How close have you been to Death?
 

Death??

Don't ask me why this thought popped into my head.....:eek:

Looking back on my 43 years on this planet (this time around) I've had a number of very close calls that some how I scraped through. Never even broken a single bone....(touch woody).

Please don't get me wrong, it's not bragging or anything like that. It's just that I have these moments of memory that I can look back on and be grateful for what I have and who I've become when things start going South, emotionally or physically. It's like an inner strength I can call up when I need it.

Fell through the ice on a lake in Germany when I was about 4 or so. Got rescued by my mom. Honestly don't remember that one, just going off what my mom has told me over the years.

Fell into a canyon from about 35 feet, knocked the wind out of me, got up and I'd left an imprint of my body in the deep grass and soft dirt. My head missed smashing into a big rock by 4 inches.

Slept through and earthquake that knocked an ironing board and pachinco machine on top of me. The iron buried it's tip into the floor about 1/2 inch deep 6 inches from my head.

Got shot at (missed me though) in a drive by when I was a Guardian Angel in downtown San Diego in '84. Heard the bullet pass my head and smack the wall behind me.

Had a .357 pointed at me by one very shaky female cop when we got busted in the neighborhood canyon having a bb gun war. Someone phoned the cops saying there were people shooting eachother with .22's and carbines, so obviously the cops were a bit on edge. They came with a heli and everything. They weren't impressed with our lunacy.

Got pulled over by a cop once and he told me to stay in the car with my hands up. He had already drawn on me. 30 seconds later about 4 cop cars screamed up and they all drew on me. Appearantly I matched the description of an escaped axe murderer and rapist they were looking for, except for the fact I wasn't 6'6" and 240lbs. They were appologetic after the fact. Although they didn't pay for my new underwear...[&o]

Here in Dubai had a weird instance of a rookie cop at my work ask me where I was from. When I said I was American, he pulled his gun out, drew the slide back chambering a round in his sig sauer and started thumbing the safety on and off while aiming it at my gut and talking crap at me about George Bush and stuff. Don't ask me where it came from but even though I was a breath away from peeing my pants, I stood up to him and argued why are you pointing a loaded weapon at at me, gently pushed it away from my line of fire, walked past him and went down the hall....all the time expecting a bullet in my back. I was actually shaking when i turned the corner and my knees buckled. Needless to say he got reported and no one's seen him since.

So....what have you been through that gives you that inner strength to know..."Well this isn't too bad, compared to that time I almost died."

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

The time my friend and I were running from the cops and my friend flipped one of those explorer trucks. He crashed it into the side of the mountain and we flipped 3 times. Why did we run? Because we were stupid. Why were we getting pulled over? Because we had a broken tail light. LOL!

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

Would doing 120+mph in a twitchy fiero count?


funny enough, when i was about 2 or 3 years old, i lived in a 6 story apartment on the top floor. my father was supposed to watch me while ma was out. well, as pop was sleeping on the couch, i wandered onto the balcony, i was playing with a glitter stick, i tossed it in the air and it fell behind the grill on the handrail, fearless at that age, i climbed up on the plastic chair and on the grill, down below was gravel and dirt, i was inches from death, wobbly, i then grabbed the stick and got down safely.

well as silly as it seems, i would not be here today if i fell...

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

It's amazing how some memories will stick with you from that age.

I only have a couple from 2 or 3, but they are vivid. ;)

1 that I've always remembered was my mom snorkling somewhere in Puerto Rico. I was hanging onto her neck and she swam through a school of squid.

That reminds me....Winter of '82 we had what was left of a hurrican come through SoCal. The waves were so big they eventually tore down a good section of IB pier. Anyway, we went and tried to boogie board those waves......twice...[:@]

I got washed up both times after going through the spin cycle for over a minute each time. Don't ask me what made me go back for a second time:D

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

i was close to death once , and i consider myself lucky

(copy/paste from another of my posts)
I have been in an accident 7 nov 2008 and got hurt bad , i was in my 2001 impala crosing a road at 15km/h and got t-boned by a dodge ram mega-cab hauling a 2 axle dual wheels 5th-wheel trailler made for excavators comming at 90km/h

thanks god it hit on the passenger side and i was alone.

the front passenger door lock failed and the door came inside the car up the the middle console, and i smashed my head on it(light skull trauma), my right shoulder also smashed in the door(broken clavicule, still waiting surgery) broke 3 ribs(one punctured my right limb) light internal damage to the 'rate'(thats how its called in french, i think it filters blood), broken my jaw on both side(had a surgery the day of the accident) broke 3 teeths and thats about it

they kept me at the hospital 7 days.

i have some pictures, some were taken by me at the scrap yard, some were taken by the firemans(in my city they take pictures of every big incident and publish them online for 12 months on there website)

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">despite a life of skateboarding and surfing iv yet to brake any bones.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">i did get a few stitches once when a dog bit me on the face.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">and i have been dead before.ill spare you the details but im never doing that again.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">other than that its just been all cuts and bruises</div>

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

i should have died once...no one knows how i survived....(was on national news). and could have died another time...rolled my audi 4 times at 85 mph.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

i was close to death twice. once i was shot at just because my cousins repped another set than the people who they lived near as we were running i herd bullets fly past and after we got away i had two bullet holes in my shirt but i wasn't hit. the second time is when cops were trying to break down on stolen dirtbikes and atvs i blew an intersection and got hit by a cop car chasing some kids going the other way.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

Link?

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

What's repped another set mean?

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

i have no idea if there is a link somewhere. It was back in early 2006. A 300 foot doug fir that was 5 foot diameter crashed through my house. It went right through my bed while i was sleeping in it and missed me by about 6 inches. It totaled the house. My room was on the second floor and in the end it was on the main floor, thats where i rolled out. I was untouched. all i had was a few small cuts from broken glass. Thats it. I suffered from severe post dramatic stress disorder. Wind storms still give me anxiety attacks.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

yah not good. i had a huge trampoline fly up, miss two fences and smash into my house enough to wrap around it, it had to be cut off.

i was in the room when it happened, i heard *flap flap flap* like the satellite fell off and started blowing around, well it was the trampoline, i saw a blur right before the hit. it hit so hard it shook the house enough to knock cabinets open and knock down pictures and dishes.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

when working out repped another set would mean that you did another exercise. Like say you did bench press x3 sets ( in each sets theres anywhere between 8-15 reps normally ). The way he said it, it sounded to me like his cousins did bench press x4. But why you would get shot at for that I dont know. I could be completely wrong, and I probably am because you would have to be pretty angry to shoot at someone for doing one more set than another person.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

Oh I am definitely in tune with weight lifting terminology I am big into that stuff. Just sounded like some other street slang term because to shoot someone over it is completely ridiculous. It's reasons like this that I count my blessings that I don't live in a bad part of any city.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

it means to represent another gang

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

I hear ya bh. Done there, been that myself. Didn't bother mentioning that episode of my life eather. ;)

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

it means they were in a different gang than their neighbors

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

when i was 4 or 5 i stepped out onto a swimming pool cover and nearly drowned, luckily my dad saw it and grabbed me.

then recently (new years eve) i was behind a very slow car and got a bit impatient, as we were going uphill (round a very slight bend) i gave it the beans and went past, only to see a car coming towards me faster than me, literally 1-2 seconds after i pulled back into my lane, it flashed its lights and shot past, it would have been a combined speed of 130mph+ if we'd have crashed head on, i learned a lesson that day.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

I remember when I must of been like 7 years old and I had been playing with this guys little sister. I took her ball and ran off with it around a corner of our apartment buildings. He chased after me, threw me down and the next thing I saw was he pulled out a gold plated gun. It must of been some type of 6 shooter (I have no idea what they are called). So I didn't say anything and I just gave the ball back, got up and went back to out apartment and was just quiet for a while after that. I still remember seeing the barrel of the gun to this day. He must of been 14 or 15 at that time so I can only imagine if he would of did something stupid and slipped.
I'm sure at this point in time with the way that "kid" use to act and all the crap he got into (legally) he is either dead or in prison. This was the old aurora Colorado I use to live in. Same place where some guy got shot and killed in the Aurora mall some odd years ago.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">your old neighborhood sounds a lot like my old neighborhood.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">iv watched that same incident you were in escalate to the point where both party&rsquo;s involved end up killing each other. although not fighting back would have made you everybody&rsquo;s victim from that day on.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">i watched a kid who was probably pushing 18 stab a kid who was 14 or 15 because he was wearing the wrong color jacket.he just walked past the wrong street corner wearing the wrong color on his way to school, got confronted and got stabbed.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">i could go on for days about the stick twisted crap i saw and lived in that place</span></div>

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

when i was younger, there wasnt a height limit for our six flags. me and my dad was riding in the screaming eagle and apparently i was way to small because when we took a sharp turn i flew out, but luckily my dad caught my leg and pulled me back in. i've also been pretty damn drunk a bunch of times and there's no tellin how close i've came to alcohol poisoning.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

At least some of you probably predicted that my story would involve explosives...

A few friends and I went out to a gravel pit to test a rather large device; it contained half a pound of flash powder, enough to demolish a building the size of a shed, with about 2 gallons of gasoline filled bottles surrounding it. I had attached about 2 feet of fuse to ensure I would have a lot of time to get away and hide behind the blast shield I had in place.

After setting it up, I lit the fuse and ran away. I watched it burn up to the casing, then suddenly stop. After several minutes, it had failed to reignite and burn through to the powder inside the device. We waited the recommended 30 minutes to ensure the fuse had completely gone out, then I walked up to see what the issue was. The fuse had stopped burning about 10mm from the casing, probably due to a void in the powder train. I typically get one or two of such defects in each 50ft roll of fuse I buy, and I can usually spot the problem areas and cut them out, but this one must not have been visible from the outside. This particular fuse burns at about 15mm/second, so the remaining stub was obviously far too short to light.

I picked up the end of the casing, intending to remove the cap and replace the fuse with a spare I had brought along. Suddenly, a previously invisible glowing ember on the end of the fuse flared up as I brought it into the wind, and the powder core burst into flames. I dropped the casing and ran as fast as I could, diving behind an adjacent dumpster. Just as I had slammed my hands over my ears, the device exploded, creating a giant 50+ft fireball, and a shockwave so powerful it actually moved the heavy steel dumpster back a few inches. From my position, I actually saw the fireball surround me, and the heat was intense, though I didn't receive any burns.

It was definitely the most frightening thing I've experienced, and if I hadn't reacted as quickly as I did, I'm not sure I would be here right now to tell the story.

Oh, and I almost forgot the important moral of the story: Use electrical ignition for large blasts...

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

I totaled my dads RX300 back in high school, did about 85 into a building [&:]. Amazingly enough I walked away with a couple scrapes, car was a goner. I was lucky because it was a straight head on so the car absorbed most of the impact, and the building was "soft" enough. In case you're wondering, yes, I was drunk. That's a lesson enough never to drink and drive. It's amazing what stupid stuff we do at that age.

Lately was I chased about 3 blocks by a pack of wild turkeys, that was harrowing.

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

HAHAHAHAHA.....Where in the Bay area can you be chased 3 blocks by a pack of wild turkeys?? The vision I have in mind is quite commical. [&:]:D

RE: How close have you been to Death?
 

I live in the Berkeley hills, so it's a tad wooded and we have wildlife. We have deer, raccoon, a fox or 2, and of course - turkey.