Meanwhile, on the Ground...

Sorry that's it's been so long between posts.  I've been in a coffee stained frenzy at work, work, work.   I don't think I'd get any jumps in even if I hadn't smashed my arm and leg in my infamous 75th jump.

And speaking of that jump...

...something puzzled me:  Where were the nightmares?

I have nightmares all the time.  You'd think a young David Lynch was directing them: Creepy things.  Gory things.  Mutilated things.  If I find something unpleasant, I'll dream about it.
Where were the accident flashbacks?  Wasn't that supposed to be the norm?   It wasn't like I was having fun in freefall with the streamer arm.   I wasn't whistling a happy tune when I was drifting towards, the freeway,  under a canopy I could barely control.  No nightmares about that?  I don't get it.
It's not like I never get traumatized.   In my late teens my neighbor's lunatic dog tried to eat me.

 I held my purse between myself and his teeth, so he "only" trashed the purse before his owner pulled him away.  I wasn't able to walk by his house for years.  Even after the dog died I'd cross the street to avoid passing to that home.

I did find time to visit the drop zone.  The observation rides are almost was fun as the "jumping out of the plane" rides.

It's funny how brains work.  Even when I knew I was staying on the plane, I still thought "Yikes, here I go again!" as the plane took off.  When the it slowed for jump run, I felt the familiar jolt of nerves.  The part of my mind that decides what's scary and what isn't doesn't take reality into the picture.

I also heard from people who were on the load where I broke my arm.  I remember striking the doorway, but I didn't think others noticed.  They did.

I also heard that early internet reports of my crash landing had exaggerated the extent of the injuries.

Back in September, the surgeon who fixed my breaks estimated I'd be healed (and presumably, jump worthy,) in four months or so.  That meant I'd be jumping again in January.  That didn't sound too far off...

My local orthopedist had other ideas.  He said to stay on the ground until March. 

March!?
As if I wasn't getting rusty enough as it was!
Still, it's probably wise to play it safe.
I also used the money I was saving on gasoline and jump tickets to invest in  equipment.  Soon I had a canopy, a rig,  a reserve and an AAD (okay, some of it's still at the shop, but my name's on it.).

Maybe, since I'm on the ground, can teach myself to pack- something I've watched a million times and still can't quite do by myself (shame!)
It will be cool to get back in the sky, but I can talk tough since it's many months off.  Maybe I'll get more nervous as March gets closer.

In the past, the longer it was between jumps, the more unnerving it was to get back in the air.  And this was just skipping a few weeks.  What was going to happen after six months on the ground?