Crazy Larry's Excellent Adventures

Before we left the drop zone on Wednesday night Alain Bard decided to set up his hot air balloon. he had told me years before that he had built one himself and when I accused him of making that up he shrugged and pointed out "People build their own airplanes, why not a balloon?" He hadn't been stringing me along, and he started to lay it out in the landing area as evening approached. He needed a couple of vehicles with trailer hitches and I quickly volunteered my shiny new SUV and went looking for another. The first person I asked was Richard Bisson. He's been reading this blog for years and because of that you would think he'd know better than to simply give up his keys without asking what I was up to. But without hesitation he handed them over. I neglected to take into consideration that a Honda Civic has a lot less ground clearance than an SUV, so it kinda bottomed out a little as I went across the bike path into the field, but I'm sure his wife will never notice any damage, it's all underneath. He didn't seem at all perturbed to look over later and see a hot air balloon bobbing around tethered to his family car, so I guess he's become immune to my antics by now.

I managed to dodge Beer Cop duty this time around, naming Brian Forbes as my successor. I had planned to stick Beth Bryan with the task but she had to cancel when the work trip she was counting on to pay her travel expenses fell through. Brian has been doing a fine job, pouncing on stupid mistakes like missing a debrief or forgetting your helmet. Beer is the nectar of knowledge. Aside from the motivating effect of levying a fine for a stupid mistake, at the end of the day when we all gather to drink the beer, skydiving stories are told, and much learning takes place. The problem with these stories is the same as with most learning experiences. "Ya know that thing you just did? Don't do that!" Most of the stories end with "Later on, when we were at the hospital....."

It's mid afternoon on Thursday and we're on a wind hold. The first 2 jumps with all 102 of us went well, and while there is much to improve on things look promising. Diane asked if I would strip down to my underwear when we're put on a 20 minute call. The last couple of times we were in Perris there was always some guy in the middle of the packing mat stripped down to his underwear to put on his jump suit when we had 20 minutes to go. It was just as reliable as the calls from manifest.

I hope we're not left hanging too long, all the weather holds at last years record attempts sucked the energy right out of people.