Typical

Well, I had wanted to post pics on this one, but the card reader is broken.

But I PROMISE I'll put them up ASAP!!!

So, our friend (whom we shall call CJ) and her brother (whom we shall call PJ) were going to show Em and I how to rappel.

Cool!

So, picture this...

CJ trying to cut down a branch off the tree where we would do it (as the branch was in a most disruptive place). She saws and tugs, PJ and Em tug, standing on the roof of the little shed beneath the tree while I laugh at them (I was holding Em's camera).

After about five minutes of tugging and bending and sawing and jiggling, the branch comes down.

Next, CJ shows me how to tie a Swiss Seat properly.

"Be sure to get it pretty tight," she tells me.

-I suck in my breath because I tied it too tight-

CJ climbs up into the tree (waaay up!) to show me where to go, etc...

-me- Gulp! "I have to climb up there!?"

With some degree of fear and trepidation, I entrust myself to the shaky limbs, and saying oft' "I don't know about this!"

CJ tells me where to step, whilst PJ, from the ground below offers comforting bits of advice that usually end with something like "...or you'll probably be dead."

Picture this...

Me clinging to the tree limb, nowhere near the top of the line, having adamantly decided I was too scared to go any higher. CJ climbs all the way up, rappels down, climbs back up to help with the descender thingy.

Now either CJ forgot to tell me, thinking I had listened to PJ's lecture on the rappelling techniques, or I just didn't hear her say it; but somehow I didn't get the vital instructions on how to actually rappel down.

My harness is good, I'm ready to go...just hold the rope behind my back to anchor myself at first.

And so, I step out into the cold embrace of nothingness, the webbing around my torso and the air as the only thing between me and earth.

I do NOT drop down like a ton of bricks. Oh no, indeed. Quite the contrary.

I hang there.

"Houston, we have a problem."

I KNOW that in the process, you push off with your feet as you go DOWN, but I am not going down.

PJ tells me to hold my hand with the rope outward a little to descend.

Alrighty! I got it!

NOT!

I hold my arm out, drop jerkily down a bit, before I stop myself. No usage of my feet.

Take 2.

Same results.

Em, CJ and PJ are laughing their heads off at me.

And so the sequence is repeated; jerk, jerk, slip, bump, jerk, slide...

All the way down.

Another great moment in life ruined!

Now that I have the information I need, I might do better next time (if there ever is one). Em claims that she could only get a few pics of my courageous venture because she was practically rolling on the ground laughing.

Thanks Em.

After that we went inside and colored eggs. Much tamer.

The moral of my story?

Ummm...You really can learn from your mistakes, listen to instruction and pride goeth before a fall.

LOL.