Conversation

This picture was taken a few years ago in Eloy, Arizona, over the Christmas holidays. We are both in it, Smart Guy and me, in the far left corner. I'm in purple and he's in white behind me. It's not so different from what we did yesterday (although the size of our formation was much smaller) when we went down to Snohomish and made three jumps. It was in the car as we were coming home that we had one of our conversations.

"How were your openings today?"

"Pretty good, except I think I opened in a track once and got whacked."

"Mine were all great, but I had closed end cells every time."

"That happens to me, it's almost expected with a Stiletto."

"The wind got strong enough that I had to cut my downwind leg short so I wouldn't get caught over the buildings, and then I was long on my final. But I even landed in the peas once."

"I saw that. I've been setting up to the north and starting my final a little higher, but you're right, it does make it hard to keep from overshooting."

"Remind me to clean my cutaway cables when we get home, okay?"

"Sure. Good idea."

"It was a great day today, huh? I always feel so satisfied after a jumping day like today."

"Yup. Me too."

This is not your usual senior citizen conversation after spending a day together. I don't know how long we will be able to keep on doing this, but it's been twenty years now (for me, he's been jumping for 47 years) and we're both still going strong. I feel like life is really good when I've had a chance to play in the sky over Puget Sound, opening my beautiful Stiletto parachute and taking a look at the ocean, the clouds, the mountains peeking through like ice cream. My life is good, and I'm happy to take a moment to say thanks.