**one eyed 60 something men around these days.**
I almost fit that description 58 years ago when I was hit just below the left eye with a home made arrow. 1/2 inch higher and I would look be wearing a patch.
I am a firm believer in GOD. Otherwise I should have been snake bit, burned to death, killed, chopped, crushed, blown up. What other reason than divine power could have prevented me from surviving all these stupid things I did as a youth?
One of my favourites was chopping off surface ice to make ice flows to ride down a wild river in spring runoff. The water was literally ice cold, and the “floe” kept being eroded by bumping into rocks. Eventually we had to resort to running from one end to the other, as the end of the “floe” we were on would start sinking and the other end would rise in the air. It reminded me of a Warner Brothers cartoon. Adding that sort of kinetic energy to the equation can only keep you afloat on an eroding piece of ice for so long. The river seldom was more than thigh deep. When we eventually got dumped, our safety was to thrash to the closest shore, and run the distance to home and a house well heated by numerous woodburners. We would strip off the icy, wet clothes and warm up by a woodstove.