Ten Surprising Things...

[Mortis]

Kenny, you're always welcome, remember straight down the road till you see the Monkeys and then a left at the second palm tree and a right at the coconut tree, we are just past the Durian tree on the left

Seriously, to cure something I believe hitting it head on, it sometimes works

[phenomshel]

I don't think I have ten things, but let's see...

1. Rode in an 18 wheeler from Bakersfield, CA to Plainview, TX

2. Evicted a tarantula from my mom's pantry.

3. Been thrown off a horse and landed a scant inch from a prickly pear cactus.

4. Learned to hit what I aimed at with a .22 pistol.

5. Found an email from Susan Conant in my inbox this week. (Susan is an award-winning mystery author and one of my idols).

6. Successfully negotiated and navigated turning an online relationship into a stable, happy, wonderful marriage. (I had help, LOL)

7. I can share with Steve on the nose to nose with both skunks and porcupines, (by the way, porcupines aren't supposed to eat cat food, but they DO. So do skunks. And I can add a longhorn to that list of unusual animals I've seen close up.)

8. Been to the "original" Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. Closely related to this one: Drove all over Amarillo taking pictures of the weird street signs posted by the guy who is responsible for the Cadillac Ranch.

9. Met Dan Seals. He held my daughter when she was an infant.

10. Climbed all over an abandoned grain elevator, and also a few windmill towers (the old fashioned kind, not the new wind turbines).

Okay,so I did have ten. Maybe I'm more interesting than I thought.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Seriously, to cure something I believe hitting it head on, it sometimes works

Hitting it head on, or hitting it on the head?

[Steve Vernon]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

7. I can share with Steve on the nose to nose with both skunks and porcupines, (by the way, porcupines aren't supposed to eat cat food, but they DO. So do skunks. And I can add a longhorn to that list of unusual animals I've seen close up.)

Great, people, great. This is what I love about a thread like this. There are so many different stories here.

I'll tell you a bit about the skunk. I was about 12 years old, camping in a campground on the prairies with my family. I had to walk down the path through the campground to get to the privy. About halfway to the privy I came face to face with a skunk. I was very cool about the whole matter. I turned straight around, ran through a camp full of trailers crammed with sleeping campers, yelling SKUNK-SKUNK-SKUNK!!! at the top of my lungs.

I am proud to say that no pajamas were soiled in the process.

Some people believe that when the time comes God will count your sins. Others believe that God will count your scars. I like to believe the old guy is going to pull up a chair and ask you to tell him your stories...

[orlok]

Some of my more exciting moments:

1. Being held upside down by my ankles as I dangled over the side of the observation tower of the ferry to Dublin in inclement weather in the Irish Sea, so that I could peer in on the captain and crew on the Bridge.

2. Sitting in the back of the car as an elephant charged at us, and then having my Mum stall the car, not once but twice, as we tried to make our escape.

3. Jumping from a WWII biplane (twice) and parachuting safely to earth

4. Reaching for an outside door-handle in the dark, and finding the soft hairy thing on the handle was a Baboon Spider

5. Flying a Cessna 152 solo on several occasions

6. Getting to SAS Selection twice, and failing to get through both times...

7. Entering a rifle competition and coming second, when it was the first time I had ever shot with something bigger than a pellet-gun.

8. Having Richard Branson shake my hand just before I flew Virgin Upper Class to Tokyo

9. Watching my friends terrier (blind in one eye) fight and kill a cobra

10. Being there for the birth of each of our three daughters...

[mike_bike_kite]

No particular order:

• Coming upon Monument Valley almost by accident whilst touring the States by motorbike - I just sat and stared at it until the sun finally went down
• Scuba dived with sharks and later, on the same day, swam over the edge of an underwater cliff that just descended 2 km straight down into the darkness
• Had a Mirage jet fly underneath me while flying my paramotor in France
• Swam quietly with a giant grouper
• Had a picnic on the rim of a live volcano looking down upon a sea of clouds.
• Finding myself on stage in London doing stand up
• Watched the space station fly over my house and waved to the astronauts
• Seeing the Milky Way for the first time on the back of a speedboat coming back from a Greek opera held in an ancient Amphitheatre and lit by flaming torches
• Getting beaten for the first time by a checkers program that I'd written myself
• Watching your kids grow up

[pdurrant]

I'm in the "No, not really" category, so I'm not sure I'll make it to ten surprising things.

1. I danced in the opening ceremony of the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games
2. I managed to get to the top of the 4,348m high Mount Evans* in Colorado.
3. I have yet to find a non-English ancestor, out of the 200+ that I know about. It makes choosing a tartan for a kilt difficult.
4. I wrote a version of Conway's "Game of Life" in 512 bytes of 6502 machine code for the Acorn Atom.
5. I know the names of 29 of my 30** Great Great Great Grandparents.
6. No, I think that might be it - I'm really rather dull!

*mostly by car — there's a road to within about 60m of the summit!
** No, I haven't made a mistake in the calculations. I only have 30 3G Grandparents. (Two of my 2G Grandmothers were sisters.)

[mike_bike_kite]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I wrote a version of Conway's "Game of Life" in 512 bytes of 6502 machine code for the Acorn Atom.

I had an acorn atom computer as well!
I really liked that machine and still have it after all these years.
There's a great coffee table book called Digital Retro describing these older computers.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

No particular order:

• ..
• Watching your kids grow up

Hey! You leave MY Kids outta this!

[Ziguezon]

These are pretty tame compared to others, but maybe worth sharing anyway:

* Tried to outrun an angry doberman on two occasions (50% success rate).

* Climbed halfway up a mountain carrying a VERY long fire hose to help put out a forest fire caused by a lightning strike (it was a tree covered mountain).

* Worked as a tradeshow setup technician for a tech company, and was fortunate enough to spend weeks at a time visiting some amazing American cities, all on a company credit card.

* Spontaneously moved to a new city 6 times for the heck of it (in four different Canadian provinces)... never once having a job waiting for me upon arrival. Two examples below:

* Moved to Quebec and learned to speak French so I could fit in (anyone who's ever tried something like this will probably tell you just how difficult it really is).

* Moved to Prince Edward Island and did nothing for a year and a half other than relax and enjoy the peace and beauty of the place while living on savings earned previously from working in the big city. Main goals during this time were: A) learn a few programming languages during the days, and B) try every single restaurant in Charlottetown during the evenings. (goal A was accomplished but not goal B).

* Was robbed at knife point in a snow blizzard.

* Worked at a department store next to the old Montreal Forum and regularly chatted up members of the Montreal Canadiens, who often came in to shop (being a young fan at the time, this was truly awesome!)

* was a key character witness in a double homicide trial, and helped prevent an innocent man from spending his life in prison.

* Went to Yellowknife, North West Territories to visit family and check out the midnight sun. We later decided to drive from Yellowknife to Edmonton but neglected to check the ferry schedule for crossing the Mackenzie river and arrived just after the last ferry had left. Three adults and a two year old child had to spend the night in a hot car in the remote northern Canadian wilderness. We couldn't put the windows down even a crack because of the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes and other assorted blood sucking critters waiting outside the car to attack us.

* Had pints in London and wine in Paris. Not very exciting to most people, but was a dream come true for me. Next stop... New York City.

* attended a Mobileread meetup!

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Ziguezon

* attended a Mobileread meetup!

Now that would be fun!!!

[beppe]

To me adventures means something different from the heroics like those above this post. Just as an example, looking deep into the eyes of the barmaid of a small Swiss Hotel near Neuchatel with the almost silent invitation to examine the small dry flowers collection that I kept in the bag in my room. Almost as silently, it just happened to be accepted. A rare event in any case and in every sense. That is why I remember it. Why silent? I did not speak Swiss. Yet.

Nevertheless, I climbed a few mountains and skied down a couple of great glaciers.

Mostly ice routes, as I am not really a climber (too heavy really to lift myself up, even when at the slimmest of me). This is Monte Rosa from the South. The peak is 4555 m. I went over all those peaks, in different excursions of course.

And these are the really beautiful dolomiti di Brenta, much lower but so spectacular. I went up to many of the peaks, through paths that are easier than what it looks, the image is in winter which is not when I hiked/climbed there.

This is the Gornergrat, near Zermatt. I spent a couple of months there. On duty. I had designed and the Swiss had developed some equipment that was tested on a helicopter. They flew us up there almost every morning, when the air was denser, and me and my Swiss friend used to ski down most happily. The Swiss are really the best skiers around, it must be their military system, he certainly skied like an angel. The evenings were nice also.

And this is the famous Mer Du Glace. We went up with a cable car from the Italian side and skied down to Chamonix. Very long and very beautiful mountain experience.

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by Ziguezon

* Climbed halfway up a mountain carrying a VERY long fire hose to help put out a forest fire caused by a lightning strike (it was a tree covered mountain).

Jasper National park? I did that very same thing in 1983

Originally Posted by Ziguezon

* Spontaneously moved to a new city 6 times for the heck of it (in four different Canadian provinces)... never once having a job waiting for me upon arrival. Two examples below:

* Moved to Quebec and learned to speak French so I could fit in (anyone who's ever tried something like this will probably tell you just how difficult it really is).

* Moved to Prince Edward Island and did nothing for a year and a half other than relax and enjoy the peace and beauty of the place while living on savings earned previously from working in the big city. Main goals during this time were: A) learn a few programming languages during the days, and B) try every single restaurant in Charlottetown during the evenings. (goal A was accomplished but not goal B).

It's a Canadian thing

Originally Posted by Ziguezon

* Went to Yellowknife, North West Territories to visit family and check out the midnight sun. We later decided to drive from Yellowknife to Edmonton but neglected to check the ferry schedule for crossing the Mackenzie river and arrived just after the last ferry had left. Three adults and a two year old child had to spend the night in a hot car in the remote northern Canadian wilderness. We couldn't put the windows down even a crack because of the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes and other assorted blood sucking critters waiting outside the car to attack us.

Well I am impressed, thats not a drive for the feint at heart, especially with children, but then again, yo u can always use them to distract the wildlife

Originally Posted by Ziguezon

* attended a Mobileread meetup!

Now I am jealous

[nohmi2]

: I am also jealous about going to a MobileRead get-together.

I have read through all of the posts and thought with some of them "Hey, I've done that".

1. Ride an elephant. (Thailand)

2. Ride a camel. (Israel)

3. Swam in the Dead Sea (Actually floated)

4. Spent a sunset on Masada. (Ditto, Santorini, Isle of Capri)

5. Stayed at Waldorf Astoria (New York) and Beverley Hilton (LA)

6. Started a business with very little, and was able to retire fifteen years later.

7. Had lovely children.

8. Disposed of a dead black mamba snake on the back porch in Rhodesia.

9. Taught ballroom and latin-american dancing.

10.Never been in debt, nor owned a credit card.

That's about it.

Cheers

Nohmi

[orlok]

Originally Posted by nohmi2

8. Disposed of a dead black mamba snake on the back porch in Rhodesia.

Hah! My baboon spider incident was in Rhodesia too, and the charging elephant