Late WDT is late. I'm only a little sorry. Today I survived a kid's birthday party. Eh, that's a little dramatic. I had a bunch of people volunteer to help set up. The worst part was the cold, hard, constant wind, but I brought really good tape. I think the most dangerous things I have survived were by luck or medical intervention. For example, I was drunk as a skunk on a tubing trip when a popup storm hit and made the water crazy. My sister was afraid I was going to drown, but I was happily oblivious. I didn't realize how drunk I was til I tried to stand up at the end unsuccessfully. Those rum balls hit HARD. I also vomited on the side of the road on the way to the after-party. It was a day. I also survived placenta accreta. I was awake for all the procedures, and I definitely almost died. How about you? What was your close call? Did you survive by chance, know-how, or medical interventions? Be safe this week!
Almost got killed in a landslide about 8 years ago. Ran along a hiking trail on a ridge as the ridge was collapsing behind us. Terrifying. The only other close call I had was getting swept out from a shoreline by a very strong rip current. If I wasn't a fairy strong swimmer and didn't know how to swim against a current, I would have drowned.
Ooooh man, that reminds me. I had an ocean close call while a friend was visiting when I lived in Hawaii. We went to North Shore to swim and snorkel in a cove, I think it was called Turtle Bay. The mouth of the cove had buoys in a line to indicate open ocean passed this point. I somehow ended up in open ocean and the buoys were a good 30' or more away. I don't know if it was a current that pulled me away or what, but I definitely saved myself by focusing on staying calm and swimming sideways. I am not a strong swimmer by any means but I knew not to fight the current. I eventually made it back. My friend was clueless and had no idea any of this was happening. I have no concept of how long it took to get back but it wasn't quick.
I’ve posted before about being stalked by a polar bear. That has to be the closest call I’ve had. A close second might be an incident I was too young to remember. When I was around 3, my mother left me unsupervised outside in the summer heat. I was playing in the asphalt “yard” behind our apartment building. When she finally checked on me I was suffering from heat stroke. Bad enough that they had to immediately throw me in a bath with cold water and as much ice as they could find. Once my temperature dropped they took me to a doctor. The only time you went to the emergency room in the 1960s was if the ambulance brought you there.
When I was about 12 I still couldn’t swim. We were at summer camp on one of the Finger Lakes and for some reason I ended up on the deeper end of the swimming area. I couldn’t touch bottom, panicked, and nearly drowned. I remember the entire thing, including the moment of almost peace before, thankfully, one of the lifeguards saw me and pulled me out. Poor guy lost his glasses saving my life. You can bet your ass I learned to swim, and later earned my Mile Swim patch there. Many years later I was working with my buddy who’d gone through paramedic school with me. He was a few years older than I. We were talking about our time in Scouting and I told that story. He turned to me: “That was me that pulled you out.” I shit you not. We compared notes and when he said he lost his glasses, that sealed it. He went on to introduce me to my wife of 25 years and I was best man for his wedding. He and his wife are our first son’s godparents.
I laid a motorcycle down on a wet road. I was wearing proper gear, even though I slid who knows how far on my back, I just had a piece of glass where my hand meets my wrist. I spent a fridid night in the woods in a broke down 1983 Chevy k10 with no food or water. Some friends and I had been off roading that afternoon and evening, then parted ways. I did have Busch heavy, which I had been drinking thru the day. Luckily it was cold that day, so I was I was wearing appropriate layers of clothing. I just stayed in the truck. I figured if I left, I would be uncomfortable, so I waited until morning. Cell phones were a thing, but I didn't have one because they didn't work well in our county yet. There are still massive areas that have no cell service back home. I got cut with a box cutter in an attempted robbery in an alley, walking from a boobie bar to my truck. I needed to go back to my truck for cigarettes. I pushed the guy away and that is when he got me.
I've mentioned before about nearly killing myself by being stupid with a MANPAD. Had a few other close calls, but that was the dumbest.
I slipped at the top of a 300-foot waterfall and started sliding towards the water. I managed to arrest my slide a few feet before hitting the water; had I not, I would have been swept over the falls in less than a second.
I was on my bicycle years ago, about ready to launch from a stop light, when I became aware of a van that was NOT going to make the red light... so I stopped, the car beside me did not. The van t-boned the car in a big way, missing me by less than 5 feet. Had I not stopped, I would have been between the 2 cars in the t-bone, and dead for sure. That was a bit of an adrenaline dump, to say the least.
Oh man. I have one of these, with an added twist. I was driving a semi truck, somewhere between Arizona and North Carolina. I stopped for a food. I ate and took off again with a freshly topped off paper cup of Dr Pepper from some fast food restaurant. I forgot to grab a straw when I was leaving the restaurant. I took the lid off to drink it and when I tipped it back, a large piece of ice went straight into my throat, as I was doing 70 down the interstate. I got pulled over on the shoulder and the ice finally came back up, but it was a very scary few moments.
I was eating Doritos in the car once and a crumb broke off and landed in my eye. The wife thought it was funny until she had to grab the wheel and guide the car to the side of the road as I slowed down.
@GTE's dorito calamity reminded me of the time I was cycling and had a bee go into one of the vents on my helmet. It then fell out and into my collar where it proceeded to drag the stinger down my back as it fell further into my jersey. I was on the shoulder of a major 2 lane road here in northern Virginia at the time...I'm still surprised I didn't wipe out or end embedded in the front of a truck
I was on a 2 lane road and as we were going up a hill, a giant SUV crested the hill bombing towards us in our lane because it just had to pass another car in a no passing zone. I drove off the road and my friend and I just sat there for a few minutes until our heart rates came down enough to continue on. Didn’t help that I was driving a glorified gokart (Toyota echo) at the time.
I was driving an old POS volvo station wagon decades ago. The glove compartment button was busted, so the way you opened it was to stab the ignition key into the button hole and it would pop open. Hot summer day, driving on the highway with a friend, and he wants something from inside the glovebox. So me, driving, wait for a straight section on the highway, slip the key out of the ignition, and reach over to pop the lock on the glovebox. We were going fast. The steering wheel lock then engaged, and we started to drift into oncoming traffic. I semi-panicked, and put the key back in, but couldn't turn it on in order to unlock the wheel. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was steer more into the oncoming traffic to unbind the wheel lock so I could then unlock it and get back in my lane. We almost died in a head-on that day for stupid reasons.
I was always kind of a hippy when it came to plants and wildlife, but I think I'm getting worse as I get older. Watching a Monarch laying eggs on some milkweed in front of my house made me downright giddy this morning.
Watching that must have been magic. I remember feeling a way when I got to witness a crane fly being born. Just total childlike wonderment and awe. I finally got outside to putter around a little. A few planters of herbs were half dead and I pulled some weeds for forage for the ducks. I got to witness this annual showstopper. Culinary sage in full bloom. The bees love it.
I survived a multi-fatality drunk driving accident in 2001. The driver wrapped the car around a tree and killed my date and his best friend. I was blown up at work by an improvisational heating device my cousin set up (without my knowledge or consent) in a bridge repair truck I was using. It was basically a rudimentary Bunsen burner to heat tar pails, and its flame instead licked a near-full Geri can of gasoline which I only discovered when I jumped in the back of the truck. So next of course comes Murphy’s Law— Kaboom. All I remember is seeing nothing but the brightest orange I have ever seen, then I woke up in the ravine at the side of the road. The blast must have thrown me out of the truck because I was K the fuck O’ed after that one.
Glad you're starting to feel better. Those flowers are beautiful and I love anything that helps bees native or otherwise. A lot of herbs seem to have flowers that attract all sorts of bees either native or honeybees.