Bucket List Item #1 Off the List Tomorrow at 9AM

Like most people, I have a Bucket List of “10 Things to do Before I Die”. Or in my case, because of most of the things on the list, the bucket list might be called “10 Things Most Likely to Kill Me”. I have already scratched off several of these items:

1) Go Skydiving
2) Learn to SCUBA Dive (Did that in 2004)
3) Learn to Fly Aerobatics (Started that this year)
4) Get my Instrument Pilot Rating (Did that in 2006)
5) Spend Time in the Rocky Mountains
6) Meet a Great Girl and Raise a Wonderful Family (Did/Doing that, twice)
7) Own a Crotch Rocket (Did that, several times)
8) Buy a Boat (Had a couple, they don’t count)
9) Finish Building an Airplane (Started many, never finished)
10) Become Rich Enough to Retire Young

Well it’s finally official. Tomorrow morning at 9AM at Sky Knights in East Troy, WI I will go skydiving for the first time. This is a slightly early 40th birthday present to me. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be near 80 and probably the last time for a long time it will be that warm. Since my birthday is in January, that is FAR from an ideal time to go skydiving in Wisconsin!

Like a lot of first time jumpers, I will be doing a tandem jump. That is where I am hooked up, very securely I presume, to a very experienced jump master. We will climb to 13,500 feet above Milwaukee and jump out of a perfectly good airplane. We will free-fall for about 1 minute to a few thousand feet above the ground, and be under the chute for about 5 more minutes. The entire jump will be videotaped and photographed, and you can bet I will post that online!

I am nervous just writing this blog entry, but excited too. This is something that I have wanted to do for a VERY long time and it will finally happen tomorrow! This has been a “hell week” at work, actually a “hell 3 weeks”, so I really am looking forward to relaxing tonight and getting a good nights sleep before #1 comes off the list!

PS: If you are family (especially Dad), pretend you did not read this until tomorrow when I post the pictures!

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