[killJOY]

I had delusions of being a writer, but ten years of solitary confinement with no pay cured me of it.

I'm now a musician and like it so much better.

Now, I can't even read fiction, as all I get from it is the stench of vanity.

[PenultimateManStanding]

San Diego's first rain for this year arrived today. Tonight we have dramatic lightning displays in the distant north county while here overhead the moon comes through a lighter cloud cover. The air is warm and the weather is coming from the east. You're jaded on literature Killjoy but at least you enjoy your music. I always keep up with some fiction now and then. Tom Wolfe has a good new read. I haven't done much reading until recently. because of eye trouble, but that's past. Now I read.

[NEOPO]

1970
Father/sperm donor age 17.
Mother/sperm incubator age 13.
Father goes off to war while mother is escorted out of state for a secret abortion to be performed by a military nurse.
The things christian evangelical ministy families will do to protect their image I tell ya!!!

Well apparently the bitch wasnt too good at her craft....
Fraternal twins!!! eternal laughter

So some months later when the kicking could no longer be confused with "stomach Gas" the realization and confirmation of my existence was confirmed!!

So hows that for close???

Car wreck
1984
I was 13 - we were running about 120mph and headed into a downtown 25mph zone yet why I still do not know.
Not sure what we were thinking if we were thinking.
The drinking and fast driving had gone on for hours that night, the muffler fell of making the v8 engine roar exceptionally well, the acdc or motley crue was raging on the radio "shout at the devil" or maybe" highway to hell".

I was sitting in the front seat with luck.
A 13 year old juvenile delinquent doesnt get to ride shotgun in a car with 3 elder statesmen just because.

It was a 2 door - I was getting sick - thus the logic to allow me to sit in the front seat made sense and there I was on the last bit of a long journey.

We were about to commit an act of burglary when I became sick so maybe things could have been worse then how it all turned out.

120 mph or so - I remember looking over at the speedometer thinking "godamn we are flying!" - a slight bump in the road - head to dash and lights out for neopo - a large steel utility pole that didnt budge any nor took a dent - alittle paint was all that scarred the pole and the paint is there to this day - the car split into two pieces with the front flailing away while the rear stuck around the pole impaling one friend.
My best friend at the time was killed quickly the doctors told me later.
I awoke on the road maybe a minute or two later - head full of glass - I got up and saw my dead or dying friend - by this time he had been moved and positioned propped slightly up against the part of the pole that the rest of the car wasnt surrounding by some people who probably should not have moved him but hey they were trying to help I suppose.
I swear he was looking/gazing right at me it seemed.

He was the elder and should have been sitting in the front seat.
He was sitting in the seat that I had sat in for 90% of this mid-winter drunkin joy ride and always sat in otherwise and thats just the way it was when your my age hanging with people 4-5 years your senior.

I suffered so little from the wreck (concussion) that I had to tell the paramedics that I was actually in this wreck.
What a mistake that seemed to be at the time - I should have just went home I thought.

The cops, they didnt leave me alone - the dreams/NIGHTMARES, they didnt leave me alone - I had to tell the truth and that is what I eventually did - a price was paid for this as well.
I only see my friends smiling face now - in my dreams.

I have come to ride with drunks and regret it on more then one occassion after this yet I no longer take stupid chances with my life and others lives by driving drunk/INTOXICATED or even by allowing my friends/family to do so.
Sorry my friend but I HAVE LOST YOUR KEYS!!!
NP WE HAVE AN EXTRA BED - SURE SURE ITS NP

Acts like this represent one huge difference between people like Specop and myself.
I learn, I adapt and stopped doing real stupid shit long ago.
Some folks want to try and bring a sense of macho to all this death and dying.
Apparently life means more to some then others.
At the end of the day when either you or someone you love is gone - macho means nothing.....

[fossil_fuel]

[PenultimateManStanding]

Whe I was a kid I was riding a pony down a hard street when it suddenly bucked me over its head and stepped on me as it cantered off.

[fossil_fuel]

not exactly a near death experience, but i had a bad experience once involving llamas:

i was about 4 years old and was touring a llama farm. There was a llama pen on my left and i was holding an ice cream cone in my right hand. this jerk of a llama walks up to the side of the pen, stretches one foot out over the fence, puts it on my head, uses my head as a stepstool to boost itself up, and reaches over and grabs my ice cream with it's mouth. that HURT, the thing weighed hundreds of pounds, much of which was supported for a couple seconds on my head and neck before i moved away.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Damn those llamas anyway! They obviously don't give a rat's ass about any four year old kid with an ice cream cone.

[UIUCstudent01]

Fell off a tree branch overhanging a small 1-2ft stream... (The height was about 1 and 1/2 stories tall...)

I landed in such a way where my right arm and leg were way too painful to use to bring myself above the water.... I also didn't catch my breath when I fell...

So I thrashed around in the water almost drowning in about 2ft of water before I used my left arm and leg to get my head above water.



I didn't break anything... I had pretty bad bruises, but my body was usually covered in bruises from such experiences in my youth... (Ah, the good old days... )

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'W')he I was a kid I was riding a pony down a hard street when it suddenly bucked me over its head and stepped on me as it cantered off.

[Roy]

There are many. I am damn lucky to be alive I figure.

Hit a van head on on my bicycle at age 6 in my street as I was demonstrating to my mother that I could ride with no hands, wondering why she was screaming as I collided said van. Luckily the driver saw me and had stopped when we hit.

age 8, was helping some older kids in the neighborhood with their dune buggy. They wanted to push start it. I helped it get rolling downhill, jumped up on the running board as we were rolling. Untied shoelace got caught under the rear tire and I got pulled down into the street, right under the back tire. The buggy rolled right over my back, missing my head and neck by inches, right in front of my house.

Age 10, was just learning to ride motorcycles and riding on the sidewalk WFO when suddenly was forced to make a decision about avoiding a mailbox. I paniced and slammed the mailbox at about 50. Fortunately I had a brand new full face helmet that took the brunt of the blow as my face hit the street. HARD.

Age 17., After helping a friend get his highly modified Baja Bug running, we decided to go off roading. He drove. As we were climbing a small mountain, the throttle stuck wide open. This bug was pretty quick. We were heading for a 200' drop off. He was panicking. Fortunately, I had the sense or luck to turn off the ignition and yank the steering wheel to the left just in time. Needless to say, I never went offroading with that dumbass again.,

Age 17, some friends and I decided to pay a visit to our acquaintance that made meth. We would usually pass by there for a free bump. That night, unbeknownst to us, there were some unsavory characters there. As we took our usual route to his back door, out of the bushes jumped a crazed, tweeked out biker with a sawed off 12 gauge! Since I was walking in front, that thing was pointed right at my chest. I guess he thought we were cops. Luckily the chemist heard the commotion and came out to call off the dog just as the tweeker was about to dispose of us. That ended my career as a meth head forturnately!

Age 18. Hauling ass down a two lane moutain road in a 69 Camaro. I decided to pass a slower car on a double yellow. Just as I pulled into the oncoming traffic lane, I notice a sport bike hauling ass right toward me. I inched to the left (cliff on that side) and the bike went right between the two cars. I nearly pissed myself.

Age 18., Riding a dirt bike=Head on collision with a Big Red three wheeler, both of us going about 50 mph. Friend had a concussion. I just hurt.

Age 19, riding a dirtbike again, this time having consumed three beers just prior. WFO into a pine tree. Mild concussion sprained kneed, wrist, and a big bruise on my face from my goggles taking the tree to the face.

Age 19. Head on collision with my 67 Camaro into a Chevette, Luckily it was a Chevette and not a Semi. No injuries for me but the ohter driver was injured pretty bad.

Age 28. Dropped a single action.22 revolver accidently. It went off and shot me through the lower leg. It just happened to land on the hammer which caused it to go off. My buddy was standing 3 feet away. It could have hit him as well. Either of us could have easily beeen killed had the bullet taken a different trajectory. Fortunately I have two little scars on my left leg, the entrance and exit wound. OUCH, getting shot hurts.

There are many more. I was a risk taking dumb ass as a kid.

I just hope my kids inherited their mother's sensible genes rather than my wild ass risk taker genes. they're too young to know for sure, but the youngest is exhibiting some familiar traits. And she's only 3. I hope I can be a moderating influence on her, rather my parents' technique of just ignoring me and leaving me to my own devices.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', 'D')ropped a single action.22 revolver accidently.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '
')Sounds like some Latino women I know....

[OilsNotWell]

It would be interesting to see a thread on 'near-life' experiences too..as in, those who've had brushes with death, myself included, know how close it is, 'as easy as shitting,' so it was said..

Knowing that, how many have truly had a moment of feeling alive, an exhileration of freshness and wonder of the very breath you breathe, you sky above you, the softness of another's hand, the meaning of a father's words, the legacy you are leaving for your children...

Everything else will just fade away.

[Daculling]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilsNotWell', 'I')t would be interesting to see a thread on 'near-life' experiences too..as in, those who've had brushes with death, myself included, know how close it is, 'as easy as shitting,' so it was said..

Knowing that, how many have truly had a moment of feeling alive, an exhileration of freshness and wonder of the very breath you breathe, you sky above you, the softness of another's hand, the meaning of a father's words, the legacy you are leaving for your children...

Everything else will just fade away.

[cmlek]

Age 5: combination strep throat and some other bronchial infection land my ass in an oxygen tent in the emergency room for 3 weeks. Didn't find out until years later that mom and dad and my doctor were terrified I was going to die.
Age 8-16: angst and difficult situations cause me to seek out the reaper. Only once did I come very close to success.
Age 19- worse than death: While working for an engineering company in the Middle East for a summer, at an unguarded moment I am kidnapped by some people with very definite ideas about the uses and cash value of a blond woman. Shockingly enough, managed to fight my way out and get to Omani cops and eventually the American embassy. (Lest that sound too machismo, the "fight" entailed kicking a guy in the nads when he wasn't expecting it and running like hell out of the building and out into the street, then repeating the only 2 omani words I knew (which were the name of the company and the town it was in) to anyone who'd listen.)
Age 25: (this past summer) biking to work, SUV is speeding with cell phone and rap music I can hear a block away sideswipes me and my bike. I am spun and flung on the ground as the SUV tire spins by about an inch and a half from my nose.

And lots of tempting death through my own wildness/stupidity, but that doesn't really count.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

I forgot when I was 16, I flipped and endo'd a 3/4 ton pickup truck on freshly gravelled road. wound up upside down in the ditch with a 4x4 post wrapped in barbedwire sticking in my window.

And I'm not including anything from 8 years as a prison guard in a maximum security mens prison either.