re: Change Of Pace: Your Closest Call To Death

A friend in my neighborhood had a 15 year old cousin from California visit for the Summer. My 12 year old self thought she was hot as shite, confident, and exotic. She had dark hair and a nose piercing -- it was the first time I had seen that. She also talked about being in a cult and of course we weren't buying it. My friend went to another friend's house in the neighborhood to retrieve his favorite Atari 2600 cartridge or some shite so it was just me and her in the house.

She walked back to the bedrooms and so I followed shortly thereafter under the ruse to use the bathroom (even though there was no one else there -- I guess I was making an excuse for myself if she asked where I was going). When I exited, she was standing in a bedroom looking at me. I might have been young, but I wasn't dumb. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I saw her pentagram necklace as she pulled off her shirt. I experienced the strange sensation of being lured by her perky boobies, but simultaneously freaked out by the necklace. She picked up a knife she had on the nightstand and cut her wrist as she laughed. I shite my pants and ran out screaming right past my confused friend who was walking back into the house. I didn't see her or my friend for the rest of the Summer and when I asked WTF happened he wouldn't say except that she went back early. I swear my virginity almost died that day. It was a close call. Glad I made it.

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Really glad you're better. That's a scary read.

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Thanks man. Still an everyday battle for me, but I’m able manage it a lot better and live about as normal a life as I possibly can. Was always too stubborn to get help, but obviously very glad I did.

(no message)

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I'm assuming this is a mountain?

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That’s what they call the 54 peaks in Colorado above 14,000 feet.

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107mm rocket impacted 6 feet above my head in A 6-inch steel roof beam. Shrapnel went forward of me and the beam took the brunt.

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Yikes! I’d be interested in some additional context.

Mid 70s, I was a dumb kid riding on logging roads in the woods on my XR75. Was heading back to where we parked the trucks on a dirt road. Instead of stopping when I get to the dirt road, I just shot out into the middle of it.

An old man and his grandson were in a truck and almost hit me. The old man had to swerve into the ditch to avoid me.

After coming to a stop he jumps out of the truck to make sure I’m okay.

The bad part turned out that the next Monday he went to my Dad’s hardware store and recounted his story about almost hitting some kid on a motorcycle. My Dad put two and two together and I was busted. Lost the bike for a month.

When I was working on my private pilots certificate I was practicing some landings, doing touch and goes. I landed really long on one and decided to taxi back to the end of the runway. It was August, hot and humid. Well, I forgot to retract the flaps. Got up in ground effect and the airplane wouldn’t climb. Drifting left of the runway where they were bailing hay. Missed a round bale by inches till I figured out what was going on. Slowly retracted the flaps and climbed out over the trees at the other end of the runway. Came back around, landed, parked, went inside and cleaned my pants. Never did that again.

Vietnam.

Had two close calls in the past year. First one I was on a phone call with my boss who abruptly hung up on me. If she hadn't I definitely wouldn't have noticed the F150 swerving through a red light at 60+. If I slammed on the breaks a half second later I would have taken that hit straight to the drivers side.

Second was a few weeks ago I blew out a tire driving back from a friend's place. I was going faster than I should have been considering what a hunk of junk my car was at that point, and I lost control when the tire went and ended up doing a 540 roll down a 30 foot embankment onto a busy feeder road. The roof of my jeep was pretty much completely crushed, but fortunately I'm short and ride low, so I walked away with nothing more than a concussion, a few facial lacerations and an arm that might be broken, but doesn't really seemed enough to get checked out yet

Got PIT maneuvered by an 18 wheeler in I-20. The dude changed lanes and didn’t even see me. How I didn’t flip, hit another vehicle, or end up pancaked under the trailer he was pulling was a miracle.