PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE

A Week of Normalcy (Almost)

Week 151 of the photographic documentary of my daily life

I know, you are going to comment on it since my normalcy is far from everyone else’s but isn’t that with of all us? We all live our own lives. We strive in different directions and set priorities others just frown upon.

So, while this might not sound normal to you, it was a rather normal week to me. Except for the ending. But that one is part of my job. While not always expected, I always have to be ready for it.

But before I get to it, let me start slowly. Coming back from our hiking adventure, I got surprised by a lovely postcard from a friend who had visited us just a couple of weeks ago.

Friendship is something amazing.

We used to play handball together, but during those years, we didn’t do anything outside of the sports. Only once I left Germany and wasn’t part of the team anymore, we got closer.

We did chat a few times but nothing more. Then she visited me in Namibia; we did a road trip together and even experienced sitting in a rolling car in the dunes (none of us was the driver and nobody got hurt).

That adventure certainly brought us closer. Whenever I’m back in Germany, we’d see each other. Once every six months, or less.

A few weeks ago, she visited and asked me if she could do a tandem skydive with me. I was excited. Another event that brought us closer.

And now, I received this card. It was a thank you. It was a personal piece. Something small like a post card can mean sometimes so much.

It’s the small gestures that count.

Oh, and those flowers are also from her. She left them for me when she visited.

The next day, I was back at work again, jumping out of planes for a living. At the end of the day, when all the work jumps were done, I was asked to join a formation where we’d celebrate someone’s 100th jump.

Of course, I said yes. Thinking back at my own 100th jump, which I did back in 2017 in Namibia. Naked. Because it’s the tradition. But that’s another story.

As I was the most senior skydiver on the jump, I planned everyone’s slot and we were quick together in the sky, smiling at each other.

Sunday. Just another day at work. After the jumping, I walked back to the trailer looking at the wind turbines in the distance shining in the evening light.

Monday. My weekend is Monday. The only day in the week I’ll be off now. During the high season.

It was a sunny day and I wanted to enjoy my time outdoors. I packed my camera bag, grabbed a water bottle and some snacks, and headed out.

There was a nearby Weiher (southern German for ‘pond’) I had seen a couple of times from the air and looked like a tranquil place.

I walked across the fields for 1,5 hours. Butterflies were dancing around me and the grain was gently moving in the wind. Then I arrived at the oasis.

I was hesitant at first but when two other women arrived just as I wanted to leave, I found the courage to enter the water and go for a swim. It was such a refreshing moment.

There were hundreds of dragonflies zapping along the water’s edge. Some pretty blue ones in a larger size caught my attention but I couldn’t capture them as they simply wouldn’t sit down.

I got this connection of two smaller ones instead. While the top one is blurry, the bottom dragonfly has sharp eyes looking at its partner.

And then the birds. The next day we weren’t very busy, which is normal for a Tuesday, and when we were back at the trailer, I watched this flock of starlings fly across the meadow.

They sat down in the grass to pick insects but the lightest movement from anything or anyone would scare them off, the entire flock would take off, moving low above the ground just to settle down meters away again. It was a beautiful scene to watch.

And now about the only thing that wasn’t normal this week. I did land with the reserve parachute on the tandem jump. It was the first time used a reserve in over 2,5K jumps and the first time I needed it in 800+ tandem jumps.

And before because I know many of you don’t know what it means and will ask questions like “Did the main parachute not open?” let me explain this a little further.

That is what most non-skydivers expect and passengers often ask us, “What if the parachute doesn’t open?” It will open. 99,99 percent of the time, the parachute does open. Somehow. That nothing at all comes out is very, very, rare.

But, sometimes, statically at one of 1000 jumps, the parachute doesn’t open properly or in a way that we can land it. And for that scenario, we do have a reserve chute that we can open.

While the statistic says one skydive in a thousand ends in a reserve ride, practically, it can happen anytime. Even on a student’s first-ever solo ride. That is why we train so much and so long for emergencies. Because you don’t know when you’ll need it.

And that was the case. I opened the parachute, and at first, it looked all normal. Only once I took the steering lines in my hand, the parachute began to dive to one direction and then I saw the tension knot.

“Oh no, here it comes. I knew it had to come eventually. Now you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Those were my thoughts while I still tried to push on the lines in an effort to remove the knot that was sitting high on the canopy. I knew these malfunctions are rarely ever fixable, and so, while still high enough in altitude, I released the main parachute and opened the reserve.

It’s yellow!

I did not know the reserve was yellow. While reserve chutes used to be all white, they can be these days baby blue, orange, white or yellow. But nobody told me the gear I was jumping had a yellow reserve. Guess how I was smiling seeing that canopy above my head? My favorite color.

The passenger felt the second drop, but only after I explained what happened, he understood we were now under the reserve. I landed us safely, next to the others in the grass.

And yes, just as I was landing, my colleagues shouted already “beers”. Because I will have to pay for a case of beer now. That is the tradition. Everything in skydiving you do for the first time will cost a round of beers. Opening the reserve chute always costs a round of beers. Which I happily paid.

I have now a total of just over 2,800 jumps and had only once used the reserve parachute before when I was a newly licensed skydiver with 70 jumps. I knew, statically, I was long due for a reserve ride. And I also knew it was going to happen on a tandem jump and not a solo jump, where I always pack my own main parachute.

Now it is done.

Anyone beers?

P.S.: And please, I heard it already but don’t say something like ‘you had an angel looking after you’. No, I didn’t. I did what I was trained to do. This had nothing to do with otherworldly forces. We practice for emergencies in our training and do handle checks on every jump in the said order we will pull them when necessary. We do it so often that it becomes a habit. Those moves are set in unconsciousness.

This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.

Dennett / Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy / Lisa / Lynne

And these are the previous weekly photo essays:

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