A few months ago, my wife suggested I take flying lessons.  A couple of weeks later, she proposed skydiving.  Now, I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, but I'm beginning to think my services may no longer be needed.  I'm waiting to see if she tries to talk me into jumping the Grand Canyon in a semi.

My first instinct is to cancel my life insurance and be sure she knows about it.  Don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't accuse my wife of anything immoral, but I do let the cats taste my dinner before I eat it.  You know what they say.   An ounce of prevention is better than six good pallbearers.

It would be easy to worry, but you have to realize who we're talking about.  This is the woman who, at seventeen, wanted to wrestle alligators.  This is no lie.  She worked for a tourist attraction in Fort Lauderdale that featured alligator wrestling, and had talked some idiot with one leg and three fingers into teaching her how to do it.  I talked her out of it.  More accurately, I offered her complete freedom if she did.  Not as much because I was worried about her, but how do you ever stand up to someone who can kick an alligator's butt?

I have mentioned skydiving in the past, and I took a few flying lessons as a teenager.  It's possible she's just trying to help me ease into the inevitable mid-life crisis.  Still, our local skydiving school has been in the news twice in the past few years because one person made it to the ground a lot faster than the others.   It's just possible she's trying to help me out of a midlife crisis.

I am a daredevil of sorts, but that's starting to fade with age.   Years ago, I wanted to race motorcycles, fly fighter jets, and jump off a cliff on a hang-glider.  The greatest risk I take now is riding with my teenage daughter.

I often wonder if I would have done any of those things, given the chance.  At seventeen, I talked like Evel Knievel, but walked more like Barney Fife.   The wildest thing I'd ride at a carnival was the bumper cars.  While my friends were doing flips off the high dive, I was doing belly-floppers in the kiddie pool.   My wife knows this all too well.

So I have to wonder why she's trying to get me so high off the ground all of a sudden.  When I asked her about it, she said we're getting older and it's time I did some of the things I always wanted to do.  In other words, she's already writing my obituary.