Ten Surprising Things...

[Steve Vernon]

I've seen a few entries listing "ten things I've done that you might not have", and "ten things I've done that you probably have done", so let me fling myself into the anthills of conformity and scuttle about with the rest of the herd.

TEN SURPISING THINGS I'VE DONE IN MY LIFE

1. Hitchhiked across Canada, in both directions, (but not simultaneously).

2. Ridden a camel and an elephant.

3. Fired a machine gun, a submachine gun, a pistol, and chucked hand grenades.

4. Jumped from a second floor ladies dorm, (breaking a very good pair of glasses in the process).

5. Stood nose to nose with a skunk, a porcupine, a black bear, a herd of mule deer, several buffalo and et' them afterwards, and stood close enough to a male grizzly to estimate the lenght of his whang-dang-doodle.

6. Dragged a dead black bear from the woods, (you don't know what dead weight really means until you've tried this stunt).

7. Worked as a nude life model for ten years.

8. Made a living as a fortune teller.

9. Picked in a forest of fiddleheads for a three day harvest - during which I chopped firewood for my breakfast - following which I rode home in the back end of a truck singing work songs with a family of migrant Nigerian field hands - they sang Nigerian work songs. Everytime they would run out of song one of them would lean over towards me and say "Sing", and I would roll into a Willy Nelson tune..

10. Hopped a freight.

11. Shaved my head.

All right, so I can't count.

What's your list look like?

[Poppaea]

1. Made a living runway modelling for 20! years
2. Played soccer with Bob Marley, worked out in the morning with Peter Tosh, sang in the shower with Frank Zappa
3. Played Backgammon with the European Champion and won 128,000 $, too bad he was broke and thought me to be an Arabian Princess
4. Learned horse back riding, shooting and driving car races
5. Got out of a bad cocaine habit all alone
6. Always enjoyed myself and had fun, no matter what I did
7. Leared to live a nomal life and to love it, too
8. Accepted I would love to live at home in Africa but am better off to live here (I am far too spoiled I guess *sigh*)
9. Kept allmost all of my friends until they died and have been keeping the living ones for 30 to 20 years now

[kennyc]

[John Carroll]

1. Walked through the desert and climbed a butte.
2. Cruised Hollywood Boulevard and met various weirdos.
3. Drove to Alaska and saw the Northern Lights.
4. Walked among the Redwoods and knew awe.
5. Lived on the streets and knew despair.
6. Married and discovered love . . . correction: Discovered love, then married.
7. Had kids and . . . OMG so many grey hairs!
8. Wrote a book. Yay!

It hasn't always been the most adventurous life, but I'm enjoying it.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by kennyc

amazing

[theducks]

Raced Sports cars (SCCA tracks)
Drove the Alaska Highway (Completed my 'Visited all 50 states' List)
Logged many hours on Hang Gliders
Drove on the wrong side of the road on my Honeymoon

[Bikeridr]

1 - Climbed Norway's highest mountain.
2 - Driven 10.000km in one week solely within Norway on motorcycle.
3 - Driven through 5 consecutive countries on motorcycle in one day.
4 - Been towed on skis behind a snowmobile in 150km/h.
5 - Skied downhill in 120km/h according to my GPSr.
6 - Crossed the Equator over 200 times.
7- Been north of N80 degrees.
8- Been south of S50 degrees.
9 - "Cuddled" a wild penguin.
10 - Been close enough to feel the smell and breath of a wild polar bear.

That's my list. Actually I'm quite proud of it.

[Poppaea]

These I like best so far, am envious of some but not all but do feel great respect for all of you!

Originally Posted by Steve Vernon

2. Ridden a camel and an elephant.

5. Stood nose to nose with a skunk, a porcupine, a black bear, a herd of mule deer, several buffalo and et' them afterwards, and stood close enough to a male grizzly to estimate the lenght of his whang-dang-doodle.

8. Made a living as a fortune teller.

Originally Posted by John Carroll

5. Lived on the streets and knew despair.
6. Married and discovered love . . . correction: Discovered love, then married.
8. Wrote a book. Yay!

Originally Posted by theducks

Raced Sports cars (SCCA tracks)
Drove on the wrong side of the road on my Honeymoon

Originally Posted by Bikeridr

9 - "Cuddled" a wild penguin.
10 - Been close enough to feel the smell and breath of a wild polar bear.

Some of the other entries I do share. The bald head, deserts and camel riding, rode a racing camel owned by the Sultan of Oman. His stables are unbelivable awesome!

Once I lay face down in the tent of an bedouin sheikh, pleading to let me live with them for a while. He refused, told me I'd be a hazard to his people not knowing their way to surrender in the desert.

Stood in the midsts of a running hoard of at least 200 wild boars with 5 dogs without their leashes and thought it would be the last of me. Best is: This kind of thing can happen to you in Berlin!!!

You know what? All the adventures we do not live ourselves, like I doubt I'll ever see Alaska, we can live in our books.

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

These I like best so far, am envious of some but not all but do feel great respect for all of you!









Some of the other entries I do share. The bald head, deserts and camel riding, rode a racing camel owned by the Sultan of Oman. His stables are unbelivable awesome!

Once I lay face down in the tent of an bedouin sheikh, pleading to let me live with them for a while. He refused, told me I'd be a hazard to his people not knowing their way to surrender in the desert.

Stood in the midsts of a running hoard of at least 200 wild boars with 5 dogs without their leashes and thought it would be the last of me. Best is: This kind of thing can happen to you in Berlin!!!

You know what? All the adventures we do not live ourselves, like I doubt I'll ever see Alaska, we can live in our books.

Poppaea,

I think that what you have achieved is remarkable (as I have privately told

you).

The life that I have lived is no-where as adventurous, but I will say that it's

been very interesting!

Cheers to all.

[montsnmags]

1. Ate an entire box of Fruit Loops in one sitting
2. Ate an entire box of Cocoa Pops in one sitting
3. Haven't chewed my fingernails since 25 May 2007
4. Have just taken 20 years to get to the "normal" weight I was turning an adult 22 years ago
5. Once stole a single serve of jelly crystals from a football clubhouse
6. Stayed up all night to finish a good book
7. Broke my arm at 8yo falling off the monkey-bars
8. Broke my arm at 12yo falling off my BMX
9. Worked for two days sleepless upgrading a Finance company's operating system
10. Bought the Encyclopedia Britannica from a door-knocker salesperson.

Women want me, men want to be me.

Cheers,
Marc "Just call me Indiana Jones" Lawrence

[kennyc]

That's more my style Marc!

Though I must say I've never broken a bone...

[Billi]

Originally Posted by kennyc

+1

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

1. Ate an entire box of Fruit Loops in one sitting
2. Ate an entire box of Cocoa Pops in one sitting
   ...
3. Have just taken 20 years to get to the "normal" weight I was turning an adult 22 years ago

Not the same sitting I hope. Although that might explain the fourth item in your list.

[dsvick]

In no particular order....

• Watched both of my kids being born - one by C-section (that was an education).
• Been swimming in the saltiest body of water in the world.
• Signed for over $100,000 in military equipment and ordnance that we then proceeded to blow up in a single day.
• Been above the arctic circle twice.
• Spent time at a military camp one two separate occasions less than 6 months apart and the temperature difference was over 100 degrees (gotta love the US Midwest).
• Have snorkeled in the gulf of Aden
• Adopted, or rather been adopted by, a stray dog in Kuwait.
• Graduated from the Marine Corps Assault climbers school
• Broke my humerus in half intercepting a pass in football - then rebroke it two months later playing hockey.
• Sat up at 3 in the morning and had a cup of coffee in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the peace and quiet in the middle of winter.

Honorable mention would be getting chased for a couple of hundred meters by a camel spider in the middle of the night in Djibouti Africa. I was pretty tempted to shoot it.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by dsvick

Honorable mention would be getting chased for a couple of hundred meters by a camel spider in the middle of the night in Djibouti Africa. I was pretty tempted to shoot it.

I'd have had a heart attack and that would've been the end of the story