perspective

I have been saving and finally have all the components of my paragliding kit. Uhh, that isn't exactly true, I can fly now, I just need a vario. It was hard, figuring out which wing I wanted and then having to deal with the cost of purchasing new. I bought a X-Alps harness and a rescue, both brand new and was working on the wing. Dreaming about wings, I looked at the classifieds in paraglidingforum.com and I see an ad for a UP Makalu 2 size L like my old one. I sold it pretty new, less than 10 hours, a couple of years ago to purchase a custom aerodynamic hang gliding harness.

Anyway, I contemplated sending on a PM and after a couple of weeks, I jotted one and pressed "send" thinking that the glider was sold as the ad was months old. The guy writes back, "hey dude, this is your old wing" and I started asking what condition it was in. It had been flown once he said, "bullshit" I'm thinking to myself as the guy I sold it to was a friend of his and I flew my hang glider circling around my old wing.

But I bought it knowing that it was still really fresh.

It's hot here and I am getting old and not able to take the heat like I did when I was a kid. Being a red hair, fair skin person, I took a lot of heat when I was a kid and my skin is damaged by the sun. The dermatologist is always hacking away at this or that, I call it the rust. That combined with the heat and I'm not flying in months that contain "R" Even September is rough but I am getting close and ready for a little action.

For me, the desire to fly has to overcome the fear of injury and or death.

I've flown enough to know what it takes to fly xc, far. I'm not willing to do that again. I'm going to be a boater and I'm cool with that.

So for now, I'm keeping things in perspective, getting excited to fly again.