Rest Day – Registration and a “funny” story

Well not a great deal to report at all in the way of flying today since I didn’t do any! I woke up at 9:30 and quickly looked at the weather forecast. Seemed to be another high pressure day but lower than normal and a lot of scratching would be involved. I decided to sleep in a little longer, then get up and check my wing after the kids packed it yesterday and adjust my speed bar a little shorter. So that’s what I did! Sure enough the kids had got a few lines crossed over so I untangled them. Glad I did that rather than tomorrow on launch.

I went downtown and registered for the comp. I was glad that they had updated their facebook info to let you know where to register. I hadn’t remembered seeing any info about that being sent out which was strange. However it got a little stranger. The map they had issued with the location of the mandatory pilots briefing was not in the right location so a lot folks later in the evening were wondering around. Eventually we all found the place. They did the safety briefing but hadn’t the id badges available and said they would be handing them out at launch. All a little unorganized but what the heck.

Anyway, now to a weird little story not about paragliding but about a guy who started talking to me in a coffee shop in town. he had heard my accent and introduced himself as Scott to get the conversation going. He then said I looked at bit bored and wanted to know if I wanted to hear a funny story. As it turned out it wasn’t funny in the humorous sense but in the weird sense. At least it was for me. You be the judge.

This guy drove down from LA in a car with the son of an 83 year Mexican whom he was going to setup in business with to run an art gallery in town. The 83 years old that is. This was 3 weeks ago. The deal was the 83 year would put him up and give him $500 to get things rolling. He went about getting things going in town and attended  a party at the end of the first week with the 83 year old who proceeded to get trashed and then threw Scott out of the house saying the deal was off. Scott hadn’t gotten his $500 yet so was annoyed at that and thought the guys was a little crazy, However, he had met a woman who was interested in doing business with him and she took him in under her wing. She lived with her boyfriend and son. They put the basic workings of a deal together and Scott continued to get artists lined up and get the gallery building painted. I wasn’t too sure who the building belonged and neither was Scott when asked but he continued his story. So now he was living in the house of the woman with the boyfriend. The boyfriend got a little jealous and told Scott that he had to leave. This eventually led to the Police being called and Scott forcibly removed from the house.  Scott now had no place to go and ended up going to the local church for refuge. At this point Scott felt that the contract he had with the woman he met was in breach and was now seeking a local lawyer to sue this woman. I asked to see the contract and he took out 1 sheet of paper with rough costings scribbled on it alongside a picture that her daughter had drawn on it. I laughed and Scott looked at me and asked why was I laughing. I started to tell him that I didn’t think this was a contract but he defended his situation. At this point I was waiting for him to ask me for money so I said I had to go to the pilots meeting and asked for my bill. He simply wished me well at the competition and asked me to stop by his gallery which he hoped to open later in the week!

As I walked up the street I couldn’t but help think about the surreal story I had just heard. Well at least it passed the time!

Ok the comp starts tomorrow so will keep you posted task by task.

Cheer Iain.