Playa says to me, "You seem to be getting hostile, and I don't know why." Right there, I envision myself reaching over his desk and pushing his chair over, because it's obvious a hit to the head couldn't hurt him. I try to calm myself down as I say, "I think we are done here." As we are headed out the door, I was still angry, and I turn around and say to him, "let me give you a word of advice. When you are trying to sell a used car for more than it's worth I would recommend you take the paper work out of the vehicle."
We get in the car, and I'm still fuming, while HG is calmly sitting there. He looks at me, and starts laughing as he says "I don't think I've ever seen you that angry with anyone (but me)."
I try to defend myself by saying, "Hey I never raised my voice" which is true, but there was no mistaking or masking my anger.
So we leave this dealership to check out another RX8 we saw on our way in, this time I don't even want to get out of the car. Plus it wasn't worth it. We head on to Manchvegas where there are dealerships beside dealerships beside dealership. I also bought my Jeep at a dealer in the area, and was able to do it all in one day, on a weekend without an issue. So we hit the multiple dealers and are in a Toyota/Lexus dealership when we spot a small sporty looking car that is relatively new. By the way, I didn't realize that Lexus and Toyota were associated. Anyway, we test drove, and loved a Scion TC. We were vaguely familiar with Scion, but I associated it with these box like vehicles I had seen. Anyway, Toyota launched Scion 5-8 years ago, and the TC was created as a replacement for the Toyota Celica which Toyota intended to stop producing.
This was our final stop. We bought a 2007 Scion TC, with 19K miles, the remainder of the factory warranty as well as an extended warranty, and drove it home. It's a cute car, the only issue is that you'll feel like your going 50 only to look down and see the speedometer at 80. We bought a radar detector the very next day.
Thank god we ended the day with a great, laid back, no pressure salesman and drove off in a different car. The best part, the warranty, and we have a Toyota dealer just a few minutes away.
Playa is contributing to the bad rep salesman already have.
But our vehicle issues should cease now :-)
By the way has anyone seen the Citi commercial where the woman is using her phone to make the last car payment, and she says "you know as soon as I make the last payment something will go wrong.".... I think that might be the luck that falls on HG with everything.
*patting myself on the back, because I usually do the negotiating. A tactic I picked up while working for a dealership. I'm not great at it, but I usually can get the price reduced at least a little.
Just touching base.
HG is headed back down south for week 2 of 8 weeks of training. I'm glad he gets to come home on the weekend, but it makes the weekend feel like it goes that much faster. We decided that we'd share custody of the laptop. You know, he has it one week, I have it the next... but I work on a computer all day so at the end of the day I only get online for a few minutes, and only two of my web pages aren't accessible from work. I figured I'd log onto those pages today and let my computer go.
Saturday we attended some friend's wedding. It was nice to watch two friends tie the proverbial knot after being together for years and years and years.... I know the husbands next goal... kids. The highlight of the wedding for me, aside from watching two friends exchange vows, was playing with a friends baby girl while she played Matron of Honor. Whitney, the baby girl, was excellent the entire time minus a few seconds of impatience while she was waiting and watching her bottle get prepared. While I was holding her, she squirmed her way so she was laying down on my lap and then her little legs started running on an invisible treadmill. She just kept running in the air, all while cooing and being a generally adorable baby. Given her parents, I know she is going to be hell on wheels as she gets older, but right now she is completely adorable. 'Mom' and I used to party together and ride dirt bikes & 4 wheelers together, so watching motherhood transform her has been interesting. Bottom line, she was a head strong wild child, who still has the ability to rile peoples feathers with just a few easy comebacks, but whose priority has become her little girl.
Sunday was our day. We slept in, well as much as I can sleep in, and then headed for a nice motorcycle ride that took us up around where the "Man on the mountain" used to be, and ended us back near Orford. It was a great weather day, and the clouds rolled in just as we made it home.
It was a nice ending to a great weekend.
Shelby tagged me for a random 8....
The Rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
1. I would love to become a certified skydiver...solo jumps :-)
2. When I can't sleep, (and I'm home by myself) I clean or rearrange rooms.
3. I am jealous of the people who work just for fun... damn it share your money so I can work just for fun.
4. I am convinced that I will some day win the lottery, and win big, despite the simple fact that I rarely ever buy a ticket.
5. I use my insane cat's behavior as my excuse to not have kids... If my cat is this crazy, think of what my kids will be like.
6. I perpetually expect the best from people, only to be let down.
7. I am not a good sport. I play nice, but I beat myself up pretty hard if I am not instantly good at something. And chances are I will drop that activity/hobby.
8. I sometimes have dreams/nightmares that are so real I wake up convinced it really happened.
Now....tagging...(sorry "guys'' it's part of the rules....) Yes it's supposed to be 8...but this will have to suffice.
Seth
Mike
Holly
Geeky
Helen
Skydiving....
was spectacular, no fabulous, no amazing...
There is really no way to describe the feeling of free falling at 14,000 feet. I can't believe I did it, but at the same time I'm not surprised that I did. My anticipation for the day kept me feeling a bit nervous but oddly enough I didn't actually get physically nervous until we were on the plane and getting closer to altitude. I was the last one to jump, not by choice, just purely seating arrangements, and because I was in the "back" of the plane I would see everyone at the door and then...nothing. That was until the person before me went, and by then I was close enough to the door to see down... you can hear me in the video go "OH FUCK".
I had an awesome Aussie instructor, and an equally great videographer (That's a real word isn't it?). I got lucky. I refused to look down when we were standing in the door frame of the plane, and lost my breath when we first jumped, but man... was it f**ing awesome. We did a back flip, we spun, we went up, we went down, it was great.
The parachute opening is a little startling, it feels like your suddenly being pulled back up, but once open, it's the equivalent of tubing down a relaxing river, but in the sky of course. Once we were all on the ground, I was ready to go again. HG and I are planning on going again in August once he returns from "bootcamp" but I'm tempted to go again before then...
It is truly an awesome experience, and I can't wait to do it again.
I would have posted pictures and video but HG has my computer as well as the memory card and video with him in Mass...
HG (aka Mikeyp) has now become a blogger, you can check out his new site at Mikeyps log. He has a few of the pictures online from the jump as well.
The only downfall to skydiving...
The day to day seems even more mundane...
-Skydiving-
That my nervousness is slowly creeping beyond my excitement.
Just a bit.
Now I'm having images of being up in the airplane and holding onto the door as a group of the instructors are trying to pry my hands off the handle with a crowbar.
Just a few days more...
-Friend-
A friend has posted an entry that makes me so incredibly sad for her, and I can offer no promising words, or words of inspiration or encouragement. I feel sympathy pains as she struggles in dealing with something that has always been a fear for me in my deeply hidden insecurities. Even if I could offer her words, I wouldn't even begin to know where to start. Hopefully she will find her way back.
-knitting-
The "Yoda" baby sweater has been on hold since I made a mistake but haven't gone back to it... It's a good thing it'll still fit her in the fall :-)
I've been knitting a lace-esq scarf, that is about half way done, and I like the pattern but every once in a while I have to rip a row or two when I realize I didn't count... I knew I shouldn't have been watching Lifetime for Hookas...
The excitement is killing me...
I even invited two of my male athletic/outgoing bosses... the big head had his family coming in, otherwise would be on board, the other... "um I like thrill seeking, just not that much".
Is it morbid that I'm thinking about writing a "living will" you know...just in case? I've never discussed my "wishes" with my family, and they have no idea about my finances, etc...
Morbid? Or responsible?
Hmm... 7 days to decide.
Maybe I should retract the "killing me" part
