Posted on 07/06/2013 7:15:44 PM PDT by MNDude
It seems almost everyone has a story of how they almost drowned, almost drove off a cliff, or narrowly dodged a bullet. What is your story of the closest you came to dying?
That happened to me driving across west Texas with the cruise control on. The wide apron with rumble strips saved me. I had been asleep long enough to be dreaming. Waking up from a dream behind the wheel of a car headed off the road was a real shock. Traffic was thankfully very sparse and there was little to hit other than low scrub, but still. I won’t use cruise to this day because of it.
When the woman that I didn’t know was married, and her husband came home.... Early...
What was a shock for me was I had never even considered such a situation.
If I had been asked to list 1000 ways I would bite it, that wouldn’t have been one of them. I can clearly remember the sudden sphincter tightening as I realized the situation I was in.
I read something once that most men who die around water have their zipper open. I guess snow is just frozen water...:)
When I was just out of school I worked at a place that had a giant trash compactor (you could put kitchen appliances into it if you wanted to). We used to use it for our copious cardboard waste in the days before recycling. If you got overly ambitious and piled up too much cardboard it would just get hung up in the feeder area. Our solution was to wait until the compactor arm was all the way in and jump on the cardboard to free it up.
I had done this several times in a row and had gotten careless. I thought the compactor was extended when it was actually just coming open. I jumped on the pile of cardboard and, of course, I fell into the compactor. I heard the machine crunching through the cardboard and knew I had about 5 seconds. I was chin deep in the hole and as hard as I tried I couldn’t get any footing in all the loose cardboard.
About that time two co-workers came along to dump their own trash and saw me. One of them ran to grab my hand and the other went to hit the EPO. I shook for about 5 minutes and thanked those guys over and over.
I didn’t tell my wife about it for about 20 years.
Was decades ago and I said “140 pounds.” Can I help it if the girl’s jeans said “Guess?”
Holy Smokes! THAT story gave me the willies...
When I was a kid, I was in an inlet with a rowboat — alone. The boat had a rope on the bow. I tied the rope around my waist, jumped in the water to swim -— pulling the boat. It was easy to do. Then I thought I would swim under the boat and climb back in from the stern, but the rope didn’t go all the way and got caught on the rudder. I was inches from the surface, and was struggling, but was going nowhere. Somehow. I dislodged the rope and rose up, gasping for air. It sure taught me a lesson. Don’t stupidly do stupid stuff when you are alone.
I suffered a pulmonary embolism in the left lung in 2002. My wife immediately raced me to the ER. At one point, the nurse looked at me and said “If you need to say anything to anyone, now would be a good time. Who do you want me to call”? I pretty much freaked out at that point but I asked to speak to the Dr. As I lay there barely being able to breathe. I kept watching the door, waiting for the doctor. The on call Priest was sent in to administer last rights instead. I refused his service and was hospitalized the next nine days. Luckily I’m still here.
So glad you are here with us tonight!
Right!
I’d forgotten all about that category!
In my case, fiancee...
Yowser!
That was just one of several exciting episodes of the south eastern vacation. MY wife (was just a girlfriend then) got very angry with me a few years later when she found my duffel bag with all the decorations I had hidden. I had her convinced I was stationed in a very boring place where nothing happened. Thinking back on it now I don’t remember being scared except for an episode where we resupplied an American firebase in Laos (6 times) under heavy rocket, mortar, machine gun (kitchen sinks)fire. My grandmother told me something woke her up and told her “Pray for that boy now!. She slipped out of bed and prayed fervently for 2 hours, and then felt a great peace, went to bed.. We figured the date out years later, and yes, the dates matched. p.s. I do NOT feel like any hero, just doing the job my uncle sent me to do.
Driving past the local airport one day. It was a little foggy out. This road passes the end of the runway ( it is about 10 feet below the runway ). As I was approaching the runway, I heard a loud roar. I slowed down a bit. About a second later a Lear jet came off the runway ( he overshot his landing ) and crashed on the other side of the road and the right engine burst into flames. The pilots got out and were ok. If I hadn’t slowed down, it would have gone right into the side of my car.
The scariest one was the semi in the wrong lane that ran me odd the road.
I got nuthin.
Awww...
:)
Getting out of bed every morning, or remaining in bed.
Oh, ow... Live and learn.
What do the words "kitchen sinks" mean, in that context?
Semi tractor pulling out to pass and did not see me coming the other way on a two lane road. I’m only alive because I had racing experience. I accelerated out of his path. So close he knocked the mirror off my car.
Still alive? wow. My older brother was the only son needed in the family (I was Unexpected, not wanted) and my dad saw him flip the bird in the shaving mirror). Holy crap. He got him prone on the floor and put 2 “luckily” baby teeth out a little early with his fists.
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