Here’s one of my favorite pictures of Mom and Dad:
It’s been a week and a day since my mom passed away. I love her laugh, her smile, her sense of humor, and her dedication to the project at hand. My mom was always all in, whatever she happened to be doing. I remember she tried her hand at sewing, crochet, embroidery, Artex, bear collecting, teddy bear construction, genealogy, photography, baking and cooking and did very well with all of them! Plus she played the guitar and the piano, and she was kind to animals. She was a good mother and I’ll miss her very much.
It will take just 37 seconds to read this and change your thinking.
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.
One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.
His bed was next to the room’s only window.
The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end.
They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation…
Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.
Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.
As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man could not hear the band – he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days, weeks and months passed.
One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep.
She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed.
It faced a blank wall.
The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.
The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, ‘Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.’
Epilogue:
There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.
Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy.
‘Today is a gift, that is why it is called The Present.’
October 16, 2010 was the most perfect day of my life. We had a thrilling, exciting and life-affirming experience that day… skydiving!
We chose the Skydive Space Center because they offer the world’s highest tandem jump at 18,000 feet. For this type of skydiving, you’re strapped to the front of an experienced jumpmaster, and you get to freefall for 13,000 feet, which is a little over a minute – it doesn’t last long when you’re going 120 mph! Then after the parachute opens, it takes about 5-6 minutes to cover the last 5,000 feet to the ground. We also got the Ultimate video package to go with it, which means you have a videographer to film your freefall, and your jumpmaster has a camera on his wrist, so the entire jump is filmed.
We arrived at the center around 10am, and the first order of business was to get weighed (there’s a 220 pound weight limit), pay for the jumps, and sign our lives away on 12 pages of paperwork. Yep, I get it… skydiving is dangerous. Yep, I get it… I could be hurt or killed. Yep, I got it the first 10 times you stated it in the paperwork!
With the papers all signed, initialed and filed, it was time to go out to the hangar to see about getting our gear and safety briefing.
When we went out, we each got to meet our jumpmaster and videographer. I was hoping for a cute jumpmaster and I was not disappointed! Cris gathered all of his people together and we got instructions on what to do and how the jump would go. Ki (my excellent videographer) did my pre-jump interview (which you’ll see below); Trav and Bleys also got their interviews, gear and briefings, and we were ready to go.
We were in the third group to go up, so as we waited, we watched the other groups leave and then land. The only thing I was little nervous about was the landing (if I break a leg, how can I go dancing?), but after watching the others come in, I didn’t worry any more. All of the landings were without incident – very smooth. Also while we were waiting, we met the pilot. When somebody commented on jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, he said, “Yeah… it’s not that good of a plane.” As long as it was good enough for the 15 minute ride up to 18,000 feet, that was good enough for me. We also had an impromptu dance practice on the foxtrot box step while we waited and Bleys’ videographer wanted to know if that was our last dance. I hoped not!
By the time we were ready to board the plane, my face was sore from smiling so much… I don’t think the grin left my face the whole time we were there. Little did I know what a massage my face was about to get! So, without further ado, here’s the video. Because it’s edited to include shots from two cameras, the freefall seems much longer than it really was. Down below are my comments about different parts of the video.
2:00 The center is in Titusville, near the Kennedy Space Center. Off in the distance, we could see the buildings and runways for the Space Center.
2:55 We exit the plane. What a rush as we tumble for the first few seconds. I forgot to arch my back and keep my head back… I’ll remember next time, Cris! If I do that, can we freefall on our backs for a few seconds? I think that would be neat.
3:13 For a split second (and it’s written all over my face!) I think, “Oh crap, I just stepped out of an airplane!”
3:45 You can see the airport near the middle of the screen. It looks so small from up there!
5:00 I wonder what all of the hand signals mean. Or are they making their bodies do certain things with gestures? Perhaps I’ll find out if I ever train for a job as a skydiving videographer.
5:43 Ahhh… sweet, sweet relief, from the wind in my face and my ears popping.
6:27 I should have looked in the thesaurus before we left, for synonyms to the word “awesome!”
6:50 Wheeeeeee! Pull down on one of the steering lines and you go sideways and do circles! That was a really fun part.
7:15 I’m a little disappointed in my answer to the question, “Will you do it again?” All I thought about at that moment was the money instead of the thrill. Later on, after I had time to process the whole thing, my answer changed to, “Yes, definitely! When can we go again?”
7:45 Perfect, soft landing. I had a little wardrobe malfunction on the way down… shortly before we landed, Cris loosened the harness and my bra came popping up over my boobs. Whoops!
8:04 Trav comes to get me. I’m so glad he was there when I got finished.
After the jump was over, I felt spent, but in the best way possible. What an intense experience! The buzz from the jump lasted about three weeks… I felt so good! Ki said it was addicting, and I can see now how that can be. I watch my video every day and I can’t wait to go again.
I especially want to thank Cris & Ki for making a safe and fun experience I will always treasure.<3
We’ve wanted to sky dive ever since we met. This weekend we are finally doing it!! We have reservations to jump out of a plane at 18,000 feet. Woo hoo!
This time we went to spend the day with Trav’s cousins, and we had a lot of fun! They were staying at Summer Bay Resort in Clermont. While John was cooking lunch on the grill, we were watching two guys riding jet skis on the lake. They were starting to get pretty close to each other and when they came around and circled real close, one guy dumped it over. Then he couldn’t get it flipped, so they had to come tow it away with a tiny rescue boat. Rather amusing!
After lunch we went swimming, plus me and Melissa participated in the line dancing… here we are doing the Cupid Shuffle!! There’s no sound, so you’ll just have to sing along in your head – to the right, to the right, to the right, to the right, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, now kick, now kick, now come on baby kick, now walk it by yourself, walk it by yourself! Etc.
You probably do not have the Flash Player (Get Adobe Flash Player Here) installed for your browser or the video files are misplaced on your server!
For dinner, we went to a local seafood place called High Tide Harry’s, on Semoran Blvd just up the road from the airport. We chose it because it had pretty good reviews, and they had to pick up their daughter at the airport. We got Melissa and Kat to try alligator, and they liked it! The place has great ambiance, and the food was good. I had a bowl of blue crab stew and a salad, along with hushpuppies and the appetizers of gator and fried okra. Yum!
And here’s Mandy with her fishbowl of Long Island Iced Tea. 32 oz! We all helped her finish it… it was actually pretty tasty. I’m glad somebody got that special drink because it’s pretty darn fun.
Just down the road from the resort are tons of gift shops, many with huge, garish decorations on the buildings. On the way back, we decided to stop at one of them. I scored a dolphin mood necklace and two very pretty anklets. One is the Del Sol kind, where the string turns a different color in the sunshine, and the other is made of paua shell dolphins. Here’s the outside of the shop. It looks hazy because the camera lens fogged up with the humidity and I didn’t have time to wait for it to clear… had to hurry up and shop!
I’m liking the Orlando area very much – we’ve had a lot fun there recently!
I found some adventure food at the meat market… canned breadfruit nuts. I wasn’t sure what to do with them until I found this post at Chowhound. I boiled them in salty water for about 10 minutes and they turned out pretty good. A lot like boiled peanuts (which I love) but more firm and with a smoky taste.
The other day, we took a drive over to Orlando to visit with Trav’s brother Mike and his family, and to give Bleys some stuff he needs for his apartment. We had a great visit! Here are a few pics from the resort where they are vacationing.
We hung out at the pool for a while, then went up to get ready for dinner at Agave Azul. Yay! I’m happy to report it was just as good this time. I got the Pollo Mole – it was seasoned very well and I enjoyed it a lot. Trav had the fajitas and reported them to be excellent.
Since they have over 200 kinds of tequila, I felt like I wanted a drink with tequila in it. After marveling at the $65 shots of Anejo and thinking about sipping a glass of straight tequila (could I smell it without my belly doing a flip?), I decided on the Purple Margarita. It has tequila, cranberry juice and Chambord (a black raspberry liqueur). It was delicious! Kind of expensive but worth it. It’s in the pic below.
Mike decided to order all 5 desserts they had on the menu, for 8 of us to share. I was SOOO full when we left there! And we got some pictures for LickYourPlateClean.com, tee hee!
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