Post-skydiving hair

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Tangled, wind-blown mess.

Indoor skydiving, that is. Not quite as cool as the real thing, but still fun.

Anyhow, I had a hair tie in, but somewhere along the way, it was sucked up into the giant suctioning fan, never to be seen again.

When I got home, my kids said, “Mom, what happened to your hair?”

That bad.

I spent 15 minutes trying to work out the snarls with my fingers because my brush was utterly useless. In that time, I untangled maybe a third of it. Then I remembered that conditioner exists, so I hopped in the shower, feeling sure there was a bottle in there somewhere.

There was not.

I texted my friend two houses down with a desperate plea for conditioner. She didn’t respond until much later. She’d gone for a walk without her phone, and had wished she could text me because she’d left her oven on. I showed her my hair. She showed me her food.

This used to be peppers.

Fortunately, her house didn’t fill with smoke, but it did smell, she reported.

Her veggies were ruined, and I was seriously considering chopping my hair, or at least portions of it, way short. She recooked, and I spent the entirety of a Doc Martin episode (Have you seen this show? You must.) straightening my hair out with my fingers.

But it was all worth it because this:

Hair tie halfway out.

And this:

We spun around and around to the top of the tower and back down multiple times in rapid succession. It was a blast!

In case you’re wondering, I know where my neighbors hide their key due to an unfortunate baking incident in which I had to do the cliché of all clichés: ask to borrow a cup of sugar.

She responded that she wasn’t home, but would be in half an hour. However, if I needed sugar right away, she’d tell me where she hides the key.

I texted back, “Please tell me where you hide the key. And the good chocolate.”

Believe it or not, she told me both, but I didn’t dare raid her cocoa stash. A woman’s chocolate is sacred. But the fact that she was willing to let me partake, in addition to entering her home while she was gone… truly an amazing neighbor.

Questions for you to ponder/comment on:

  1. What’s worse: hair that takes an hour to untangle, or burnt peppers?
  2. Have you been skydiving–indoor or otherwise? If not, would you want to?
  3. Do you have an awesome neighbor?

Do share!

85 responses »

  1. I think I’d go with the burned peppers, Betsy. It would take less than an hour to make a new batch.
    And I’d love to go indoor sky-diving. Not outdoors since I’m not interested in tempting death. Indoors looks like So Much Fun! Good for you for being so adventurous.
    And I’ll trade neighbors. Mine play with guns. They’re nice, but I wouldn’t go over there to borrow sugar.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Betsy, very cool. Sorry about the tangles. Since I have little hair to tangle, let me focus on the last two. We decided to accidentally burn some roasted eggplant cut up like the peppers your neighbor showed – not good. As for awesome neighbors, they are a blessing. One of our favorite neighborhoods is when we had the center house in a cul-de-sac. Baby sitters next door on one side, friends for kids on the other and more babysitters at the neck to the cul-de-sac. Everyone seemed to get along well and we had a few neighborhood parties and dinners. Keith

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I know it was a challenge to untangle, but I like this look on you: Thrillseeker Betsy!

    Pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to tolerate sky-diving, indoors or out of a plane on account of motion sickness (boat, plane, train, car …. hurtling through the air?). I will admire you from afar!

    I do have awesome neighbours, though, several of them in our apartment block. And one of them does have our key … for the occasions we lock ourselves out! We’ve discovered this pandemic that having neighbours to share baked goods with is critical – otherwise we couldn’t keep up our frenzied baking cravings!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. 1. The burning smell for me trumps all other issues.
    2. No, I’ve not tried that. I’m not sure I would; depends upon the price.
    3, I have an awesome neighbor on one side and the devil’s spawn on the other. My awesome neighbor is always there for me when my freezer died or I need someone to get our mail. She’s just very generous.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. This is hilarious, Betsy, the hair and the food. Only because no one was hurt. The hair tie halfway out is also funny. It gives me an idea of the velocity of the wind, although picking up two human beings should have given me a good hint.😀 I love wonderful neighbours and we are lucky to have them. No thank you to sky diving. I can easily chuck my cookies in other ways.

    Like

    • And the thing with my hair was, I didn’t want to chop it off b/c it took SO long to get it, well, so long, and I actually LIKE my hair for possibly the first time ever! 😛 Thanks for commiserating with me on that, GG. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Uh, Betsy, this is your mother. Those pictures? Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Did I discipline you too much when you were a teen? Is this what this is all about? I must go lie down. Someone bring me a g and t.

    Liked by 1 person

    • First of all, thank you for informing me that you are my mother. How would I have otherwise known? (To the casual onlooker, this is sarcasm.) And furthermore, it was perfectly safe. You should try it sometime! Not scary, not hard, just lie in the air and relax. Easy peasy. The instructor did the hard work, which was still easy.

      Like

  7. We have an indoor skydiving place not too far away and I’ve always been curious about the experience. I don’t think I’d have to worry much about my hair since it’s pretty fine and doesn’t tangle much. Your neighbor sounds wonderful. Fortunately, we have a few of those in our neighborhood… I’ve called on a few to check things while we were away.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Janis, you should give the skydiving a try. Get a group of family members together do it with you. It was so fun. It will make for a great blog post! And I’m glad you have good neighbors. They sure make life more pleasant. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  8. As I have always said: I won’t jump out of a perfectly good airplane in flight and I won’t get onboard a boat that sinks on purpose. You’re braver than I am about the indoor skydiving – I keep trying to get my grandsons to try it, but I’m good watching and keeping my feet on the ground.

    Answers to you questions:

    Yes, I’ve watched Doc Martian – love it.

    Burnt peppers are worse, unless you hair is so tangled that you have to cut it off.

    No, I’ve not been indoor skydiving. I feel fragile and am afraid I would break into 500 little pieces.

    We do have awesome neighbors. Just yesterday they saw a big heavy box delivered to our house. They came over, rang the bell, told us a big heavy packaged had been delivered and then carried into the backyard for us because they were afraid someone might steal it. It’s a garden bench, it weighs a lot, not sure who could just walk up and throw in their car, but it was nice of them. And our other neighbors always bring our trashcans in from the end of the street on trash day. Seems like the local competition to see who first sees the garbage truck doing the pickup and the winner gets to bring all trash cans in.

    Liked by 1 person

    • So cute about the big box and the trash cans. How were you going to get that heavy box into your backyard on your own? Good thing your neighbors are nosy. Ooops, I mean helpful. Sorry. Autocorrect. ;P

      Just watched the last episode of Series 9 of Doc Martin. And whaaaaaatttt???? I won’t say anything more in case you haven’t seen that one. But, grrrr.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. 1. Burnt peppers are worse.

    2. I’ve never heard of indoor skydiving. You are brave to do that. Not for me, please.

    3. No awesome neighbors around here, but back when I was on my own living in my first apartment I had a good friend next door. We got into all sorts of adventures together.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. I would take burnt peppers as long as my house wasn’t on fire!

    Never tried indoor skydiving but family have, before pandemic they were addicted and we were going to join them but then you know… Covid… 🙄

    Great neighbours… We have nice ones :). Not as great as the ones you have though! 🙂 don’t think any of them would let me into their house while they’re away! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • House being on fire definitely trumps tangled hair.
      Well, Covid’s not keeping people from indoor skydiving now, so… 🙂
      These neighbors hang out socially with us from time to time, so that helps. I attended a rock concert with them last year. That bonded us.

      Like

  11. 1. Burnt peppers. The smell in the house would crawl right up your nostrils.

    2. Hell no. Tara wants to go skydiving, but you couldn’t get me to do it if you held a gun to my head. Indoor skydiving, on the other hand? That I’d try. Looks like fun, and there’s a virtually 0% chance you’ll end up going splat.

    3. Christmas Lights Kelly is pretty cool. We’re stopping by for cocktails tomorrow evening. I once had a neighbor in my townhouse complex that I actually borrowed a cup of sugar from once. Another time, one egg. She was very cool. And I was totally in love with her. Her husband is the only one who stood in the way of our torrid romance, damn him.

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. Oh my goodness! You are brave. I’d wonder if I’d break my back during an indoor skydiving incident. In any case, we do have wonderful neighbors around here! In terms of hair vs. burnt food–I love burnt food. It’s crunchy and yummy. I never untangle my hair–I like the “interest” the tangled locks create. Cheers!

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Hmm, tangled hair or burnt peppers? I’d have to go with peppers; my hair doesn’t tangle much cuz it’s shorter. Indoor skydiving? Sign me up! Like Andrew, why jump out of a perfectly good airplane? I always envision indoor skydiving as an opportunity to preview what it might be like to jump off a building (or be pushed), which would be good research for writing (all except for that sudden stop at the end).
    Neighbors? We live in the country, and our nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away, so we don’t really know any of them very well. i do have a friend who lives on the other side of town (in the country) who I could count on in a pinch if she was around. Growing up we had a good close neighbor we could count on like that.

    Liked by 1 person

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  18. It suites you! But what a downfall with the tangles. We know all about tangles here, and were gifted a tangle brush by janeke. They got it on their travels to Europe so I am not sure if available in stores but maybe worth the search and over the pond package arrival with so much hair in the house. Happy tangle-free sky diving! And yes, neighbors are the best, I always find great neighbors where I live!

    Liked by 2 people

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