Have a nice trip!

A while back I mentioned Joe Kittinger who - until yesterday - held the record for the highest, fastest, longest skydive. Yesterday, however - in case you hadn't heard - Joe helped Felix Baumgartner break nearly all of those records (not the longest freefall, though - still Joe's).

The words that Joe spoke just before Felix stepped off from his capsule ('and our Guardian Angel will take care of you') were stunning, as were Felix's last words ('I wish you could see what I see...I'm coming home') before he set himself free to do something that no other human - other than Joe - can possibly understand.



It wasn't all sunshine and roses, though, as Felix hit a spin (0:25 above) and had his visor fog up, blocking his view of his instruments (0:42 above). Luckily it looks like everything worked out just fine, and Felix touched down, dropping to his knees.

You can get a feel for what the experience was like thanks to this recreation...



Video of the full ten-plus minute jump after, well, the jump...

Up, up, and away in my beautiful, my beautiful...

Clearly I didn't draw directionally enough, because a lot of students guessed somebody flew a balloon from Italy to Maine. That's just backwards thinking right there.

Songs for Men

Or, rather,songs about men. All of the songs in today's playlist have a man's name as their song title.

Did I miss any that you can think of?

I'm way under 100

Of the 100 Skills that Every Man Should Know, I know the following...

• #1 - Handle a blowout - don't know that I handled it, but I at lived through one while doing 60 or so on an interstate.  I'll count that as a win.
• #2 - Drive in snow - I feel generally pretty okay in snow, though I don't use snow tires, just not enough call for it in Cincy.
• #13 - Escape a sinking car - Seems simple enough, but I have no idea that I'd do it in a pressure situation.
• #14 - Carve a turkey - I feel okay about this one since I've been doing it for four or so years now.  Wish I got more chances to do this so I could practice, though.
• #16 - Put out a fire - Done it but only once, and it was expected.  I was outside doing a demo that I kind of expected to get out of hand.
• #32 - Fix a toilet flapper - Done it a couple of times, and I think I was successful.
• #34 - Fell a tree - Really big ones, no...smaller ones, yes.  For some reason, though, I kill chainsaws in the process.
• Oddly, never even tried #39 - Change a diaper - I know, I should have somewhere along the line, but I've never even attempted it.
• #44 - Treat a burn - I knew that whole 'no butter' thing and have used cold water on a few burns.
• #51 - Run rapids in a canoe - Thanks to Smamy, I knew the whole bit about the V's.  I'm not sure I'd do class 4's, but I'm okay on smaller ones, at least.
• #68 - Throw a spiral - Wish my hands were a little larger for this, but I'm a'ight.
• #71 - Parallel Park - Way better at it than The Girl is.
• #73 - Tie a necktie - Hellz yeah.  Twice a week right about now, more like four times a week at the beginning of the school year.
• #75 - Ride a bike - I'm a tub of goo, and I should ride more, but I certainly can ride.
• #77 - Take the Perfect Portrait - Nice touch about flash in sunlight, but other than that, I knew all that stuff.

Man, I feel pathetic.