In the late 70’s, there was an article in the Capitol Times about people with a ‘T’ personality. My friend, Rachael Sigfried, told me about it and said that I was the first person she thought of when she read it. (T = Thrill Seeker) That was because I was riding my motorcycle to work and out to the drop zone to skydive.

Actually, that designation does not really fit me. People with a ‘T’ personality are usually adrenaline junkies, loving that high you get when doing something fast and risky. That is definitely not me. I don’t enjoy that systemic rush. For years after I stopped jumping I’d get an unwanted jolt of adrenaline whenever I heard a small plane slowly traversing the sky overhead. Not a feeling I enjoyed. That is possibly why I stepped away from it in the first place.

Of course I was still downhill skiing then. Some people think of that as pushing the safety bubble. I finally gave up the pleasure during the pandemic. Here again, I was not a speedster. I was a solid, but not a flashy skier. I enjoyed my role on the ski patrol, but was definitely not someone on the race course.

At this point, all of those adventures are in the rearview mirror. The question however remains - Is there anything risky you would still like to do? Not much...except using an electric scooter or possibly learning to ride a horse. The scooter may be out. My balance is not great at this age and I might break something if I fell off. But horseback riding seems a bit safer.

Somewhere along the way, my friend, Barb Wolosz, and I decided to take riding lessons. That turned out to be a total bummer. I was excited to learn a new skill and hang out with horses, but it turned out that the instructor was an old, cranky, inarticulate chauvinist cowboy. He had no idea how to explain things to the uninitiated. He would give us some unintelligible instructions, at least unintelligible to us rank beginners. If we asked for clarification, he would just say it louder, like people mistakenly do when someone does not speak the same language. In this case, we did not understand horse.

I wouldn’t mind trying that again, riding some gentle, reliable horse with an instructor who understands how to explain what to do in terms that I could understand.

Do I think I’ll actually pursue this? I sincerely doubt it. I’m too old and too busy to take on something that involved and that physical. I do still wish that I had had a decent instructor way back there. I could have added riding to my supposed ‘T’ list.