August 5. 2008 – So Scott, the competent and and articulate UPS delivery man in my area dropped off some camera equipment – got a new lens – and we got to talking, and he told me about his hobby as a sky diver. I have wanted to sky dive for as long as I can remember, thinking often of floating above the earth, seeing it rise beneath, sailing along with the wind. I can’t imagine anything more fun or satisfying with the possible exception of writing, photography and a few other things.
  I thought of the terror I would feel leaping out of a plane, and hoping I would remember to pull the cord, and the equisite pleasure of seeing the earth from that perspective. So I called the Vermont sky diving club that Scott belongs to and signed up. I take one lesson, and then go jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet or sky. I am psyched. I know I will be scared witless, and then will nearly addicted to it. I knew it the minute Scott talked to me about it, and he volunteered to meet me on my first jump, and jump with me, and make sure the cord got pulled. You can get one of this computer things, he said, that opens the cord at a particulate altitude. When he talked about sailing over the earth and riding along with the wind, he became a new friend. And I closed my eyes and knew this was something I just had to do. So my first jump is in a couple of weeks, just before the book tour. Scares me to death. So it has to be done.