Livin' On the Edge

One day back at work after a week long vacation with the fam has me yearning for yet, another vacation. Frankly, my vacation itself had me needing a vacation from my vacation, but that's besides the point. With the stress of life in the real world kicking back in full swing after only a matter of minutes, I couldn't help but realize...

While at the beach, I watched as my uncle and cousins gallivanted between activity a through z in a days time. I remember being younger and feeling the need to be occupied every moment of the day during my days off of school. Isn't it funny how only a few years later, I find activities on vacation a hassle? My favorite part of the day (as shared by my mom and aunt) is waking up after 10 to a full pot of coffee and a repeat of Ellen. Sad but true, one of the days, we remained in lounge pants and t-shirts until it was time to shower and go to dinner. I think this was my favoritist day of all.

Don't get me wrong...I would have been more than happy to attend the Dixie Stampede, or Edwin McCain at House of Blues if I'd had any takers. Other than those two things, I was good. Well, those two and outlet shopping, which I did leave the place for on a few separate occasions...
Another thing I wondered...

Who had such an uninteresting, unstressful, inactive and easy life that they felt the need to create crazy dangerous "activities" like para sailing, skydiving and bungee jumping?

In case you are wondering as much as I was:

Para sailing: In the early 60's, a man by the name of Pierre Lamoigne attached a parachute to his moving car and invented para sailing. It was the 1970s when Mark McCulloh made history by using this method at sea.

Sky diving: Began with a descent from a balloon by André-Jacques Garnerin in 1797. Skydiving was used by the military since the early 1900s. It became an official "sport" in 1951, but Lew Sanborn and Jacques Istel started the first non military drop zone and training center in 1959.

Bungee Jumping: Bungee jumping as we know it today actually started on April Fools' Day 1979 when group of people from the Oxford U's Dangerous Sport Club jumped from 245-Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. But it wasn't until 1988 when AJ Hackett, a New Zealand adventurer pioneered the sport and opened the first jump site. And, as if that wasn't scary enough for this carefree crazy, he's now planning a 4,920 foot fall from a helicopter.

Yeah, that DOES sound fun! About as fun as laying down in the center lane of I-95, just to see what happens...

As if a regular work day, or weekend full of errands and bill paying isn't enough to make your stomach churn, these guys needed more? I can't be sure, but perhaps someone should have looked into the mental wellness of said hobby inventors to find out what exactly drove them to crave potential death by parachute.