View Full Version : Close calls that could have ended or changed your life forever
I was debating posting this story, but I ended up referencing it in another thread, and it got me thinking that it might be a useful reminder to people.
And also, sometimes there is a turning point in life, where you know that if things had gone just slightly different your life would be irrevocably changed or ended. Feel free to share your own close calls if you wish.
My first close call was when I was 18. Another driver ran a red light, and if the timing had been a second different, he would have hit me, instead of me hitting him, and there is a high chance my, then, 4 year old sister, myself, and potentially 2 of my other siblings would have been severely injured/killed. As it was the car was a write-off but no one was physically injured.
My second close call was this Monday. We bought and moved into a townhouse style condo 4 weeks ago. We hired out to a professional plumber what we thought was a simple job of replacing a valve. We just needed to get the outside water tap turned off for the winter and the previous valve had been destroyed by previous owners. It's the kind of plumbing job my husband could have done with the right tools, but it seemed easier to just hire it out.
After the plumber left, I checked that the valves were working, and I noticed the smell was a bit strong. I know enough about plumbing to know that he was using one of those small torches to solder the pipe. And I knew there could be a bit of a smell. But it seemed stronger than it should be. I checked again a few minutes later, and there was definitely new smoke coming out of my wall. Unfortunately, it was inside the wall, so I couldn't tell exactly what was going on without ripping things out (partially finished basement wall, near ground level) and it was also next to my natural gas line. Naturally, I did the reasonable thing and panicked, calling 911, grabbing my wallet, keys, winter clothes and heading outside. Luckily, the neighbours on either side were away working. Perhaps I should have knocked on doors, but I was expecting my house to explode at any time (a neighbour's house exploded from a gas line when I was a child), so I stayed several feet back from the building.
Luckily the fire department came quickly. Soon there were at least 3 fire trucks, many firefighters and they were taking the hose and an ax into my lovely new condo. Total traumatizing moment. One of my neighbours let me stand in her porch some of the time, as this is Winnipeg and it was like the first snowy and cold day of the winter - minus 15C or so. Apparently, I was quite justified in calling the fire department in, though they weren't totally panicking, so I'm sure it wasn't as super dangerous as it felt to me. I believe the wood was always just smoldering.
In about 15-20 minutes they started explaining the situation and getting details from me. They showed me around my once cleanish house that had now had many big, snowy, booted firefighters through my living room and in my basement. The basement floor was kind of wet, but the big thing was the gaping hole in my exterior wall - 6" by 12". To find the problem they'd chopped through my wall and also pulled down some of the drywall, insulation and vapour barrier to make sure nothing else was burning. Of course, all necessary, but totally shocking all the same. When I was first looking at the hole, I didn't even see the burnt area for what it was.
Once the firefighters left I called my husband, still pretty much in shock. He took care of the angry call to the plumbing company (I'd love to have heard that myself).
Anyhow, after that it was various calls to the plumbing company manager, insurance, condo rep, etc. The manager sent an emergency crew to get my hole covered up. Of course, the plumber told the boss that he'd used all fire precautions, but I couldn't verify that, as I didn't observe him, not knowing enough and not wanting to be annoying or bored. Obviously he didn't use them well enough.
So, the lesson of the story is that a plumber can possibly burn your house down. I, and my neighbours, got extremely lucky that I didn't chose to leave the house, or even go back to work in my upstairs office immediately after the plumber was done. I was lucky to have enough background knowledge that I knew this type of thing was a risk.
Because of the gaping hole, the pipe this was all because of, did end up freezing that day, and my husband came home after his 12 hour shift to take a blow dryer to it, in the cold darkness, and rig up something so it wouldn't freeze again overnight. And he got a better plumber back in to do the job to his satisfaction a couple days later.
Now, we're in the middle of the huge hassle of dealing with the plumbing company, 2 insurance adjusters, condo association, contractors, etc, to get our wall fixed. But it could have been so much worse. I was pretty traumatized the first couple days, but am feeling close to normal now.
Here's a picture of my hole. You can see the burnt area next to the pipe. That's my gas line vertically in front of the hole and an electrical conduit running horizontal.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1476097_558117627600612_1175985244_n.jpg
iris lilies
11-24-13, 12:08am
During DH's first week of self employment where he went out to fix stuff in people's houses, he soldered something in the kitchen and set our friend's kitchen wall on fire. He called the Fire department to be safe, but by then I believe it was out. He was wary of soldering for a long, long time. I'm not sure that he does it now at all--for a while he was getting his friend to do the soldering jobs.
Glad that you are OK and the situation is under control.
Sometimes the almost-happened can be really upbeat as well. Meeting someone unexpectedly that you will have as part of your life ever after as I did.
sweetana3
11-24-13, 7:42am
Many houses and business buildings are burned down by plumbers and welders.
SteveinMN
11-24-13, 1:11pm
Glad to hear that you and the condo are pretty much OK after all this!
The most curious part, I find, about these situations is the self-reflection of why you chose to stick around downstairs and how your schedule accommodated that.
Kestra,
I had a similar close-call car accident. I was 9 months pregnant and sitting in the front seat of a small Honda. We were at a 4-way stop sign intersection. We stopped, then proceeded and watched as a driver coming from the left blew threw his stop sign and just barely missed us. We were close enough to see the horrified look on his face, as I'm sure he saw ours - I truly believe he just didn't see the stop sign so it was not deliberate on his part.
Nevertheless, it would have been a very big chance of loss of life for myself and my soon-to-be-born baby. I can still see the guy's face to this day.
Kestra, your story is a good reminder for everyone. I do some simple electrical work, like changing out fixtures, and although it is not at all complicated, I sometimes worry anyway. There are so many little hazards around the home that I'm surprised there aren't more fires. Someone, maybe here, reminded me to keep the dryer vent clear so it doesn't overheat. I can only imagine the olden days when we used candles for light and fireplaces and coal for heat.
I have a handful of close ones. Possibly the closest was when the vehicle I was riding in hit a horse that had escaped his pasture in pre-dawn hours. We were on a two lane paved road so were going 55 mph and it was so dark we didn't see the animal until just before impact. The vehicle was a total loss, but fortunately no human injuries. There is a tendency in car/big animal collisions for the animal to come up over the hood and into the passenger compartment, which didn't happen due to some stroke of luck.
One close call I had was a cement truck running a red light and hitting my car. Yeah, I was actually hit by a cement truck! My kids were young. son, 5 in the front seat on a booster seat and my daughter, 3 strapped into a car seat in the back. Luckily he hit the front of the car, but a second later and he would have hit my door. I still had a broken collar bone, leg damage and concussion, but the kids were ok except for a knot on the top of my son's head, which we could never figure out how he got. My daughter was scared but completely untouched. Yea for car seats! (one of those 'nanny' government things we all like to complain about!)
As it turned out, this waz the SECOND time this guy had hit someone with his cement truck!
When I flew home in my 20's to bury my sister, I was a real mess, and was on drugs to stay sane. They numbed me out quite a bit.
I was at a red traffic light on a major rural road, and it turned green. Because of the haze I was in, I didn't notice it had turned green for for several seconds. The lady in the car next to me had noticed it right away however, as you're supposed to, and proceeded into the intersection. She was T-boned -- squarely on the driver's side door -- by a speeding tractor-trailer rig. The guy never touched his brakes. It was horrible. Her car's wreckage was barely recognizable as a car. And it could've been me very easily.
I've also had interactions with violent men, rattlesnakes within a foot of my face, inadvertent drug overdoses, and airplane wind shear.
I have come to believe Life wants me here for some reason, as I had so many opportunities to not be here.
Glad you're here too, Kestra!
Wow, those days really make you think! Glad you were aware of the situation, Kestra, and didn't blow up your new condo! A couple of times I have been up in the mountains climbing and had a close call with rockfall. I wear a helmet but when you're in a narrow, steep gully and hear football-sized rocks starting to move, it's not a comforting sound. Lucky for us they stopped before they really got going, and we had a nice day. Unbeknownst to us at the time, there actually was a climber who had died on the same mountain the day before-we didn't find the body but it must have been there somewhere because Search and Rescue found it the day after our climb.
Probably the worst was when I walked out of the door of the house in Phx at like 8:30 at night, and someone a few doors down was shooting a gun. Close range gunfire that cannot be sourced or whose target is unknown is nothing I'd ever want to experience again, although in that case I believe they may have been firing into the air because no ambulance arrived and the police didn't arrest anyone. I suppose I would say it changed me in some way, since I would never entertain the thought that having a conceal-carry would be likely to protect me from a random shooter.
In no particular order:
1: Managed to semi-sink the small sailing dory I was single handing. In 45-50 degree water. Too far away from shore to swim and live. Got off a distress call briefly, before "waterproof" handheld radio went out. Lashed myself to hull of overturned boat, while my hands were still able to tie knots, and then attempted to conserve energy to avoid death-by-hypothermia. Got retrieved about an hour later. Very very very cold. I would have lived another hour or two, maybe.
2: Hunting in Northern California, when a storm of epic proportions blew in almost instantly. Lightning was striking all around my partner and I, who got down off the ridges very very swiftly. So much static charge was building up on the ground our hair was standing up. We were in an area infested with old mine shafts and tunnels, and now couldn't see 10 feet because of the rain. Made it back to camp without death, broke camp, got back out before the river we had to cross became completely impassable, which would have trapped us there for a week or two.
3: Cutting open a wrecked car the other day, someone goofed who was removing a door, and the door, under the pressure of the hydraulic spreader and the weight of the car and the other car that was atop it, shot out at high speed. Hit me in the shins, edge-on, I was standing about 15 feet away, in a "safe" spot, but the door deflected on its path. I thought my legs had been cut off for a moment, it felt like getting hit across the shins with a baseball bat. Turns out that metal shin protector built into my firefighting boots is there for a reason, nothing more than huge bruises resulted.
4: Years ago, returning to my own home, I came across a burglar. He came at me with a knife. He went to the ER. I'm still here.
5: About 14 years ago, turning out of the parking lot at work, I was t-boned by a fellow who ran the red light, at about 75mph, in a 35mph zone. My neck still hurts from this. 90% of the time, I would have been on my motorcycle, and thus dead. As it was, he managed to total my Mercedes sedan, and the car that was turning in the adjacent lane to me. He had been working a double shift, and fallen asleep...
6: Entering a tricky harbor for refuge during a really bad storm, the wheel of my boat came off at a crucial moment, and we were thus unable to steer. We were being tossed around like a toy. This would have been very very bad, except luckily I remembered the autopilot on the boat had a manual steering mode, so I continued on using the autopilot.
7. While hunting, in camp in the evening, had two rough-looking fellows wander into our camp, and start making themselves at home, with a real Deliverance tone, while looking at my female hunting partner in A Bad Way. Our rifles were unloaded, on the other side of camp. Theirs weren't. Female hunting partner's 1911 pistol was loaded though. The gentlemen decided to make themselves scarce.
8. Flesh eating bacteria infection in abdomen. Thought it was just a boil, growing fast. My doctor excised the whole mess on the spot, said if I'd waited another day to come in, it would have been The End.
9. Innumerable things that modern antibiotics have saved me from.
10. Innumerable things that wearing proper eye protection have saved me from.
11. You get the idea :-)
The last close call was when dh's meeting with his biggest client at one of the twin towers got cancelled the day before the meeting. I remember he was ticked that he had to reschedule his meetings for the next day at the last minute. Only one of his clients survived. I didn't know where he was at the time the first plane hit--just that he was heading towards the city that day--so I was so relieved to hear his voice. He was almost in North Bergen and all the cars were stopped and looking at the smoke when he called me from the road (I couldn't get through to him). We have two cousins who worked at the WTC, but neither was on site that day thank God. Our family was very lucky.
Interesting stories, everyone. Sharing my story and hearing about your incidents makes me feel better. Life is a wild ride, isn't it?
I don't know how based in reality the concept is, but you hear about people totally rethinking their lives after a close call. One of the good things about mine, is that, when I was thinking about getting blown up or my house burn down, I had no regrets, nothing I strongly wished that I had done and didn't, and the only thing that bothered me was leaving my husband. I guess I am living the right type of life, as I would be okay with dying, as things currently are.
Also, there wasn't a single object that I was worried about losing. Protecting my phone, ID cards, etc are all about practicality, not sentimentality.
I was lured by a man into his basement to see his litter of new puppies on my walk home from school when I was 6 years old. Of course, there were no puppies. As he proceeded to remove my clothing and speak to me in a soothing yet creepy voice while I cried, his wife happened to come home early - he heard her come in the front door upstairs, freaked out, and shoved me out the back door of the basement. I ran home, sobbing all the way, told my Mother and she called the police immediately. This was a big break in a case for them, as this man was found to be responsible for another little girl's rape and murder. I have no doubt that I avoided something terrible that day, possibly even death, if things had gone differently.... Always gives me chills when I think about it.
I don't know how based in reality the concept is, but you hear about people totally rethinking their lives after a close call.
If I had not been in a roll-over accident that nearly paralyzed the husband of a friend of mine, I don't know if my DH and I would have ended up together. We were in a kind of "to be or not to be" starting stages of a long distance relationship as we faced the reality of nearly 2 years on opposite continents. I walked away from that accident with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises, and he was the first person I wanted to call. That was a little over 18 years ago. We'll be celebrating our 17th anniversary at the end of this year.
Float On
11-25-13, 12:18pm
My two near deaths both involved water and yet I still love being on the water. Both were also very stupid on my part.
As a teenager, on the Buffalo river I got sucked under a log and tangled up in branches and roots. No way to pop up on the other side and my friend in the canoe couldn't reach down far enough to grab my hand. Watching my hand extended towards his extended hand and seeing no hope was scary. Neither one of us are sure what happened but against the current I did somehow pop up or was pushed up back the way I'd entered.
Also as a teenager with a group of friends we were all riding our horses in a creek and jumping logs. It had been very shallow but apparently my horse and I found the only hole on the far side of one log. The horse fell over on top of me in the hole and couldn't get up. I thought I was going to drown in the mud, and I'd already had the air knocked out of me by the horses weight. Friends were able to get the horse up and pull me out of the muddy hole. I vomited mud and managed to not have anything broken or scraped.
I never told my parents either of these stories until just last year.
Gardenarian
11-25-13, 2:47pm
Kestra - so glad you were alert to the danger and caught it before the fire got out of hand. Scary.
I've been in a lot of weird situations but honestly can't think of anything life-threatening. Touch wood.
I've been in a lot of life threatening or dangerous situations (too many to list!) and the one thing I usually take away from them (besides a little bit of PTSD :-)!) is to make my time matter and enjoy what I'm doing in life and, most importantly, never put off doing the things I really want to do. Life is too short as it is, and what time I have I want to make the most of it. Those life threatening kind of situations really do reenforce that belief for me. Of course it's often trying to live life to it's fullest that puts me in those life threatening situations so maybe I need to do some reevaluations :-)
ETA: One of the things I often think about (and is probably the kind of things that make me evaluate my life) is when I have totally mundane near-death accidents. When I'm choosing to do a dangerous job or hobby I kind of expect the potential for death or severe injury so don't think much about it, but when I slip naked in the shower or choke on a piece of bread because I'm eating to fast or some other undignified way to die, it does make me realize just how close the end could be and propels me forward a bit more than if I almost died doing a dangerous job.
A few come to mind. First was the only time I ever saw Dad excited during tornado season. Normal operation was to get up on the roof and watch storms. This time he was grabbing us and yelling "get in the basement NOW". We sat in the basement bathroom, ears popping like crazy and we were laughing because when we dropped pieces of TP in the toilet they got sucked out really, really fast. Came out a few minutes later, the house was damaged, but ok. The barn and several smaller outbuildings were gone. Nothing left but foundations. We found Dad's pick-up in a tree about 1/4 mile away.
Second was riding a motorcycle on a paved, but little used road after a rain. The road has a whole series of very small hills we called the whooptie-dos. You only had to be going around 70 to feel yourself lift out of the seat on each one, I was trying to get the whole bike to lift up. As I came over one there was a cow standing broadside in the middle of my lane. No time to do anything but jump. I landed in thick, soft, very wet grass and slid quite a ways. As far as I remember I didn't even tumble once, but came to a gentle stop with my feet just touching a very large concrete drainage abutment in the ditch. The cow and the bike weren't so lucky.
reader99
11-26-13, 10:35am
Wow Kestra. I think you handled that very well.
Once years ago we had a gas stove with an electric clock in it. I had moved the stove forward for some reason (maybe to clean behind it). Unbeknownst to us the gas line began to leak and the clock wires were apparently unprotected or faulty. A spark from the wires lit the leaking gas. Without thought or discussion my then husband and I moved to opposite sides of the stove and he blew out the fire while I unplugged the clock. It's been so long ago I don't recall what subsequent repairs went on.
ToomuchStuff
11-27-13, 8:21am
I wasn't going to post, but can't get this thread out of my head.
There is a LOT that could have changed my life, way too much to list and how far back would you want to go? Ended my life, probably a shorter list, with the last event being less then 10 days ago. (and I was mentally prepared to take them with me) Without going into specifics, there has been an abduction, a serial killer, a regular killer, couple threats from other probable killers, several gun points and a knife to the throat. (no I am not a cop who is horrible at the job)
In the end, it is about what you have and will learn from it/them and how it changes you. People tend to raise their kids one of two ways:
You can make a difference/go out an make something of yourself.
Leave no trace.
Since I am a failure at the second (what I learned), and there is no way to undo the people I have influenced nor anyone to viking funeral my possessions. I can only learn from them. I lost the fear of death a long time ago. Sometimes I wonder if to the point of wanting it. (fearing life or what I was told I would become instead) I've lived a lot of my life, in my mind, sitting on a porch, at old age, looking back wondering what decisions I would regret. "Friendships" are few, relationships, even fewer (would you die for them?) and this last time the regret I had is what brought me here: wanting to simplify my life and possessions to what should be important to me, because those should be the only few that will have to be dispersed when I am gone (almost none will be wanted by family). In the end, we are born alone and die alone (no one else is in your head), and your worse judge, is yourself.
Wow,what a thread. I vote Yarrow's story as the creapiest.So glad you were brave enough to tell your Mom what happened.
I once found myself hurling head first toward the ground in a unopened tangled parachute.Couldn't pull my reserve because it and my arms wrapped in suspension lines.Kicked off the wad of lines wrapped around my boot and chute opened. Only time I ever had parachute issues out of my 29 jumps.
Family camping with some friends at a State park. Breeze started picking up.I decided to walk over to our site and make sure everything was secure.A huge tree limb about 10 inches in diameter fell high from a tree and speared the ground about 2 feet in front of me as I was walking. I never suspected a thing. It drove itself about 18" into the ground.It took about 8 of us to move it out of the way.
happystuff
11-28-13, 8:19am
I wasn't going to post, but can't get this thread out of my head.
In the end, it is about what you have and will learn from it/them and how it changes you.
I lost the fear of death a long time ago.
In the end, we are born alone and die alone (no one else is in your head), and your worse judge, is yourself.
Toomuchstuff - I also was not going to post to this thread, but it has also been on my mind. I can relate to what you wrote, especially the parts I quoted.
It was not a "close call" to myself per se that changed my life forever, but the death of my son. I am still trying to live with the resultant changes - both the external and the internal ones. I think "change" is continuous, so I'm interested/curious to see where I end up.
I do disagree that we are born alone and we die alone. I believe we don't HAVE to do either alone unless we choose to. But I do agree - I am my own worse judge!
I was lured by a man into his basement to see his litter of new puppies on my walk home from school when I was 6 years old. Of course, there were no puppies. As he proceeded to remove my clothing and speak to me in a soothing yet creepy voice while I cried, his wife happened to come home early - he heard her come in the front door upstairs, freaked out, and shoved me out the back door of the basement. I ran home, sobbing all the way, told my Mother and she called the police immediately. This was a big break in a case for them, as this man was found to be responsible for another little girl's rape and murder. I have no doubt that I avoided something terrible that day, possibly even death, if things had gone differently.... Always gives me chills when I think about it.
Gave me physical chills reading about it.
In no particular order:
1: Managed to semi-sink the small sailing dory I was single handing. In 45-50 degree water. Too far away from shore to swim and live. Got off a distress call briefly, before "waterproof" handheld radio went out. Lashed myself to hull of overturned boat, while my hands were still able to tie knots, and then attempted to conserve energy to avoid death-by-hypothermia. Got retrieved about an hour later. Very very very cold. I would have lived another hour or two, maybe.
2: Hunting in Northern California, when a storm of epic proportions blew in almost instantly. Lightning was striking all around my partner and I, who got down off the ridges very very swiftly. So much static charge was building up on the ground our hair was standing up. We were in an area infested with old mine shafts and tunnels, and now couldn't see 10 feet because of the rain. Made it back to camp without death, broke camp, got back out before the river we had to cross became completely impassable, which would have trapped us there for a week or two.
3: Cutting open a wrecked car the other day, someone goofed who was removing a door, and the door, under the pressure of the hydraulic spreader and the weight of the car and the other car that was atop it, shot out at high speed. Hit me in the shins, edge-on, I was standing about 15 feet away, in a "safe" spot, but the door deflected on its path. I thought my legs had been cut off for a moment, it felt like getting hit across the shins with a baseball bat. Turns out that metal shin protector built into my firefighting boots is there for a reason, nothing more than huge bruises resulted.
4: Years ago, returning to my own home, I came across a burglar. He came at me with a knife. He went to the ER. I'm still here.
5: About 14 years ago, turning out of the parking lot at work, I was t-boned by a fellow who ran the red light, at about 75mph, in a 35mph zone. My neck still hurts from this. 90% of the time, I would have been on my motorcycle, and thus dead. As it was, he managed to total my Mercedes sedan, and the car that was turning in the adjacent lane to me. He had been working a double shift, and fallen asleep...
6: Entering a tricky harbor for refuge during a really bad storm, the wheel of my boat came off at a crucial moment, and we were thus unable to steer. We were being tossed around like a toy. This would have been very very bad, except luckily I remembered the autopilot on the boat had a manual steering mode, so I continued on using the autopilot.
7. While hunting, in camp in the evening, had two rough-looking fellows wander into our camp, and start making themselves at home, with a real Deliverance tone, while looking at my female hunting partner in A Bad Way. Our rifles were unloaded, on the other side of camp. Theirs weren't. Female hunting partner's 1911 pistol was loaded though. The gentlemen decided to make themselves scarce.
8. Flesh eating bacteria infection in abdomen. Thought it was just a boil, growing fast. My doctor excised the whole mess on the spot, said if I'd waited another day to come in, it would have been The End.
9. Innumerable things that modern antibiotics have saved me from.
10. Innumerable things that wearing proper eye protection have saved me from.
11. You get the idea :-)
Wow, Bae, it's like all the adventure and wild west movie plots rolled into one life.
Interesting stories, everyone. Sharing my story and hearing about your incidents makes me feel better. Life is a wild ride, isn't it?
I don't know how based in reality the concept is, but you hear about people totally rethinking their lives after a close call. One of the good things about mine, is that, when I was thinking about getting blown up or my house burn down, I had no regrets, nothing I strongly wished that I had done and didn't, and the only thing that bothered me was leaving my husband. I guess I am living the right type of life, as I would be okay with dying, as things currently are.
Also, there wasn't a single object that I was worried about losing. Protecting my phone, ID cards, etc are all about practicality, not sentimentality.
It was a different kind of close call that made me evaluate my life. When I was in my early 40s 2XDH had a fatal heart attack. After getting a cholesterol test, my next reaction was to do the two things I'd been meaning to do for years and thought I had lots of time. He was three years younger than I so it made me realize I had no guarantee of having lots of time left.
Spartana
11-29-13, 11:57am
[QUOTE=bae;161303]In no particular order:
1: Managed to semi-sink the small sailing dory I was single handing. In 45-50 degree water. Too far away from shore to swim and live. Got off a distress call briefly, before "waterproof" handheld radio went out. Lashed myself to hull of overturned boat, while my hands were still able to tie knots, and then attempted to conserve energy to avoid death-by-hypothermia. Got retrieved about an hour later. Very very very cold. I would have lived another hour or two, maybe.
[QUOTE]
Having to find and rescue Bae as he clings to his boat :-)! That's a small coast guard boat in case you can't tell.
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1336&d=1385743905
OK that stuff was fun even though scary and even terrifying sometimes. Of course I still have flashbacks and nightmares about being at sea in rough weather for long periods of time.
I think some of these stories are very creepy and scary. Just how close we all come to death all the time is pretty frightening in itself. My brother died after being hit by an owl one night while riding his motorcycle. It hit him and knocked him over a 100 foot cliff. Terrible freak accident (something for Gregg and Alan to think about).
Having to find and rescue Bae as he clings to his boat :-)! That's a small coast guard boat in case you can't tell.
You Coast Guard folks have my deepest respect and admiration! When I went overboard, the US and Canadian guys both heard my little radio transmission before my handheld died, and sent people out to save me, some of the local islanders found me first. I love you all, and that's not just the turkey talking!
My brother died after being hit by an owl one night while riding his motorcycle. It hit him and knocked him over a 100 foot cliff. Terrible freak accident (something for Gregg and Alan to think about).
Oh that's horrid! I was driving my MGB once on the freeway at about 70mph, and a pigeon flew into my head and basically exploded, and it was all I could do to get the car over to the side of the road.
I didn't list my motorcycle mishaps, but for Gregg and Alan, here are two of the better Wile-E-Coyote moments:
- riding down freeway, "roach coach" in front of me decides the freeway is the perfect place to hit the dump valves for his fryer oil. Gallons and gallons of hot oil pour out the bottom of the thing, splattering the road, me, and my bike. Thank god I was wearing leathers.
- also on freeway, fellow in front of me has a mattress atop his car. Just as I'm thinking "hmmmm", I notice he's *holding the mattress* with one hand out the window, and there are no ropes. About then he hits a wee bump, the wind takes the mattress right at me. Lucky it landed flat, and I somehow managed to ride over it without dumping the bike.
try2bfrugal
11-30-13, 1:57am
I have been
- hit by lightening
- had creepy guys try to get into my car at a stop light (doors were locked)
- struck at by a rattle snake (he was too small to reach me)
- fallen out of canoes in whitewater rapids
- had a gun pointed at our car in Hawaii on vacation by some random surfer guy by the side of the road
- charged by cows and even a bull in our open space where they allow cattle grazing
- come face to face with an an agitated ostrich with a very large beak at an animal park
- come face to face with some kind of large cat the size of a German Shepherd while hiking
- had a scary bear encounter while hiking
-and had a large box of cans dropped from overhead by a forklift into the spot I was standing 5 second earlier at a warehouse store.
The hiking and whitewater stuff I guess always has some element of danger, but who knew shopping at warehouse stores could be dangerous?
I always shop earlier now because the store is open 24 hours and at night they try to restock the shelves and have forklifts out even though the customers are still in the store shopping.
I saw they sectioned off the ostrich at the animal park after our tram episode so he can't get so close to visitors any more. I know ostriches probably don't sound scary but they are when their beaks are a foot away from your face.
This is an interesting thread. I am glad everyone else survived their close encounters to tell their stories here.
You Coast Guard folks have my deepest respect and admiration! When I went overboard, the US and Canadian guys both heard my little radio transmission before my handheld died, and sent people out to save me, some of the local islanders found me first. I love you all, and that's not just the turkey talking!
Ah shucks...thanks! haven't done that stuff in years but have some not-so-fond as well as fond memories of it. Glad they found you (did you have an EPRIB?) as that must have been pretty terrifying -well maybe not terrifying as that usually happens afterwards - after the hours, day or weeks of freezing cold, dark, giant waves and just trying to hang on! I've had a few of those myself. But of course there was no one coming to rescue us :-)! I had one big storm that to this day gives me the shakes - one of those "Perfect Storm" kind of seas during a Nor'Easter about 100 miles off the coast of Maine in the middle of winter. 50 ft seas, massive ice build up on the boat, all of us out there attached to lifelines with baseball bats beating on the ice 24/7 so we wouldn't capsize. We were in that for almost a week. Hull had huge cracks in it, taking on water, pumps going full tilt, cracks in one of the fuel tanks, and just everything cracked and broken or blown overboard. And everyone (14 person crew) just sea sick beyond belief. Terrible. I was never so glad to see the shore in all my life. Of course after we were repaired we had to go out and do it all again. Fun times :-)!!
Other than those kind of "sea stories" the 2 instances that stick out in my mind most was the time I, at age 18, got into a car with a stranger when my car broke down on a cross country trip outside Savannah, GA. Guy took me into the secluded swamps, dragged me out of the car and tried to accost me. Fortunately I was able to fight him off and get away.
Another time was driving on a snowy interstate in Wyoming when my car hit ice and spun out and I was finding myself going backwards down the interstate nose to nose with a semi-truck who, unable to stop himself, just "kissed" my front bumper which spun me over into a steep ravine. Fortunately my 2 front tires got caught in the snow plows berm on the side and, having 4 wheel drive, I was able to get myself out. But I still remember looking up into the truck's huge front grill as it hit me.
That's so frightening! I'm glad you're ok. Fire is the last thing I would associate with plumbing... my goodness. Good to know.
As for me, I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for free NHS treatment and antibiotics. Or, at the very least, I'd be completely destitute after a 12-day stay in a hospital while I was unemployed. I don't have any stories more exciting than that!
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