Sky Diving in San Diego, California

It was  the  decision that I took at the end of the year,  December of  2021. I had always wanted skydiving after seeing cool Hollywood television series every Sunday in Nepal Television when I was growing up, back in Himalayas, Nepal. I searched google , did some basic research on safety and  figured out that it's 0.003 casualties per 1000 jumps in  ten years, that's nearer and dearer to me than anything else. It's less than 1 in 107 dying in a car crash and 1 in 289 in gun assault in the United States.

I was quite surprised but not shocked to find the cost of a complimentary product - video/photos are literally equal to the cost of jumping, I know we live in Instagram world and I do not use facebook and Instagram. I made up my mind and within a minute, I bought a package for $393. Half of the cost is video and pictures. It's a lifetime experience, I am determined.  I checked the weather and Saturday looks sunny with 65 as highest. Now the clock starts to tick and I was just waiting for the Saturday noon.

I was a little  worried about what clothes I should wear although the site has a good FAQ and everything about sky diving. I went to REI and bought a blue t-shirt and altrahike shoes. It was just a coincidence to buy those gears that I had needed for some time.

It was a 30 minutes drive south from the place where I live. I reached the place at 11:40 at 13531 Otay Lakes Rd, Jamul, CA 91935. Everything was self directed. Although the guy at reception  forgot to give me the T-shirt, I got the T-shirt in my mail after a couple of weeks. It is a nice T-Shirt.

The first thing I needed to fill was waiving hundreds of pages of liabilities. I was quite uncomfortable signing the pages many times and each page request for waiver of liabilities. Every time I read it, "we don’t cover this, we are not liable for this." It was really scary - believe me, that part was more scary than jumping from the plane in 13,000 ft. altitude. 

After that they gave me the badge for photography. I looked at  the trainers' pictures - there were 12 of them and I realized that every 20 minutes the plane flies whether it has 2 passengers or 20 passengers at the maximum.

They gave me basic training about safety. Later, I met my instructor, Chris - a middle aged man who does this for fun and has been doing the same in the Army. I didn't stop short of saying, I used to work in Nepalese Army for 9 years, The bond becomes even closer. He walked me through what's going to happen. I was even more confident

As we started to move towards the plan for the flight, it was even more exciting. We were marching like the soldiers. The plane has long horizontal seats on two sides where two individuals can sit, the door looks pretty rudimentary.

Everybody was instructed to put on the seat belt, there was only one pilot driving and cock-pit was pretty open, the other side of the pilot seat was empty.

My instructor and I were sitting face to face and he showed me the beautiful parts of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. It also had a majestic view showing the pacific ocean in the rim. The plan was hitting 50-60% in grade, the sky was blue and clean and we are waiting for 13,000 ft. in altitude. Chris asked me to sit in his lap and he fixed all the clips. It was quite an experience being dependent on someone for your life. But honestly, you are doing the same when you are flying in the airplane or somebody is giving you a ride in motorbike.

There was a couple behind me, she looked very stressed and nervous. She asked me “ Have you done this before” , I said to her , “No, first time”, She said you look very calm, I said I am really excited. Her face looked nervous and she was nervous. I keep on making things calm and easy and keep on exciting them. We were only three for tandem jump.

Then in front of my eyes, they opened the door which is in the back side of the plane. The  solo jumper started to jump in the air like a spider man - quite amazing, huh ? I feel like I was watching a spider man or matrix - resurrection ( actually this weekend I watched both of those movies in theater, I found Dr. strange in spider man and wondering you will take me to the amazing land of Himalayas, Nepal)

I realized that our time is coming and Chris told me that I have to lean towards him when we are falling and jumping. Also, I was instructed to put my legs close together and lean my feet up towards the sky.  I didn’t know why but it's all about gravity in the free fall and I was not sure if I could do that right or not. As we reached the door of the airplane, I believe I did right. When I saw the pictures and video later, I found I was doing a back-flip at 13,000 ft. altitude. How exciting is that ? It's truly more beautiful than the matrix - resurrection. I love you Keanu Reeves! and Trinity

It was really really  fast for the first 15 seconds but it was the moment I was looking for. Every second counts as you fall down and you feel like you are in the phantom of space where nothing really exist and your mind doesn't have time to think anything else, forget about your body or existence. I really enjoyed it, it was too short, it was like being more than in the metaverse, the real metaverse, not the digital fantasy that you created in the computer programs. 

I really enjoyed that part of the fall and certainly I was in the sky looking downwards and my cameraman was in front of me. For a long time he was asking me to see the camera but I didn’t realize, I keep on seeing his eyes. I just came out of the metaverse, how could I realize the reality. Finally I realized I had to  see a camera, so I did it. After a few minutes I had a pressure in my shoulder and certainly the parachute opened, after that it was simply an easy and relaxing flight as you watch the beautiful terrain of southern California and lower your altitude. The parachute swings to and fro and falls down gently towards the ground.

Chris told me to put my legs a little up when we were landing, we landed perfectly. It was amazing, it was a great experience, it was something you should think about, it was a life changing experience and yes, I am going to do it again!!.

The video: Dec 11, 2021, San Diego, CA

I thanked Chris and my photographer for being so close to my life. I am done, that's all about my sky diving 101 ? What do you think ? I expect to do the second one in the Himalayas, Nepal  near Everest at least from 20,000 ft from sea level. 

Southern California : Hike to Palomar Mountain ( 6138 ft)

 

It was a beautiful day on April 11, 2021, I have decided to hike to Mt. Palomar, 6138 Ft in altitude. We decided to park the car in the 95/76  intersection (33.32953375294505, -117.16200644173152)  and do the car pooling. It was about 1 hr 40m from the northern part of San Diego. We drove the curvy road after many years and passed the small town of Pala and Pauma valley. You can see the beautiful ridges of mountains stack one over another upto far away in horizon. THis is something I saw after years ( although I saw the long ridges in the hike I did at bridges to nowhere a couple of weeks back ).

I felt like I was in Nagarkot, - Nagarkot is a village in central Nepal, at the rim of the Kathmandu Valley. It’s known for its views of the Himalayas, including Mount Everest to the northeast, which are especially striking at sunrise and sunset.

The curvy road passes through the two big casino mansions that look like giant concrete in the middle of nowhere. As we start to gain altitude with curvy and snaky roads, we can see the beautiful view of the valley with 360 degree magnificence.  It was green and beautiful. More importantly I started to feel that there were different kinds of birds in Mt. Palomar. As we reached the top and paid the parking fee of $10 and entered the parking lot , we realized that it's worth any dollar amount you paid. You see the breathtaking view from the parking lot ( see below)

The picture has a breathtaking view. Although it's only 6138 ft, the picture shows that you are in very high altitude, possibly more than 10,000 ft. I may have experience like that because it's been a while since I have been to this altitude.  Because of the air quality or the marine layer we cannot exactly see the ridges on the further south towards the San Diego and west towards the Oceanside.

The park has a lot of spaces for picnic areas and very old ( about 400 years) old legendary tree guards you when you have your lunch - how exciting is that ? The bench looks very old and rusty, part of it built from concrete but shows its antiquities and the firmness that it continues to offer. Did you feel it ?

Oh, ya look at the legendary tree below. How can I believe that I have been to so many places all over the world and yet, I am going to die and this cedar tree has seen the generations and generations of human kind including the british monarchy ( sad to see Philip death and loss of the legend of british monarchy)

There were many trails mostly short ranging from 0.5 to 1.6 miles. However, you can make circles and spaghetti around it and spend your entire day hiking up and down Mt. palomar. 

There were more than thirteen trails mostly ranging from 0.5 to 1.6 miles. However, you can make circles and spaghetti around it and spend your entire day hiking up and down in Mt. palomar.  The nature is so beautiful with a lot of water streams and ponds. Also, I felt like there were a lot of birds chirping all the time on the trail and welcoming you with their beautiful voices. As it was time to mate, I felt like birds were singing and dancing all over the place. 

The trails were not so crowded, you can meet hikers here and there but it was calm, peaceful and the tranquility you feel in the tributaries of your mind. It was the feeling of nature so deep inside you, it kept on going further deep and immersed, both physically and mentally in the conundrum of nature,  for lopsided well-beings with unselfish devotions.

We took the rounded trails, - scott cabin, chimney, thunder spring and cedar trail making the bigger oval. When we reached the Doane pond, it was very beautiful. There were ducks swimming in the water, kids were playing and some folks were enjoying the fishing and the tranquility of nature. It was very quiet as we lay down, relaxed for a while and saw the blue sky.

Finally, we can see woodpecker's hole all over the forest in trail, it's amazing how such a small bird can create patterns in both dead and live trees to survive. 

I really want to go this trail again as we missed going to the Boucher Lookout as most of things were closed because we are still leaving in the COVID era. [ Part II will be coming soon in future.]

A lifetime volunteering opportunity at Petco COVID vaccination site

It was the climax of COVID pandemic in early 2021 but the light was in the tunnel. The two vaccines moderna and pfizer were already in the market and the challenge across the world is how to administer and manage the supply chain of these vaccines beside the manufacturing and production challenges.  Astrazeneca was added later in the list but the US decided to give those vaccines to the neighboring countries Canada and Mexico. In the city of San Diego, UC San Diego Health was leading the effort of vaccination in the San Diego Area with multiple major sites and a super station at Petco park. More importantly, it was one of the biggest vaccination sites in the world with 120 people being administered vaccines parallely at any time inside the patient car. Where in the world can this happen ? It's only in the United States of America.

I remember doing full time volunteering for a day in the year 2014 to  train grade eight students on  economics at Allen Village School on November 05 at Kansas City.It was quite an experience, to manage students of middle school , without the class teacher the day would have been terrible. However it was a great memorable experience. I ended up learning economics101 from volunteering and understood how the school system works in the US. Even if you learn simple things in volunteering, that will make my day.

It was more than six years I did volunteering and I was really excited for this COVID volunteering because it was historical in nature both locally and globally. The good news was I was already vaccinated and my manager was really motivating us to do the volunteering. I quickly applied online for the scriber position and was approved in the next couple of days. They do a strong background check before allowing any volunteers in the site. Glad I learned an Epic, an electronic medical record (EMR) system in a few clicks, only the vaccination administration module.

As I arrived at 8:00 am in the morning of friday, 12th of february.  It was super easy to park as they have top floors of  MTS buildings for the parking. I went to the registration team and they assigned me to one of the lots - D4.

As I was a scriber, I had the opportunity to engage with patients and ask for their identity card and enter their personal information into the medical record system with vaccines lot number and a patient personal information. Every patient I worked with was very excited to give their identity card and receive their vaccination card back from me when they had a vaccine. That piece of information was like a treasure, the way people were putting the vaccination cards inside their purse.I saw a whole lot of different identity cards from passports to driving licenses to other state cards and a veteran card. People were inherently calm but excited and scared from inside.

As the people pulled up their car inside the tents to line up for the vaccination, I can see people are excited with full of hopes in their eyes. I feel like the work I did was self-fulfilling, helping people to fight with the COVID pandemic. It was a constant flow of people with hopes and excitement.I didn't realize that it was already lunch time. They provided a turkey sandwich which was really good and I appreciate the sponsor who sponsored that food for us. 

The other half day was a very busy day too. I didn’t realize it was 6:30 and It's time to leave. Still there were lines and people were coming. I thanked everyone and was also thankful to me and headed towards the parking lot. I have never worked like that, standing for ten hours. I feel so good. I specially saluted healthcare workers who were working round the clock for the vaccination putting their and families life at risk. 

When driving home back, I thought when in life time you will get this opportunity to heal so many people at a time as a computer engineer? This was definitely a moment,  I will never forget this in my life.