Airborne

I know, I know. For so long now you've been meaning to go skydiving, but somehow other things have come up – groceries to shop for, errands to run, and all those other tasks that demand doing or avoiding.

Maybe you just don't like to be outside. Or outside extremely high up. Well, I have good news for you. You can now go skydiving indoors!

There are glass-sided tubes that become vertical wind tunnels, with air propelled upwards at 80 to 185 miles an hour. You get the effect of free-falling, as if you had just jumped out of a plane. But you don't need a parachute, because you basically just stay up there, presumably until you've had enough.

I thought about this the other day when I found myself in front of an XLERATOR hand dryer, the kind that sends the air out so forcefully that you watch your hands ripple themselves dry. Compared to the wind tunnel experience, the XLERATOR would be a tiny puff of air so gentle it would be unnoticeable.

I read the account of a woman who had actually done indoor skydiving (not me. Definitely not me. If I had a bucket list, this would not be on it). She said that the force of the air was “like sticking your hand out of a moving car, except it's your whole body.”

Grocery shopping, anyone?

Thanks for tuning in.

Know someone who might like this? Please consider passing it along.

Comments? Yes, please! I read them all.

No charge to subscribe. If you do subscribe, Getting On will automatically be delivered to your Inbox every Wednesday morning.