Off By One

Anyone that partakes in a sport that is outside the norm will have some reason or other for doing what they do. Mostly, their reasons boil down to vague notions of thrill or of challenge; they want to do something that scares them, or that is so insanely difficult that doing it at all elevates you to an elite crowd.

These are, in my opinion, pretty good reasons to do crazy things. They’re not, however, my reasons.

I choose to fly because I get to feel the freedom of letting go of conventional stability — the plane — and having a very personal, nearly spiritual connection to my world. When I am in the air alone, I owe nothing to anybody but myself, and I owe very little even there. All I have to do is pull, and I have satisfied every obligation.

Today, and I write this reluctantly, I jumped for the last time.

The skies were blue, patched with clouds at 7,000’.

The air was fresh, the wind calm.

The temperature was high, but for Brazil, not too bad.

I jumped from a Caravan at 12,000’, making a smooth exit and a laughing, joyous flight through a cloud in the aforementioned cloud layer.

I pulled.

The chute opened.

And I felt something in my shoulder give.

It wasn’t a complete dislocation, but even now when I put on a T-shirt, I feel it nearly slip out when I slide my arm into the sleeve.

I cannot jump if I cannot comfortably and fearlessly carry out the single most important task in the skydive, and I cannot safely pull anymore.

So, jump #38, at 25 minutes and 15 seconds of freefall, my first jump in a country other than Canada, my first jump from a Caravan, and also my last.

Delta(n): A change, eg the difference from one period to the next.

Time: As far as we measure it, five hours different.

Place: Approximately 11,000 km away from where I was 32 hours ago. Specifically, -46.6167, -23.5333

Language: Most people I’ll deal with this week won’t speak English. The people with whom I’ll deal most do. I speak maybe five words of the local language.

Weather: It’s currently 28º, about 35º warmer than it was 32 hours ago

Culture: The hotel powers down all of its outlets when I’m not in the room. Houses in this neighborhood all have wrought-iron fences to protect their parking spaces. The hotel is still all beige, just like hotels in Canada.

I don’t know how significant this is, really. I’ve covered it on my traveling weblog before, but there is something fundamentally dislocating about this kind of distance. I’m at best an indifferent traveler, preferring to be at home where all of my comforts are. It’s made more interesting by the fact that I’m in the middle of no small amount of upheaval on the home front.

For the last few who haven’t heard, we got the house, and will be moving into our very own home on January 23rd. We have, then, four months to prepare it for the arrival of theour baby. Luckily, there’s not a lot that needs doing in a hurry, it’s pretty much ready.

Those of you who read this are probably already aware of my feelings on the subject, but they bear repeating: We don’t plan to become one of those couples with no life other than our child. Our friends are infinitely precious to us, and we’ll be doing our damnedest to ensure that we remember that in the years to come. We’re moving, which makes it harder (as I said in a comment on the last post) but that just means that when I meet Mel for coffee in the morning it’s a bit more of a detour for me

So, Char and I are — by virtue of the conditions of our current residence — about to embark on a second… adventure. We’re buying a house. Together. Like real adults, with real responsibilities. This falls firmly into the scary end of the spectrum.

I wrote the first part of this post with something firmly in mind, but for the life of me I can’t recall what that was. It’s worth noting, though, that blogging on an iPhone is not as effective as on a computer. It’s slower, by far, for one, and it’s a pain in the ass to do italics or bold text.

Anyway, house shopping.

Char and I are looking at some places tonight, some of which are just freaking gorgeous. We’ve got some nice neighborhoods picked out, and in general I’m pretty happy with the state of the housing market in Edmonton right now, which I suppose indicates that I’ve got radically lowered standards than I used to have. It’s grotesque, the prices I now consider to be ‘good’ prices for a house.

I hope that we’ll have more good news on this sort of subject soon, because we’d both like to get as little stress as we can out of this.

I’ll try to be more consistent, by the way; I’ve gotten right out of the habit of blogging (like some I could mention) and as a consequence I need to whip myself into posting. Rest assured, I’ve got a lot on my mind.

Update

Wow. What a pain in the ass.

So, I wrote this a week ago, and hit ‘publish’… or thought I did. Nope.

So, in the meantime, we bought a house. Nothing major, there

Well, it looks like I’ve got more reason to write than ever before. And I thought that going back to school was going to be a big deal and worth writing about. If only I’d known…

So, for the one of you still reading this that doesn’t already know — and I suspect that my readership has fallen to zero at this point — I’m going to be having a baby. Char and I will become parents on or around May 23 next year (if Ali has her way, it’ll be May 22, but I don’t know that we’ll be that obedient).

I’m … ambivalent about this. Anyone that knows me even a little knows well my feeling on the subject of my having offspring. I’ve never made a secret of it. But I can’t really cling to those feelings at this point, otherwise I’ll do far worse as a parent than my child-to-be deserves (speaking of which, since the Internet is forever, there’s a good chance they’re reading this. Hi, offspring!)

So, I’m reanimating this blog. I expect it’ll have a different tone than before, and don’t be shocked if there are posts that are either private or don’t allow feedback — this is likely to become a bit more of a public diary than a sounding board, but you’re all welcome to participate. Who knows, perhaps it’ll make things easier to adjust to.

Good morning.

As some of you may recall, once upon a time I started a blog called “schoolblog” based on my progression through the educational system. It was a tiny little side project, and really, it stayed that way all along. Now, or more specifically, yesterday, that process came to its conclusion at the U of A convocation ceremonies.

So, I’m done.

And, as has been increasingly obvious, so is this blog, at least as it currently exists. I don’t seem to have the impulse to write, and if the comment rate is any indication, what little I do write is not spurring conversations either. Given these two strikes, I cannot see myself having anything to say for a while.

I’m not getting rid of the domain, so it might come back at some future date, but in the meantime…

Good night.

Convocation is coming up in a very short time, and I’m pretty pumped about it. It marks the end of a long, long road, one that should have been shorter than it was. Better late than never is my motto at this point.

Mindless Self-Indulgence (a more fitting band name I cannot imagine) is playing this tuesday, and I’m gonna go see them with a whole horde of friends. I expect bruising, which will be fun.

France is coming closer. There might be some more news there, too, but I’m not 100% (98%?) sure of it.

Simon is kindly sending us to an opera! We’ll be seeing the Flying Dutchman, which is probably going to be really odd. I’ve never been to an opera, so I hope that they don’t have a dress code

Wow, am I lazy.

I mean, I can chalk it up to being a bit hung over, what with Brady and Mel not leaving til 4 AM this morning, but waking up at noon and realizing that I really don’t have time to go out, jump, and get home…

Bleargh.

I wish I had been a bit wiser, that’s all.

Had a great time with Eric and company at his bachelor party last night. This one won’t win any awards for hardcore crazy times, but that’s more my speed anyway. The entertainments included political snarkery, literary pretensions, laser tag, and Dragonball on the Wii. All of these things are good fun, and really, what would life be like without them?

I did, however, oversleep a bit this morning. I blame the fact that I’ve not topped 6 hours of sleep in any night for around a month, which is probably not doing my body any good whatsoever.

In other news, Mother’s day is coming, and I’m pretty stoked: I remembered!

Well, to the mildly obsessive-compulsive amongst you, or to the pop-culture archaeologists, I am so, so sorry to do this:

TV Tropes is the biggest timesink I have ever encountered. I recommend starting with shout outs or Jossed or, perhaps, a favourite show.

I’ve done just about nothing in the last two days but read this damned site. It even references Girl Genius!

Well, shit. Another week, another dry spell on the blog.

Actually, two weeks. My, how time flies…

So, I was in Omaha for a week doing some integration work for the team, taking the opportunity afforded by proximity to get some grotty little details hammered out and hopefully to sell my southern compatriots on the value of the tools we make up here. I think I was successful, but I haven’t heard a lot out of them this week (mainly because I’ve skipped the morning meetings, being disinclined to lean too heavily on the good graces of my carpooling coworker).

This past week…

Well, I’ve got a new respect for (and fear of) character set encodings. And, if you wonder what that means, there’s A) wikipedia and B) wikipedia.

Suffice to say it’s hellish, but I believe that the end is nigh. I think I’ve got the very worst of it nailed, and I hope to be on to something less nightmarish next week.