Jack, I would have no trouble crossing the New River bridge, I might even take a tour of the superstructure if the walkway was wide enough, however, I would not jump from the bridge in any circumstance - kite or bungee. 

It's a beautiful bridge with a breathtaking view..

Mary Ann

Jackie, I watched several videos and what I came away with is that the shuttle or train, reminded me of the cars parked in the bowels of the ferries that we have here, traversing the gulf and the Inland Passage.

Jack, that is another great bridge photo! What gets to me is not bridges, tunnels or that sort. But if you are riding on a mountain highway or pass and you look past the curved shoulder to several hundred or thousand feet below. Since I am unable to drive and thus have no control, that really scares me! You also would not see me doing any jumping as being disabled indicates a huge lack of muscle control and strength. I remember watching a video of young teens and pre-teens spending their summers high up on a gorge and to cool off, jumping either in a group or singled into the river far below. Not for me!

I agree with MaryAnn!

Patricia, one of the most fascinating drives I ever took was in Ten Sleep Canyon in Wyoming.  I was a relatively new driver and Dad had lived in West Virginia where there were mountains.  He also had lived in Arizona so figured he was more experienced than I was so he did the mountain driving.  Eventually things leveled out and it was safe for me to drive.  We came to a section where we would drive down the mountain with switchbacks all the way down.  Dad was in the passenger seat and could see all of the switchbacks on the way down.  We made it safely; we had a stick shift and I think we went down in second gear.  Dad said after we got down, he was more scared than when we were on the road.  A few years after that we went out that way again and wanted to drive that route again, and, wouldn't you know, they had changed the road and it wasn't nearly as challenging.  Really rather tame.  Memories!

Mary Ann

MARY ANN, our Girl Scout National Center West was located near Ten Sleep, Wyoming.   Beginning in 1976, I took 6 different trips to Center West with groups of Girl Scouts from Central PA.  I've been on that road many times. That area of the country is absolutely beautiful and very challenging.  Being on some of those roads and knowing you are responsible for the lives of 8 girls and another adult makes one super cautious.  And driving a very large van is certainly different than driving a car no matter where you drive it.  I still get a queasy feeling in my stomach when I think about all the places we drove those vans but what memories we made!  I wouldn't change a minute of it!

Tomatoes are calling my name again.  They just won't give up!

I have ridden as a passenger in cars, vans and pickup trucks through and skirting three Alaskan mountain ranges. I have gone over Monarch Pass several times in Colorado as a passenger. I have been through, past and on several mountains and mountain trails in the west in childhood and with one of my husbands but don't recall any particulars. However, as I am unable to drive and have no real strength, it is the fact that I would be totally helpless in case of an emergency that scares me. It would be similar to the airplane pilot dying and you are left alone to cope.

Those of you as drivers are lucky. I remember once having a friend misjudge and going over a railing and down into just the edge of a river in a beat up old Volkswagon. We were rocking and sliding forward and my friend was out after conking her head on the way down. I couldn't get my seatbelt undone and was too terrified to do more than moan each time we rocked more into the water.  Luckily three men came up, used a knife to cut the seatbelts and rescued my friend and I just before that car fell the rest of the way into the river. I was fifteen.

I know many people just LOVE to drive; my nephew, Tom, is one of them.  I drove for necessity and convenience.  I did not mind picking up friends and/or taking them home and most of my friends lived in the same end of town as I.  I did enjoy driving out west where there was a bit less traffic and the scenery was beautiful.  I liked driving north in Michigan and it was fun (for me) driving across the Mackinac Bridge (Big Mac) to or from the UP, also a very scenic place.  I just did not get in the car and head in some direction to drive.  I think I drove for about 65 years, which is low for many drivers.  WW II interfered with my learning as my dad had an A gas card that allowed him to drive to and from school each day, to church and back, and to the grocery store which was about a mile from our house.

After Tom's daughter totaled his car, he took over mine and I haven't driven for two or three years and hardly miss driving.  I do have a drivers license yet but I sold my car to a grandniece; Tom takes me where I need to go.  At my age, I think I should not be driving.  I know Gloria de drives, but in her mobile home complex and she goes on back roads.  I don't have any back roads.

Mary Ann

I am still fortunate to be able to drive and enjoy doing so even on long trips.

Another fear is having my photo taken    never happy with the results, looks too much like me.   A friend offered this evening so I  decided it was time.  Decided it was decent enough to post, just keep your eye on Mimi.

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You're looking good, Jack.

And, you friend, also.

Joy

Good looking pair, Jack.

Mary Ann

That is a good photo Jack. And look how Mimi is just sitting in a perfect pose for it. That is a strange looking wall you are sitting on. What is it built of? Looks like crushed rock in black cement.  Is that your IPad with the Connection still on it? Do you listen to music on it while walking.Mine to heavy.

Joy, Mary Ann and JeanneP   thanks.   Jeanne, good eye that is a wall that runs possibly 50 yards, black with age.  It holds a variety of plants and vegs from the local garden club.

Do not know why, but 87 in Sep and still have a full head of hair, mostly still dark.  Now inside that head it is all open space.

You all just go ahead and talk to each other.  I'm sorry to have interrupted.

Jack, that is really a good photo of you & Mimi.  I don't know of another 87 year old in as good of health or nearly as physically fit as you. got to be the Goldens that keep you young & handsome.  Oh, got to tell you about my gr-daughter that has the "Craftsman House" in Seattle.... her 2 year old locked himself in the bathroom & they didn't even know the door locked....NO KEY.  My daughter & her daughter (both engineers) tried everything they could think of & finally gave up & called the fire department.  The firemen were afraid of damaging the "100 year old historic" house.... but managed to get the door open & rescued the kid. Guess those doors are extremely heavy, unlike the hollow doors of today.  They were going to a baby shower for my gr-daughter & some of her friends at the shower also have those houses so were going home to check their bathroom doors! 

I also love to drive, am more cautious with the elephant I drive now, more uneasy when in places I've never been before but I can back that puppy up, usually first try, right to the power connection!  In MO at 14 we could pay 50 cents and have a driver's license, no tests or anything.  Speed limit was "reasonable".... no limit.  My father had gone to "auto school" in Kansas City from 1915-17, he LOVED cars and would announce what that ping or squeak or noise was all the time driving. I listened, felt what he pointed out and still appreciate a smooth running transmission & engine. 

Patricia, I know I don't have as much strength in my hands as used to & vowed to start working out before I don't have the strength to drive the elephant, not ready to give up camping.  We can't pick & choose how our bodies hold up, but worth working at it, right? 

Jane, one time my husband & I came north from Durango to Montrose, then east over Monarch Pass.  Crews closed the roads behind us & a TV camera crew waiting as we came down from that mountain into Montrose.  Was snow & ice the whole way & we had to stop & scrape freezing ice about every 15 min.  I put my billfold in one coat pocket & camera in the other, ready to jump if the van started to go over the side.  My husband was driving, I had wanted to stay in the small towns we passed by, bet he would have opted to stop if I had been driving.

Better get to bed, cats had their snack already.  Too hot to open the door yet so I'll probably wake up 2:00-3:00 when the AC quits running because it's cooler out than in.  Once I open the door the cats will be at the screen to come in for a snack of dry food, I keep a self feeder in my bedroom along with a litter box, for bad weather.     They are usually back out in less than half an hour & I go back to sleep or get up & fix breakfast and then go back to sleep. 

Jane, please interrupt more often.  We love to hear from you.

Jack, that's a really good photo of you and Mimi.  She sure seems happy with you.  I imagine she is a lot of company for you.

Now who is that good looking young man sitting on that wall holding a very good looking dog?....now Jack dont put yourself down, that is a very good photo of you, natural and relaxed...you take a better photo than I do....

You are so young, Jack!  Great photo of you both.

Thanks for all the comments, may some day post another.

Jane I never consider your comments, or others, as interruptions.   I post only in computer and photo discussions since I simply am unable to keep names and facts in memory.  I even tried typing a list but gave up.   I welcome the comments in here (with the occasional photos    

Shirley understand why your daughter would have called the fire dept,   Now I would not even try driving that big motor home, even on level ground.

Jack that picture should be enlarged and framed.

Don thanks.  I sent it to my daughter and she liked the photo but questioned the background, so I did a crop (sorry Mimi) and a slight touch up on the background.    The young woman taking the photo, stopped a quick walk and offered so I was not thinking in terms of the setting.   JeanneP, the phone and buds you spotted were the young woman's that she set down while using my iPhone.   Here is a crop that my daughter was pleased with. 

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Jack, no address on your profile, so I am posting it here!

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Jack, every time I see that picture of you I do a double-take.  You are the exact image of one of the men in my church - the one who does so much handy-man chores for me.   

Bubble, that's great, sending you an email.

JeanneLee    Over the years I have been able to do chores around our home.  Plaster, paint, very little plumbing or electrical.  If I were your neighbor I would try, but anymore pretty limited.   If you had a dog I would walk it.

Maybe you can walk the parrot?    

Why did I not know Jeanne Lee had a parrot?  I've had little ones, beebee & half moon & a number of parakeets & cockatiel, many native birds & ducks, but always wanted a big parrot or cockatoo. 

Jack, I don't know how I missed the photo of the bridge.... that is awesome.  Don't think I've ever seen one like it in the midwest.... only metal ones or concrete. 

Great re-do of Jack's photo, Bubble, I still don't know how to make my PSP do that!   

Jack, I started dying my half & half hair before age 30.......and gave it up by MY mid 50s, so glow in the dark ever since.  Your crop shows up the almost NON gray hair.  Cas' mother had very little gray when she died, just enough to prove she wasn't dying her black hair! 

Bubble and Jeanne Lee, I do not know about walking a parrot, but would be surprised if it talked as much as Mimi.

Jack, all versions of your picture are great!

Shirley, probably in my 30s I used the dye that lasted three or four washings to cover the greys that were showing up.  The dye made such a mess of the bathroom basin that I quit and it wasn't long before the white predominated.  I now am completely white and I like it that way.  Other than cuts every five weeks, my hair costs very little - a bottle of shampoo whenever I need one.

Tom, Dot and I are going to Jan's for what used to be our weekly luncheon, but will probably be more monthly in the future.  Tom doesn't like to be gone from his job 2 1/2 hours weekly, especially with his other extracurricular activities. 

Mary Ann

Shirley, I was diagnosed with spinal meningitis soon after birth but there was a polio epidemic they were in the midst of and a shortage of iron lungs so I wasn't a priority. I have disabilities related to that illness at birth.

Jack, I think I prefer that photo over your avatar, very nice photo of you and Mimi. I am the same way about photos as I once had a broken jaw and then later, a broken nose, so never have liked my photos.

Shirley and MaryAnn, my mother never had gray as she went directly to a beautiful white with no yellowing. My three sisters and I weren't that lucky as we have the steel gray version, or a kinder term, salt, and pepper. Or we would have if none of us colored our hair back natural. She, even with a number of years in a semi coma, never had a cavity in her life either. If all three of us didn't look like her, I would be looking accusing at my father.... 

MaryAnn, I would hate to see some of your outings curtailed that bring you such enjoyment and family time.

Jack, you don't look a day older than the first time we met in Beckley (or is it Beckly?) after Bob died in 2002.  I think I waited until summer 2003 to go home to West Virginia.  My sister Anne was still living in Charleston at the time.  Do you remember the other woman (who raised some interesting small dogs--forget what kind)?  She brought several dogs with her.  I've forgotten her name as never heard from her after that.

I am glad you and Mimi found each other.  After my Stubby died I decided not to get another dog--and I'm sorry now.  He kept me walking daily and now I really have to push myself to get out on a HOT Alabama summer day.  He's been gone about 5 1/2 years now.

Sue

Bubble. I think I am the only one with Parrots. Not Jeanne Lee. People get mixed up a lot with our names. I don't know who got it first . I had same name over in Senior Net. Can't think if Jeanne Lee had hers then. (Did you Jeanne?)
Jack. Bet your daughter happy to get such a nice picture. She will have it in a nice frame. My family never frame now. I try to if a photo is good. Mean much more to us.

Sue, that was a small but nice visit.  Believe the other was Marylyn, and she raised Cavalier King Charles and remember Stubby, they all walked together in the park.

My Shirley would color her own hair to clear the grey.   On Chemo she lost all her hair, and when it grew back in it had a natural curl and color.    During her treatments she purchased a wig and laugh when she told of going to the hair dresser to have it trimmed. Her second trip a woman commented on how lovely it looked and asked who did it.   She pointed to the hairdresser then took off the wig an the woman was speechless.