Then I got into the Emergency Services and got to be around a bunch of dead people.......but one call in particular stands out.
You boys always have one that stands out don't ya.
For a guy I know it was a suicide call, the guy had taken a circular saw taped the switch on, secured it in a vise upside down and put his neck into it. That man wanted to make a statement!
Originally Posted by Jim_Conrad
I will be 35 next month......and using my rudimentary math skills.....puts me at half way to 70.
That was a bummer!
yer lookin' at it all wrong Big Jim, 35 is only a 1/4 of the way to 140!
Paul
"I'd rather see a sermon than hear a sermon".... D.A.D.
Trump Won!, Sandmann Won!, Rittenhouse Won!, Suck it Liberal Fuuktards.
1978 in Tehran , when I saw the helicopters started running and assumed they wouldn't fire at USSR embassy walls , I was wrong. didn't get hit , but I knew I have to get out of this shiat hole .
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
Spent my 50th birthday standing by my daughters casket, month later I was in the ER with a heart attack. Figured out from there what really mattered in life and what sure as hell didn't.
There's 2 dates they carve on your tombstone. Everyone knows what they mean. What's more important is time that is known as the little dash inbetween.
Last week.....I watched my 83 year old father Die a slow death....He flat lined 10 times starting Sunday the 7th.....He died on Thursday the 11th...Glad I got to talk to him before he passed..I could not understand most of what he said.... He was trying to tell me where something was at....I pretended to understand and He Grinned real big....I sure wish I knew what he was trying to tell me!!!!!!!
“When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
i know i well die someday, i just don't worry about it and try to enjoy my life.
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
Stepping of off a hole on my favorite salmon river. Exhaling my last breath while continuing to sink and be swept downstream. Looking death in the eye.
A last moment boulder that I kicked off of saved my life.
Got smashed up pretty good at work a few years back, should have been much worse. At that time I realized what a bind my young wife and 1st son would have been in had it been worse.....
well i guess when i fell out the back eyeballs truck when he moved while i was still standing up and i only broke and dislocated my collar bone, then i drove 700 miles home and almost ran off the rd but hit a guard rail, but i took in stride because i wasn't dead. could of broke my neck i guess.
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
Sitting on a porta-crapper in Iraq...I hear a swiiiisssshhhhhBANG!. The porta-crapper shakes and is peppered with gravel and shrapnel...no harm to me, and that chit wasn't a difficult one!! That was an eye-opener.
I first felt it at 20. Had a lard-ass "deputy sheriff" point his revolver at my chest for what he thought was a minor game law violation (it wasn't) while I was standing there holding a shotgun in my hands. Pucker factor was sky high.
Now I feel it all the time. I've got four older brothers, oldest is 74 with cancer that's metastasized. They'll all probably pass before I do. So I think more about that than my own mortality. I'll most likely be the last one standing.
It was not a single instance but a cumulation of a few over several months.
First was answering a call for a baby not breathing 3 days after getting my EMT certification. Was the first one on the scene and realized that there was nothing that could be done and called it. I was 21 years old.
Second was less than two months later. Call behind my house for an overdose. It was a guy I knew very well only 2 years older than me. We worked him to the hospital to no success. Turned out to be an embolism that could hit anyone at any time.
Next, I was beaten to an inch of my life responding to a bar fight. I knew everyone there to some extent and thought there would be no problem. Alcohol can change people's attitudes and I really didn't know them all as well as I thought. Thankfully, one guy thought I was too young to die and stopped the rest before I was hurt too bad. Only spent three days in the hospital and 5 off work.
Last, I lost my wife in an accident. Panel truck went through an intersection and broadsided her. Luckily, it was not in my jurisdiction as I was working.
By the time I turned 23 I realized no one lives forever and that I had 2 roads to code from. I almost screwed up there.
17 came up with a tumor in the side of my face and had to have it removed. Took 2 years to mostly heal, now 50 plus years later there are still side effects. About 5 years ago a Urologist decided I had to have cancer and he could do lots of surgery; I got depressed, decided to let it take it's course rather than spending all my wife's inheritance on a miserable existence for a year, and also got a second opinion. He was wrong. SOB
I first felt it at 20. Had a lard-ass "deputy sheriff" point his revolver at my chest for what he thought was a minor game law violation (it wasn't) while I was standing there holding a shotgun in my hands. Pucker factor was sky high.
Now I feel it all the time. I've got four older brothers, oldest is 74 with cancer that's metastasized. They'll all probably pass before I do. So I think more about that than my own mortality. I'll most likely be the last one standing.
You never know. Barry Gibb is the oldest BeeGee and the only one left. His brothers died at 30, 53, and 62.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
I first felt it at 20. Had a lard-ass "deputy sheriff" point his revolver at my chest for what he thought was a minor game law violation (it wasn't) while I was standing there holding a shotgun in my hands. Pucker factor was sky high.
Now I feel it all the time. I've got four older brothers, oldest is 74 with cancer that's metastasized. They'll all probably pass before I do. So I think more about that than my own mortality. I'll most likely be the last one standing.
You never know. Barry Gibb is the oldest BeeGee and the only one left. His brothers died at 30, 53, and 62.
I've worked my entire life in some form of Emergency services and ER nursing, now a flight nurse. Seen way too many people with life altering and life ending injuries and illness. While I am responsible enough to plan for the future, I live for today. Have a soon to be 4 month old son I had late in life ( I'm 44) so my "future" planning has changed a little, but if I still consider today the most important day of my life. I hope some day my son has so damn many guns he doesn't have a clue what to do with them, and each one has a memory in his mind of something he and I did together with it.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, used up, worn out, bottle of Jim Beam in one hand and a .45 in the other, loudly proclaiming WOW-- What a Ride!"
Nov. 1966 south of Dak To, RVN the trooper on line in front of me was shot in the head. 4 days later on a Co. patrol 79 casualties out of 116 reporting in less than 3 hours, I realized that I may not live forever. Life has been a little boring since those days.
mike r
Don't wish it were easier Wish you were better
Stab them in the taint, you can't put a tourniquet on that. Craig Douglas ECQC
I was 42 when I got diagnosed with cancer. It felt like a life changing experience for a few years. But I had to have health insurance to get through it, so a couple of months later I was back at work and after a while it became business as usual again. Now it's just a distant memory that I rarely ever feel the need to revisit.
I was 6' tall and weighed about 155 there for a while. First day back at work I checked in with the Human Resources guy to get everything going and he says, "Looks like you've taken off a few pounds".
I just said, "Yeah, but I can't recommend this diet".
Probably when I lost my brother in a car accident. And then again this past October when I took my wife into the ER for stomach flu and found out she had a grapefruit size tumor in her abdomen. Every day a gift.
I don’t drink much any more. All three of my younger brothers suffered from alchoholism. One died of liver cancer and the other two took the .30 caliber cure. There’s something about cleaning up a bloody mess that makes you wonder.... I thought about how the end will come for me; sure as hell not that way. I miss my brothers every day, especially when I’m deer hunting. But life is for the living, right?
"Keep your mouth shut, work hard. Life is tough. Work through it.” -- Stetson Bennett, Quarterback, Georgia Bulldogs
After falling thru while Ice fishing I was unable to get out so I swam under the Ice like a Damm muskrat to the bank and wiggle out. I swear my dick was bigger before that day.
Tan Son Nhut, 1966, guy I was working with walked into a C-123 prop one night. Hell of a thing to see, got me to thinking about how quick things can go South.
Fireball2; Good evening to you sir, please accept condolences on the loss of your uncle and thanks for the interesting thread you've been the catalyst for.
Speaking personally my first was the evening of Feb 01st 1978. It was -40 that Saskatchewan night and I was working in an unheated garage under my car when it fell on me resulting in a myriad of injuries including a crushed 11th and 12th vertebrae, some major head trauma and crushed internal organs. Something - I believe it was angels but I didn't see anything, but something lifted that car off of me. I'd crawled about 10 feet away and was trying to get to a phone when family found me roughly 20 minutes later. They loaded me into the back of the neighbors station wagon and took me into the nearest hospital where the top surgeon suggested my family gather as I wasn't going to make it.
Anyway I didn't cross over, but came away with a vastly different outlook on life.
Four years later when we were 19 my best buddy Scott rolled his car out of Lloydminster, AB and didn't make it. It took me a long time to reason why it was his day and it wasn't mine.
There were lots more similar moments in my life along the way that I've survived and have taught me whats important and what is less so - for me anyway.
Thanks for the thread again and for letting me share/ruminate on life, I appreciate it.
When I was 13, I started helping my dad in the mortuary prep room. Helped him remove bodies from hospital beds, cars, airplanes and even a combine or two. Never could get into drinking and driving, even as a kid. In fact, it made me over-protective of my own kids.
Fireball2; Good evening to you sir, please accept condolences on the loss of your uncle and thanks for the interesting thread you've been the catalyst for.
Speaking personally my first was the evening of Feb 01st 1978. It was -40 that Saskatchewan night and I was working in an unheated garage under my car when it fell on me resulting in a myriad of injuries including a crushed 11th and 12th vertebrae, some major head trauma and crushed internal organs. Something - I believe it was angels but I didn't see anything, but something lifted that car off of me. I'd crawled about 10 feet away and was trying to get to a phone when family found me roughly 20 minutes later. They loaded me into the back of the neighbors station wagon and took me into the nearest hospital where the top surgeon suggested my family gather as I wasn't going to make it.
Anyway I didn't cross over, but came away with a vastly different outlook on life.
Four years later when we were 19 my best buddy Scott rolled his car out of Lloydminster, AB and didn't make it. It took me a long time to reason why it was his day and it wasn't mine.
There were lots more similar moments in my life along the way that I've survived and have taught me whats important and what is less so - for me anyway.
Thanks for the thread again and for letting me share/ruminate on life, I appreciate it.
All the best to you and yours this year Fireball.
Dwayne
Dwayne, always nice to hear from you and thank you for the thoughts. My uncle wasn't well liked and yet we were surprised how his death affected us.
You realize there is no other explanation for the car being lifted off of you than divine intervention, within the context of your relaying the story how it happened? No one was around? Yet you got out from under a car that had crushed you. And people that have no belief don't know how this can happen! Thank you for telling about that. I know of a man that died that way, and there were no angels there that day, or at least were not allowed to save him.
No one understands the "Why me and not him" question better than someone that has survived while another hasn't. Bless you friend.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
When my wife died in 1995 on my birthday no less, and I was 'it' for our two young kids.
I was reminded of it in 2011 while hiking very dangerous mountain goat country. I climbed down and shot a lesser goat in safer country. As a younger man I would have never done that.
I don’t drink much any more. All three of my younger brothers suffered from alchoholism. One died of liver cancer and the other two took the .30 caliber cure. There’s something about cleaning up a bloody mess that makes you wonder.... I thought about how the end will come for me; sure as hell not that way. I miss my brothers every day, especially when I’m deer hunting. But life is for the living, right?
Wow....no words, other than alcohol can be a real scourge. I know many people enslaved as I write this.
Spent my 50th birthday standing by my daughters casket, month later I was in the ER with a heart attack. Figured out from there what really mattered in life and what sure as hell didn't.
Razz - so sorry for your loss. I would guess the emotional pain with the death of one's own child is beyond simple description.
I am thankful to have never experienced it and pray i never do. I believe surviving that takes a greater strength than what i can imagine.
When i was diagnosed with kidney cancer ,just before Christmas 1999,i had two kids under 5 years old and the Dr. Said come back in for the surgery jan. 2nd.so you can spend Christmas with your familyi ll do my best to save you ,but,i won t no how far its spread until i get you opened up.was a muted holiday season and i thank God every day they caught it before it spread to far.i still lost the kidney,two ribs,part of my diaphragm,8" of intestine. i weighed 127 lbs. When i got out of the cancer ward and was a shaking mess for weeks.that kinda shook me up alright.
I have a good friend that has lost her husband and three children. One to a car accident and the others to cancer or liver failure. She has a very strong faith in God which I know helps immensely but I can't even begin to understand how much pain she must feel at times. Makes me more aware of my mortality, no doubt.
Last edited by 340boy; 01/16/18.
"For joy of knowing what may not be known we take the golden road to Samarkand." James Elroy Flecker
Mine came in Beirut too, just a little later. In January 1984 I got peppered with shrapnel fragments that resulted in being evacuated to Landstuhl Army Hospital in Germany via the USS Guam and RAF Akrotiri(?) on Cyprus.
Many years ago a hunting buddy and I went on this farmer's land to hunt ducks and geese. Long story short, the farmer came roaring up in a pickup truck and bailed out with his shotgun yelling and cursing at us for trespassing. We said we didn't want trouble and would leave right then. He said we could leave after we dropped our gear and guns. We told him FU - He raised his shotgun and we raised our shotguns. Mexican Standoff. Continued that way for a while with everyone yelling and cursing and pointing shotguns. Finally we backed up and he backed up and we got the hell out of there.
Later realized that someone could have easily gotten killed that day. Ruined hunting for me for a long time. Glad nobody pulled the trigger that day.
Sitting by the hospital bed when the Dr came in and told us that my fiancé was being diagnosed with MS. I knew nothing about the disease but I sat there and felt our whole future melting away from us, all the things we’d planned that we wouldn’t be able to do, the uncertainty of whether or not we’d be able to have kids, the knowledge that we would always have medical bills. I was 25 and it really changed me, it changed both of us, things will never be the same. We have good days and bad but we just get up each day, put on our boots and fight.
I was ~8 or 9, and after I was depressed for about 2 weeks. Now 20 years later, I'm a drunk who's too smart to keep a job, and an a$$h0le free of charge.
"Social order at the expense of Liberty is hardly a bargain” de Sade "He who'll not reason is a Bigot, he who cannot is a Fool, and he who dares not is a Slave."SirWilliamDrummond
Sitting by the hospital bed when the Dr came in and told us that my fiancé was being diagnosed with MS. I knew nothing about the disease but I sat there and felt our whole future melting away from us, all the things we’d planned that we wouldn’t be able to do, the uncertainty of whether or not we’d be able to have kids, the knowledge that we would always have medical bills. I was 25 and it really changed me, it changed both of us, things will never be the same. We have good days and bad but we just get up each day, put on our boots and fight.
Sitting by the hospital bed when the Dr came in and told us that my fiancé was being diagnosed with MS. I knew nothing about the disease but I sat there and felt our whole future melting away from us, all the things we’d planned that we wouldn’t be able to do, the uncertainty of whether or not we’d be able to have kids, the knowledge that we would always have medical bills. I was 25 and it really changed me, it changed both of us, things will never be the same. We have good days and bad but we just get up each day, put on our boots and fight.
When I had open heart surgery 5 years ago and died on the table twice.Saw the light at the end of the tunnel twice,second time I got real close and heard a voice say not now and woke up 3 days later.DEFINITELY CHANGED MY WHOLE OUT LOOK ON LIFE.I NO LONGER TAKE THE LITTLE THINGS FOR GRANTED.
When I had open heart surgery 5 years ago and died on the table twice.Saw the light at the end of the tunnel twice,second time I got real close and heard a voice say not now and woke up 3 days later.DEFINITELY CHANGED MY WHOLE OUT LOOK ON LIFE.I NO LONGER TAKE THE LITTLE THINGS FOR GRANTED.
Despite people dying and all my own NDEs, mortality has never bothered me, so likely never will, what struck me was the realisation just how short ones actual time here is/how fast it all goes ..and ones irrelevance. Awareness, attitude and wisdom are what matter to me, hence I don't take ones temporal existence too seriously and have the mindset of looking forward to the eventual transition with humble acceptance.
-Bulletproof and Waterproof don't mean Idiotproof.
I've had a few close calls growing up, and lost some loved ones along the way.
But for me, that moment was a few years back. My wife and I just got the last kid out of the house and into college. We were ready to kick some azz, get ahead on retirement, and enjoy life.
Then, she had numbness in her extremities that would not go away.
The neurologist did some test told us it didn't look good, and ordered an MRI. In his professional, experienced opinion, it was no doubt, MS.
We lived in despair for a MONTH, getting the MRI done, and waiting for the next appointment. As we finally sat there in his office expecting the worst, we found out it was spinal stenosis. Still a serious diagnosis, but cured by cervical fusion surgery 3 weeks later, and now my wife is back to 100%.
I remember 3 things from that experience:
1) Someone in the MRI lab knew within an hour of that scan that my wife didn't have MS, and it took us 4 weeks to get that news, and 2) That was the first real health threat to OUR partnership. It made me realize how special our love is, and made me even more fiercely protective of my wife, which I did not think was possible. 3) Our time is limited... a bad diagnosis, traffic accident, brain bleed, freak incident, or act of God can end it all any time.
.
Last edited by duck911; 01/16/18.
The DIPCHIT ADD, after a morning of drinking:
You despair, repeatedly, constantly! daily basis? A despair ninny. Sack up, despire ninny.
[quote=Starman what struck me was the realisation just how short ones actual time here is/how fast it all goes.[/quote]
Can you believe it? One day your uncles are throwing you on their shoulders or giving you a ride in their Corvette, and in the blink of an eye they're in their 70's or 80's.
Last edited by Fireball2; 01/16/18.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
In the year 1957 I was stationed at the Naval Air Station at Sangley Point in the Philippines. I was hospitalized with a severe case of hepatitus as were others. While there a number of us who were hospitalized also contacted a severe case of asian flu. When I was originally hospitalized I weighed about 165 lbs. I was In a coma for a little over 2 1/2 days, with a fever exceeding 104 degrees. I heard the head nurse saying to the doctor on duty that she had doubts that I would make it. I lifted myself up and said "bullsh!t". They both talked to me and said that my response was a good sign and to keep fighting. When discharged from the hospital I weighed 138 lbs. Was discharged from active duty soon after on a medical.
I've led a pretty good life. And am thankful for a good life since then. With luck I'll have my 82nd birthday in may of this year
I think when I was told I had Hodgkin's disease at 16. That was the first time, I basically had a good sulk alone for about an hour and then started making plans for the treatment. That wrecked my parents' marriage as my Mom dived into the bottle and never climbed back out. Don't know how many times I've come CLOSE to dying since then, some of it was voluntary, some was morons at work, some my own stupidity (thank God for ironworker safety harnesses) and some, random bolts of bad juju. But it's only now sinking in as my parents and older other relatives, and now some lifelong, dear friends, are starting to clock out. You know, the kind of people who you share your favorite secrets with. I'm learning that people DON'T face their mortality, and they leave one hell of a mess behind. I won't do that. I'll come screaming in sideways and smoking, then climb out and hand over the keys -- THEN tip over.
Up hills slow, Down hills fast Tonnage first and Safety last.
When I had open heart surgery 5 years ago and died on the table twice.Saw the light at the end of the tunnel twice,second time I got real close and heard a voice say not now and woke up 3 days later.DEFINITELY CHANGED MY WHOLE OUT LOOK ON LIFE.I NO LONGER TAKE THE LITTLE THINGS FOR GRANTED.
Good lord....
Unbelievable.
not to me, happened same way when i was 15 after a motorcycle accident that should have killed me.
I was doing a shamanic vision quest back in 1986. The place I picked to do it was the woods I'd bowhunted the previous 2 seasons. I knew the ground, but I guess I didn't know it THAT well. The lights went out. I came to in what appeared to be a shallow grave with dirt coming in over the top of me.
There was a breeding pair of bald eagles on the property that used to follow me everywhere. One or the other would always be circling me in my stand. When I looked up to the sky, there was one of the eagles. The next thing I knew, I was flying with the eagle, looking over the farm. Just down the road, there was had been a fatal auto accident. The Highway Patrol was at the scene. After I landed, I showed back up in camp with a wild story. Sure enough, although you could not see it from the farm, there was indeed a fatal auto accident just down the road a half mile or so.
The shallow grave turned out to be a small strip pit that the local farmers had used to mine coal. I'd been walking past it while hunting and never seen it. It was enough like a grave to really shake me up.
To this day, hawks and eagles seem to have an affinity for me. In town, there is always a pair of red-shouldered hawks close to the house. At the farm, I usually have a hawk following me around the property.
When my daugher’s boyfriend put 45 to his head and ended his young life and really messed up her life. We had counselors in our home that night and they told us to lock up every firearm and all ammo in our house. They said teenage suicide was very contagious. It was difficult times for our family. My daughter was 15 when this occurred and now at 32 she has a family and is a case worker at a VA hospital. Life’s unexpected calamities can give you enough pause to assess what is really important in our days left in life.
How do you go about re-ordering your life when you come to the place where your priorities change? One thing at a time I guess. I can imagine as you deal with all the old stuff then you realize how far off track you were and how much time was lost.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
Got out of the Navy in Apr 1972. For the next 45 years 5 of my shipmates and I got together to hunt and fish on an almost yearly basis. Sometimes twice a year. May of 2017 was our most recent reunion. Then in July we lost one or our own when Steve passed.
About 5 years ago a Urologist decided I had to have cancer and he could do lots of surgery; I got depressed, decided to let it take it's course rather than spending all my wife's inheritance on a miserable existence for a year, and also got a second opinion. He was wrong. SOB
Same thing happened to me. I wasn't going to let nature take its course but guy went into me twice looking for it, couldn't find it and then determined the two tests he gave me were false positives.
that messed with my head and I haven't been the same since.
The second opinion guy was probably the reason I didn't have a breakdown.
Last edited by KFWA; 01/17/18.
have you paid your dues, can you moan the blues, can you bend them guitar strings
See that little blue square under my name? I really knew I could die when the surface to air missile...missed.
Next month I wave bye-bye to age 70. I've lived in this house about twice as long as I have left, probably. When it comes, it comes. The good thing is that I won't know that it happened.
Got an unexpected deep whiff of carbon tet -- from cotton ball in jar used for butterfly and insect /"bug" collecting. Wondered if I was done for. Age 10? Dreamed a few years later I was to be lethally injected if I wouldn't deny my faith. Distinctly remember that I chose Jesus first above all. Never worried about it since. (However, pain is a whole 'nother matter. LOL)
As a late teen, doing 115 mph on a friends old 70's something Yamaha street bike wearing only swimming trunks and a pair of tennis shoes. A cross wind or something picked the bike up and turned it basically sideways in the air on the hi-way. Somehow it came back down on its wheels and the rest was up to me to try and gain control of the handle bars that were whipping back and forth. It took me a long time to quit shaking from that one and taught me a very valuable lesson in how not to be a complete idiot.
The deer hunter does not notice the mountains
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" - Isoroku Yamamoto
There sure are a lot of America haters that want to live here...
Half way down between the ground and the roof I just fell off three years ago.
How the heck are you doing B?
Coworker just fell off a ladder...shattered both heels....
I was ticked that I didn't get style points for my landing and still am.
A great surgeon got me back 30% use of my left arm. I pay the price in Ibuprofen. There are a bunch of places here and there that "remember" the fall, but I can still walk and shoot behind the quail. .
Hunt with Class and Classics
Religion: A founder of The Church of Spray and Pray
Acquit v. t. To render a judgment in a murder case in San Francisco... EQUAL, adj. As bad as something else. Ambrose Bierce “The Devil's Dictionary”
November 5, 1966. I fell from a deer stand and broke my back in two places. I had to walk a half mile to the car. I'm so glad l could walk out. If not, that would have been the end.
Worked with a cool dude, for about 20 yrs. He got an illness and ate a .357 mag. Was within his belief system......heard of his death (my old lady said she heard it on the news) and I immediately wondered what he had. Sick a few yrs before, almost got him, didn't explain.............came out of it.
Died on Wed. Quite a few of us at work shook up. 6 of us got letters on Friday. Explained what he had, how he'd be gone within a yr..........thanked us for the friendship and good times.
Put me in a bad place for too long. Only guy that ever understood me. Took a while for the feeling of abandonment to chill into just being alone.
Not sure the effect.
Dead is dead. That half dead chit kinda worries me.
Did it outside, neutral territory.
Worked a gunshop for a bit, fam brought in suicide gun........not from major PD. Wanted it salvaged...........was in plastic bag (in paper evidence bag)..........still wet. Once fired Colt 380 Gov.
Citrus 2 medical cleaner after Gunscrubber.........after strong alcohol dunk for a good while.........kinda creepy. Became a game of "find the crud". Funny now.
Stainless revolver outside...........my recommendation. Another guy I knew at work got into some legal crap..........used shotgun, in the house. Dumb*ss.
Half way down between the ground and the roof I just fell off three years ago.
When I was 20, one autumn day at college, I thought it was a good day to teach myself how to repel off cliffs. So I gathered up a big hay rope, a pair of too-large gloves, two buddies and off we went to Palisades State Park between Cedar Rapids and Mount Vernon Iowa. I found a spot I had in mind that was down by the Cedar river at the far end of the park. We tied one end to a good tree and tossed the other end down to the bottom of the about 45 foot cliff. Not too far down the cliff I came to the conclusion the cliff was mostly sandstone, from it busting out from any footing I was able to acquire. After getting down about 15 feet, I had walked the wall to a dangerous angle and when my footing gave out again found myself bouncing across the rock face and lost my grip and headed for the bottom. I recall thinking, "this is really going to hurt!". Strangely, it didn't. One of my buddies was at the top watching my decent and upon my losing the rope he took off for the ranger shed, not even seeing me hit the bottom. I landed on my back, I believe or anyway that's where I ended up, on a large smooth rock a spitting distance from the river. I was knocked out momentarily, but came to peacefully and soon, believing for a moment I was dead and in Heaven. My buddy at the bottom had seen me fall and land and came over and stuck his face in mine when he saw me stir a bit and told me not to move. I was just seeing what was broke, or didn't work anymore. After timidly moving my appendages I found all systems seemed a go, and I slowly got up and noticed a small gash in the back of my head, but had really no other injury issues. Upon learning of my "luck" the buddy at the bottom told me, "You bounced! I've never seen anyone bounce before!". We went up to the top, retrieved the rope and walked most of the way up to our car, when my top side buddy came down the trail leading a EMT team. We visited and went up to let them check me out in their vehicle. The medics were surprised by my condition and told me I could ride with them but they would have to take me to Cedar Rapids. I chose to let my friends drive me back to the Iowa City University hospital to forgo the cost of an ambulance ride, where they took xrays and used wire sutures to close the cut in my head. For decades I took my good fortune as just that, but upon further reflection of the chances for someone to walk away from a 30 foot unbroken fall and landing on a rock, albeit a smooth rock, with no injuries to speak of to the extent of being able to walk a couple miles back out, have recently been more inclined to believe I was caught by an angel, rather than bounced.
I didn't feel my mortality that day. But on my honeymoon about 14 years later, body surfing in Hawaii showed me a bit of the power of God's creation when a small wave nearly broke me in half. At least that is what it felt like under the water bent in two with my shoulders up against the sea floor and the force of the wave pushing on my butt and legs not knowing how much more pressure was coming and wondering when I would simply break in two. Happy to say I didn't break, nor did I body surf again that trip.
We may know the time Ben Carson lied, but does anyone know the time Hillary Clinton told the truth?
Immersing oneself in progressive lieberalism is no different than bathing in the sewage of Hell.
My first brush with mortality was when I lost a girlfriend to a drunk driver when I was 16 years old. I honestly questioned if I had a place in this world without Chris by my side. It was absolutely devastatingly horrible to get through. I was mad, confused, lost in my own misery. Football season rolled around junior year, and I played like a man possessed. I broke two blocking sleds, and knocked two guys out of games that fall. I never hit anyone so hard in my life. My team mates knew what I was going through, and pretty much stayed out of my way. It was a very tough time.
My second brush with mortality was when Dad passed away. Three weeks in guarded intensivecare. I was there when they wheeled him into emergency surgery for the last time. He waved at me, and I just knew he'd never make it off the table,and he didn't. To this day I miss him terribly. It happened over 30 years ago.
28 years old, attending the Sapper Leader Course, I came to with an IV needle in each arm and a medic doing chest compressions. I’m told I fell over and my heart raced then stopped. Got oriented enough to enjoy the stretcher ride to the evac vehicle, followed by a day and a half learning how to walk, eat and control when I went to the bathroom. Never got a real diagnosis, but it varied between heat stroke and Hyponatremia. Made the mistake of thinking about my daughter who had just learned to walk and completely lost it. Decided to take better care of myself from then on, with moderate success.
When friends of mine started dying. When people your age start dying or getting sick with an uncomfortable frequency it makes you realize your time here is limited. I remind myself every day to use it wisely.
When i was in a car accident in 1993. Doctor told my wife not to go to far away because her next call would be to a funeral home. Said he was sure i wouldn't make it. I fooled him. I am still alive. Have arthritis in every bone i broke and can no longer walk but i am still here. Might have been better if i had crocked. Changed my mind about a lot of things after that.
The first time was when I took an unexpected swim duck hunting in 35 degree weather. More recently; when my best friends 59 year old wife who was like my big sister was diagnosed with brain cancer(like McCain), She lasted a year; I hate cancer.
Speed wobble at 95 mph on my 305 Superhawk.. Sleeping drunk driver trying to do a head on in my lane on the highway. Falling 30' onto a rock filled beach trimming a tree limb that took out the ladder. Getting hit in the head with a brick during a home invasion. Having my knee fold over five times a mile from the truck while deer hunting. Seeing my step-son after he put a 20 gauge in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Watching my wife die from lung cancer Open heart surgery. Take your pick.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
Speed wobble at 95 mph on my 305 Superhawk.. Sleeping drunk driver trying to do a head on in my lane on the highway. Falling 30' onto a rock filled beach trimming a tree limb that took out the ladder. Getting hit in the head with a brick during a home invasion. Having my knee fold over five times a mile from the truck while deer hunting. Seeing my step-son after he put a 20 gauge in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Watching my wife die from lung cancer Open heart surgery. Take your pick.
That would do it. I'm so sorry to hear one man went thru all that.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
Most recently, in 2013, I was diagnosed with a blood clot in my right leg that went from the top of my inner thigh down to my ankle. They then scanned my lungs and found I had two very large clots in both lungs.
The Doc's said I was extremely lucky to be alive. Spent 5 days in the hospital and another two years on Coumadin. Will be on an aspirin regiment for the rest of my life because even the Mayo clinic lab results couldn't pin point a cause.
The deer hunter does not notice the mountains
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" - Isoroku Yamamoto
There sure are a lot of America haters that want to live here...
15 years old, commercial salmon fishing in Bristol Bay. Loaded down on the south line of Egegik, my Dad called in a "tender", a bigger boat that we would offload salmon onto. The tender anchors, we come along the port side and they use their crane to lift off 1200 lb bags of salmon. Another boat comes along the starboard side. The deck bolts on the starboard crane let go and 1200 lb of salmon pulled that crane arm down right onto the head of the guy that would have been me if we had picked that side. I remember the blood coming down his face from under his sweatshirt hood.
First time was about 1976 as LTJG flying around the Big Island of Hawaii in a T-28B on a “FACIT” hop (F__k Around and Call It Training). I turned up a blind canyon and went “Uh oh!” Actually, I think it was probably “Oh $—t!” I didn’t have enough room straight ahead to accelerate and do a Half Cuban Eight or an Immelmann or enough lateral room do a wingover. Fortunately I knew the “max climb angle airspeed” and went right to 110 knots (I still remember after 42 years 😀). As I approached the huge trees at the end of the valley, I swear I tried to stand up to give my a$$ more room to clear them. It was CLOSE I mean REALLY close!....I’m guessing less than 50’. That was shortly after our first, a daughter, was born. No more “flat hatting” for me. We had a son a few years later and now have three beautiful grand daughters and a grandson with my name.
Last year it happened again when I heard my name used in the same sentence as “the C word”.
NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
In June of 2017 when I found out I had cancer and thinking the chance of life wasn't good. Just before Christmas found out I am clear. Still recovering and found out my company let me go but still is going to cover my LTD till my doctor releases me. Now every day is a blessing if I don't do anything, spend it fishing with my boy or working out with my doctor. Life has more meaning than ever before.
i realized i belonged to the great nation-state of the usa on july 24, 1970. i did not have personal ownership. i was a subject of the state, or go to jail. that moment changed my life. it caused me to resist.
i realized i belonged to the great nation-state of the usa on july 24, 1970. i did not have personal ownership. i was a subject of the state, or go to jail. that moment changed my life. it caused me to resist.
You or Me are no better than any other being that fought, and some fought and died for this great nation's security, did you expect preference after being raised in the land of milk and honey?, preference for being lucky enough to have been born in the greatest nation in the history of the world.
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
i realized i belonged to the great nation-state of the usa on july 24, 1970. i did not have personal ownership. i was a subject of the state, or go to jail. that moment changed my life. it caused me to resist.
You or Me are no better than any other being that fought, and some fought and died for this great nation's security, did you expect preference after being raised in the land of milk and honey?, preference for being lucky enough to have been born in the greatest nation in the history of the world.
How else did it become so great?
your questions are all relevant in relation to a great state of one kind or another: maybe the egyptians, the greeks, der romans, the persians, the nazi's, and many others.
we're grist for the mill, nothing else.
individuals having a real life vs. mao's desciples, and various others.
sounds to me like you believe our sole purpose is to support the latest & greatest state? of course i could be wrong.
working for the imperial emperor of japan paid pretty good, until it didn't?
i realized i belonged to the great nation-state of the usa on july 24, 1970. i did not have personal ownership. i was a subject of the state, or go to jail. that moment changed my life. it caused me to resist.
Gus you make it sound like everyday in the army was purgatory for you . It probably was if you spent all your time on base as a barracks rat complaining about nothing to do. And we all are sorry you got assigned stateside and did not get to go run in the jungle. Gawd get over it man..... you might just not be here right now if you got to go to Vietnam, maybe you was saved from the grim reaper by being at ft hood for your time in the oh sooo sh itty u.s. army...
My dad was a remf in the army, Nike missile crew member, never seen one after AIT, played catcher on the u.s. army baseball team in Germany his entire time. Never heard him piss and moan about how the army held him back or down. He was being scouted by the Cleveland Indians in 1960. Geuss what happened .... he got drafted and all that fizzled away for him.
Never heard him bytch , the army ruined my life, the army ruined my chance
i realized i belonged to the great nation-state of the usa on july 24, 1970. i did not have personal ownership. i was a subject of the state, or go to jail. that moment changed my life. it caused me to resist.
Gus you make it sound like everyday in the army was purgatory for you . It probably was if you spent all your time on base as barracks rat complaining about nothing to do. And we all are sorry you got assigned stateside and did not get to go run in the jungle. Gawd get over it man.....
thank you in all honesty for your thoughtful reply, and willingness to engage.
i was all for the war, for those who wanted to participate. more power to them.
i really didn't want to engage, but i realized i'd go to jail if i didn't. that's national service.
running to the great white north was not an option, nor a solution that made any sense. politics?
I'm 76 now and I felt my age for the first time about 6 months ago. I've had 2 knee replacements and now need a right hip replacement, but that's not the problem. My problem is balance; I seem to be having trouble keeping it as I walk. Suggestions?
Lost my fourth uncle the other day. Hit us all a little hard.
Damn buddy, I'll need 30 minutes with a pad and pen to reflect, try to remember, and write em all down.
I bet. Sorry to hear that. These are just the latest four for us as well, but my siblings and I did seem to have this particular one hit us a little harder than we expected.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
i realized i belonged to the great nation-state of the usa on july 24, 1970. i did not have personal ownership. i was a subject of the state, or go to jail. that moment changed my life. it caused me to resist.
You or Me are no better than any other being that fought, and some fought and died for this great nation's security, did you expect preference after being raised in the land of milk and honey?, preference for being lucky enough to have been born in the greatest nation in the history of the world.
How else did it become so great?
your questions are all relevant in relation to a great state of one kind or another: maybe the egyptians, the greeks, der romans, the persians, the nazi's, and many others.
we're grist for the mill, nothing else.
individuals having a real life vs. mao's desciples, and various others.
sounds to me like you believe our sole purpose is to support the latest & greatest state? of course i could be wrong.
working for the imperial emperor of japan paid pretty good, until it didn't?
It's the reason we were born strong men, would you not instantly take a bullet in defense of your wife, mother, child or any other innocent?
Lost my fourth uncle the other day. Hit us all a little hard.
Damn buddy, I'll need 30 minutes with a pad and pen to reflect, try to remember, and write em all down.
I bet. Sorry to hear that. These are just the latest four for us as well, but my siblings and I did seem to have this particular one hit us a little harder than we expected.
Yessir, not one single solitary one of us are guaranteed to see the sunrise in the morning.
That realization and feeling came strongly when I was quite young - this happens for some due to circumstances. It always has been a frontal reality - and I think the younger, the better. Can't think of a way it has hurt my life.
Yessir, not one single solitary one of us are guaranteed to see the sunrise in the morning.
We do indeed live on a thread ;]
When I was young I had this weird idea that one day I would be blind, so I did as much as I could (within my means) so I'd have memories to occupy myself with when that day came. So far hasn't materialized but aches and pains from living hard is slowing me down. You never regret getting out and living as much as you can while you can.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
Yessir, not one single solitary one of us are guaranteed to see the sunrise in the morning.
We do indeed live on a thread ;]
When I was young I had this weird idea that one day I would be blind, so I did as much as I could (within my means) so I'd have memories to occupy myself with when that day came. So far hasn't materialized but aches and pains from living hard is slowing me down. You never regret getting out and living as much as you can while you can.
Dang Fireball, you had much more forethought than me, when i was young I was fully convinced I was a bullet proof psycho super sonic torpedo. maybe that's why they medicated me ;]
You are correct, now that we've spooled down a bit, good life reflections and memories made with family and friends are what it's all about.
I haven't. I am not religious at all though grew up in a strong Catholic family and town. I was in bed with my Mother when she died after a battle with cancer. I observed the burials of three of my grandparents and four uncles (one by suicide) as well as both of my in-laws. All said, they all seemed to just have died when their time came for whatever reason. I suspect the same will happen with me and mine.
Had some close calls, some super close calls, and done some dumb stuff. Even done some stupid stuff. I think realizing self mortality is a process for most, some quicker than others. I'll take the details of realizing my own mortality with me.
A good friends son is deployed, and she realized his mortality when he called to say he'd filed his will, was ready for action... and wasn't scared, cause he was going to be fine. I knew well before then, and reaffirmed it during that conversation, that realizing or seeing the mortality of those around me, or those they cared about, was far more important than my own.
"Your range of experience runs that gamut from A to B, plus you're a nitwit. That's a hard combination to overcome, though some people try." - JB
My father passed in 1978 and that was "the first shot off the bow" but I really didn't take it to heart. Fast forward to July 31st 2009. I was in Paktia Province Afghanistan and I got a blood clot in my leg. It was going to be 3 days before They could fly me back to Kabul. I didn't make it. The next day the clots moved to my lungs and I had to go to Bahgram and then to Landstuhl. The young medics at FOB Lightening had the right stuff to break up the clots and make it easier to breath.
When the clots moved I left my room and was on my way to a friends room when I blacked out and hit the floor. One of the guys in the dorm heard me hit the floor and got me back awake. My last thoughts were about my very young grand daughter and I thought to myself "I hope my wife tells her good things about me". I was 55 at the time. Too young to die but I almost got it done.
kwg
Last edited by kwg020; 01/19/18.
For liberals and anarchists, power and control is opium, selling envy is the fastest and easiest way to get it. TRR. American conservative. Never trust a white liberal. Malcom X Current NRA member.
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maybe that's why they medicated me ;]
Damnit!
