oldmaninnastix

modem users.. give me some feedback on approximately how many minutes this takes to load into your computer, if you want to. There is a little lag time even for high speed after punching the Play link.
Also..for some reason all videos load in at full volume sound..so be careful, ..a couple of times (while wearing earphones), I have nearly blown my eardrums out. So turn your volume on low at first or be really quick and reduce the quicktime volume before the movie plays..

Anyway.. this video was taken 3 winters back. Then 18 year old Jesse from Eugene,Oregon (a good friend of my daughter Brie) had never been sleigh riding (city boy!) before visiting on our Iowa farm. This short clip is his first ride in the snow on a ski-sled. He flies over a terrace and actually manages to make it to the bottom of the hill without crashing. It's a moment of absolute pride and happiness for him. We made a memory, Jesse! ..and here it is.. just for you. :-)bill

When my daughter Brie was visiting here a short time ago... I decided that she was old enough now, and also.. that it was time for me to reveal a long and closely guarded family secret to her:
..that sometimes members of our bloodline inherit the incredible ability to actually levitate!

Neither my mother nor my father could do this unusual feat, however there has been handed down through the generations an old story about my now-long-gone Aunt Pearl (on my mother's side) who used to be able to jump farther than anyone.. In fact she could, uh.. 'jump' so much so, to such a great distance, that people of her generation avoided her, thinking that she was part-witch, or some other superstitious foolishness. She died alone many, many years ago.. poor old Aunt Pearl.. never finding love nor having any children of her own... cursed by the narrow minded paradymes of her generation.

Early on in my life (if any of you have been tracking my LiveJournal in which I previously revealed to the world this ability of mine), I discovered as a youngster that I too had inherited this incredible power to actually lift my self off the ground and float in any direction or height that I wished. It has been something, this ability of mine to fly ...that I have up until now.. kept as a closely guarded family secret, revealing it to no one other than my own mother, when I was a child. And.. for almost the whole of my daughter's life, I have known that she too inherited this astounding ability to lift-off the ground.. Since day-one, I had always watched her closely wondering "what-if.."

..and then, one day it came..
When she was just learning to walk as an 18 month old.. she too lifted off the floor several inches. I quickly and gently pushed her back down, shaking my head "no".. Fortunately we were alone at the time.. and no one else saw what she had done. From that moment on I kept a "eagle's eye" on her life.. but she never did it again... and I suspect had long forgotten the whole incident.



Fast-forward 18 years to the present...
Daughter visits her old man on the ancient family farm here in Iowa.



After a lengthy conversation with her explaining all of this.. and revealing it all to her wide-eyed wonderment and amazement, we both agreed that now was the time for her to consciously try her hand at it herself.. to see if she could do it.. and experience for herself this unique capability of ours.
We had some breakfast, and headed out into the yard on a lovely spring morning in March, where I could further explain the theory and demonstrate the complete technique to her..



I lifted off first to show her exactly how it was done.. demonstrating to her the particulars of being in a certain "frame of mind" (although it really is a certain frame-of-beingness).. that allows a perfect state of limbo-like stasis between two opposing energy forces, the earth below and the sun above... sensing both these incredible forces "as-one". Then, the subtle shifting of emphasis from one energy pull to the other.. thus allowing actual movement of the body inbetween these two forces.
After I finished my own demonstration (and LOTS of talk on my part), we decided it was time.. after all these years.. it was finally time for her to experience this family-phenomena. Following my explicit instructions.. and a little energy help from the old man.... well.. as you all see..

O yeah!!!! You got it!!! Rock and Roll, daughter! You are there!....

After a couple of short "runs" with me below and being her safety net, we decided it was time for her to try it completely on her own.. I stood back, grabbed the camera and took the next photo.. AND having to emphasize to her more than once, "don't get cocky!.." (kids love driving parents up-the-frickin'-wall with their stunts!) and..bruises from an ill-performed energy-shift are not fun! (of this I know all to well.)

..but I could tell already.. she's got style and she's got grace and it would not be too long before she would be out-performing-to-perfection her old pops.. doing things that I would never have dared even to try..



After "playing" for awhile in the yard.. lifting off no more than a few feet because of trees and electric lines overhead, we decided to walk down into the corn field and away from all overhead obstructions, where we could move on to the next lesson... one that seriously ramped-up the danger level.

I talked a great deal to her about the fear that would be felt when one is a hundred feet off the ground! .. and that this fear, if you let it.. well, it can kill you. As for myself, being quite experienced from years of multiple lifts throughout my life, I no longer feel any fear whatsoever... and occasionally I go way-high.. if the weather is good enough to do so.. (no wind is important.. and night is better, in that no one can see me.. and spin out of their minds from seeing a body floating around way up there in mid-air). I informed her that she was to concentrate fully on keeping "in-line" with the energy fields.. and not how high she was going... and that it was exceedingly vital to subdue the fear of being high.. if she was to maintain this position of freedom and not come crashing down sideways like an out-of-control kite. I gave her the camera and showed her exactly how to do it.
She was dumbfounded.. and yelled up at me to "not go so high.. come back down!"
..and so I did.. But I had to laugh at her.. I think it freaked her just a little. my going up that high.

But now the real test was at hand. She was apprehensive to be sure... and rightfully so. (as was I.) but I said "as soon as you feel the fear, let up.. and you'll come right back down... just don't get cocky!"..
Confidence with practice is good.. but false confidence can kill you if you're not careful.. know the difference.
Now... now.. it was her time to try... "You'll be fine.." said I "just keep the energy lines straight!"

As she lifted off and up, I could see she was beginning to waver off to the right side, and I yelled up at her to "straighten it up!"..

She yelled back down to me "poppeee!!.. I don't like this!"


I managed to get off one picture as she gently came back down to the ground...a little spooked for sure.

"hmmm" I said..."I think that this is enough for one day."
And so we walked back to the house... to make some hot chocolate..
walked back in silence..
two wonderful smiley-faces, ear to ear...
and a day in the Life to remember...
Isn't it all just grand!

...and may all we Fools everywhere..
(even you, dear reader..)
have just the grandest of all Aprils.. and beyond.

(we deserve it!;)

I don't remember this car (in the photo below).. but then I was only 5 years old at the time.. The barn you see there in the background served many purposes in my growing-up childhood.. Often it had bales of hay stored inside for the cattle to eat thru the winter months. There was also my first "bag swing" attached to the inside peak of the roof that I would swing from one side of the barn to the other.. totally scary stuff, but we loved it. And later after obtaining my first BB gun, the old barn served as my "hunting ground" for sparrows and pidgeons... I would wait for them to fly in thru a high open window on the backside. Wild country cats would burrow into the warm hay in winter and in deep hay pockets would give birth to their kittens. I would hear their muffled cries and then try to dig them out so I could pet them and love them. (of course I always put them back.)
The barn also served as the place where I and a somewhat older neighbor farm girl had propositioned one another with the old familiar "I'll show you mine if you show me yours".. I insisted she go first..which she magnanimously did and after which I somewhat reneged on our bargain.. ah, but the memory!