Val Solves the Case of the Disappearing Parachuter

A few weeks ago, I was standing in line at Save A Lot, and out the big front window I saw a parachute. Not a round kind of parachute, like a WWII paratrooper might use, or the shape of one of those giant space capsule ocean-landing parachutes. This one was a long kind of parachute. The kind that people use to maneuver around more easily.

I kept watching, wondering where that parachute was going to land. There's an old man-made lake bed that's been converted to a drag strip. I figured that would be the most logical place, but I couldn't figure out why someone would want to jump here. When I got to the gas station chicken store that day, the cranky clerk said that she'd seen it, too. So I wasn't hallucinating, even though I never saw that parachute descend.

Today, I was in line at Orb K when I saw that same style of parachute again. A long chute, multicolored. I got my phone ready to take a picture, but that guy dropped below the roof over the gas pumps. When I went out the door, I stuffed my scratchers in my armpit, and used both hands to get that camera ready, and zoom in. From this vantage point, I could see the jumper again, up above the gas pump roof. I took a picture, then got out of the way of the door and walked back to T-Hoe, keeping an eye out for when that jumper landed. Again, I didn't see him. I guessed that maybe he had descended while I was walking, and was now on the ground over in the dry lake bed, way past the Save A Lot plaza across the street.

Eager to see what my picture looked like, I opened up my phone and saw a picture of the parking lot blacktop. Darn that delay on my phone camera! No wonder I take a picture of Jack, and only have an empty field when I go to look at it.

Anyhoo...I drove on home, after a short affirmation about how I really DID see that parachute. I wasn't imagining it. I'd seen a man opening his car door looking up at it, too. Imagine my joy at rounding a sharp curve by the sheep field, the one just before the curve where I saw the pheasant, and noticed that parachuter in the sky above the sheep field. Now bereft of sheep and watchdog. I pulled off at the sheep gate to get a proper picture.

Funny how he was way higher than I saw him in town. Maybe there was another parachuter. Maybe a plane was dropping them off at intervals, though I hadn't seen a plane at all.

Closer he came. I could see the color of his parachute. He even waved at me. And then I saw the solution to my parachute mystery.

Zoom in, my blogfriends! Zoom in! He has a fan kind of contraption on that parachute! He's blowing himself across the sky all willy-nilly as he takes a whim.

No wonder I never saw him come down. He's probably flying to his house, wherever that may be. Not landing behind the Save A Lot like a common parachuter.