Age 3? In my mothers lap in folkswagen bus. My father slammed on brakes and I hit my head hard into the windshield, cracking it.
Age 10? I found a .45 bullet of my uncles and in curiosity, decided to try to open it to see what it looked like inside. I went to the cement walkway between two houses and slammed a brick into it several times. It went off and my hearing was gone for at least 20 minutes. I went upstairs into our apartment and my mother wanted to know what happened, but I could only stare at her as I could only hear a ringing in my ears.
High School - Extremely ill. Couldn't walk for two days at all. On Sunday, as family was walking out the door, decided to try and go to the bathroom. I hobbled in and as I was finishing going pee, I went unconscious and hit the side of the sink on the way down. My mother just happened to hear something that sounded odd as she was leaving and just to make sure came back to make sure I was okay. I was passed out and choking on my tongue. She tilted my head back and a shortly, I became conscious again.
College - Varsity Rugby. My first year I was doing a full speed drill passing the ball and wasn't looking up. I smacked hard into an unshielded football goal post, my body pivoting around it as my head hit it. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes. The next year I was playing again and as I had the ball and going down the field at speed, had my arms wrapped around me by the opposing team and the first thing to hit the ground was my head. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes again, body twitching as is not unusual.
College - Train Tracks. Not far from the college are train tracks, down about 100 feet from the street level, burrowed out of the rock. The sides are very steep. When I was stressed, I would often climb up them, knowing fully that I had no choice but get to the top because there's no way to go back. There were many close calls.
College - Drinking: I got off work on Mardi Gras at 10:10 and at 11:00 sharp we left the apartment. In 45 minutes I started with 2 Keiths beer, had 11 double shooters of Southern Comfort, half a pint of Lemon Gin, and half a pint of ... can't remember what alcohol that was... 40% whatever it was. I was basically drunk the whole weekend without drinking anymore. The night came back to me in bits and pieces over the next three weeks or so.
College - I used to go the sea and scale slippery rocks by the ocean that one slip would have resulted in me being drowned or dashed against the rocks beneath.
Ft. Wayne - One night I was going back to Sarah's in the winter going faster than I should have. I ran off the road and narrowly missed a telephone pole.
FW - One night I was working second shift. Usually, I would ride my motorcycle in and search long and hard for the key to it. In the end, I couldn't find it and in a huff grabbed the car keys and went to work. In the morning, I got off work close to dawn and driving down Lower Huntington Rd. about 55, a doe jumped right out in front of me from the shrubs directly on the right side of the road. There was no chance of avoiding her and her legs hit my hood. She flipped end over end and landed in the ditch across the other side of the road. If I had had my motorcycle, I would have taken the same road, and because I was tired, gone the same speed. I'd likely be dead as there'd be no way of avoiding full contact with her.
FW - Went to public pool in New Haven. I went diving off the high dive. I ran too fast and jumped too far and my head hit the cement as it was sloping up to a shallower end. It snapped my head with enough force that the sideways push against the water put a hole in my ear drum. I drove myself to the emergency room (and it ended up being to the wrong hospital... nice).
FW - Motorcycle: Got drunk with some friends out of town a bit. I was riding back to FW and saw two vehicles in front of me. I moved to the left of the SUV in front of me for the pass and all of a sudden the white van in front of it decided to cut a hard left and the SUV slammed it's brakes on. I jerked out to the opposing lane and pressed hard on my brakes. I ended up skidding and almost made the turn with the van, but couldn't and hit the side of it hard enough to put a huge dent in it. I ended up breaking my right clavicle in two places and bent up the subframe of the bike and the main stay.
FW - Motorcycle: On a really hot and sunny Saturday I decided to go out riding with a friend of mine before other riders got up and around. We went out to Hadley Road to practice wheelies. I was starting to get the hang of sit down wheelies quite well and so decided to try out stand up wheelies. I was very uncomfortable with and decided to tighten the suspension (but didn't test it before the run). I ended up going up and thought I was going back so closed the accelerator. The bike jumped down and the front wheel was at a slight angle. It caught and I was thrown over the front handlebars. I bounced on the road and the bike passed over my head and slid on the road, as I did. I was not wearing any jacket or helmet and only my t-shirt and jeans were available to protect me. I banged my head against the pavement, I had extensive road rash, my right elbow was rubbed almost to the bone (it continues to itch more than a year afterwards), I broke two or three of my ribs and some muscles seperated from the spine in my back.
FW - Motorcycle - When living on Calumet, I took my bike out for a run. Unknown to me, constuction crews decided to scrape up part of Calhoun to repave it. The street lights were out, for some reason, so I did not realize the road had been scraped up until I'd already hit it going a decent clip. As I tried to slow down, my front wheel hit an exposed manhole and my bike jerked violently as I attempted to maintain control. Although my seat jerked open and everthing in it spilled out and my front tire got a flat in it, somehow the bike didn't go down. Lucky.
NYC - Suzan and I were driving to NYC and a deer jumped right in front of us. I broke hard for a moment and it was enough for the deer to miss us.
Age 10? I found a .45 bullet of my uncles and in curiosity, decided to try to open it to see what it looked like inside. I went to the cement walkway between two houses and slammed a brick into it several times. It went off and my hearing was gone for at least 20 minutes. I went upstairs into our apartment and my mother wanted to know what happened, but I could only stare at her as I could only hear a ringing in my ears.
High School - Extremely ill. Couldn't walk for two days at all. On Sunday, as family was walking out the door, decided to try and go to the bathroom. I hobbled in and as I was finishing going pee, I went unconscious and hit the side of the sink on the way down. My mother just happened to hear something that sounded odd as she was leaving and just to make sure came back to make sure I was okay. I was passed out and choking on my tongue. She tilted my head back and a shortly, I became conscious again.
College - Varsity Rugby. My first year I was doing a full speed drill passing the ball and wasn't looking up. I smacked hard into an unshielded football goal post, my body pivoting around it as my head hit it. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes. The next year I was playing again and as I had the ball and going down the field at speed, had my arms wrapped around me by the opposing team and the first thing to hit the ground was my head. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes again, body twitching as is not unusual.
College - Train Tracks. Not far from the college are train tracks, down about 100 feet from the street level, burrowed out of the rock. The sides are very steep. When I was stressed, I would often climb up them, knowing fully that I had no choice but get to the top because there's no way to go back. There were many close calls.
College - Drinking: I got off work on Mardi Gras at 10:10 and at 11:00 sharp we left the apartment. In 45 minutes I started with 2 Keiths beer, had 11 double shooters of Southern Comfort, half a pint of Lemon Gin, and half a pint of ... can't remember what alcohol that was... 40% whatever it was. I was basically drunk the whole weekend without drinking anymore. The night came back to me in bits and pieces over the next three weeks or so.
College - I used to go the sea and scale slippery rocks by the ocean that one slip would have resulted in me being drowned or dashed against the rocks beneath.
Ft. Wayne - One night I was going back to Sarah's in the winter going faster than I should have. I ran off the road and narrowly missed a telephone pole.
FW - One night I was working second shift. Usually, I would ride my motorcycle in and search long and hard for the key to it. In the end, I couldn't find it and in a huff grabbed the car keys and went to work. In the morning, I got off work close to dawn and driving down Lower Huntington Rd. about 55, a doe jumped right out in front of me from the shrubs directly on the right side of the road. There was no chance of avoiding her and her legs hit my hood. She flipped end over end and landed in the ditch across the other side of the road. If I had had my motorcycle, I would have taken the same road, and because I was tired, gone the same speed. I'd likely be dead as there'd be no way of avoiding full contact with her.
FW - Went to public pool in New Haven. I went diving off the high dive. I ran too fast and jumped too far and my head hit the cement as it was sloping up to a shallower end. It snapped my head with enough force that the sideways push against the water put a hole in my ear drum. I drove myself to the emergency room (and it ended up being to the wrong hospital... nice).
FW - Motorcycle: Got drunk with some friends out of town a bit. I was riding back to FW and saw two vehicles in front of me. I moved to the left of the SUV in front of me for the pass and all of a sudden the white van in front of it decided to cut a hard left and the SUV slammed it's brakes on. I jerked out to the opposing lane and pressed hard on my brakes. I ended up skidding and almost made the turn with the van, but couldn't and hit the side of it hard enough to put a huge dent in it. I ended up breaking my right clavicle in two places and bent up the subframe of the bike and the main stay.
FW - Motorcycle: On a really hot and sunny Saturday I decided to go out riding with a friend of mine before other riders got up and around. We went out to Hadley Road to practice wheelies. I was starting to get the hang of sit down wheelies quite well and so decided to try out stand up wheelies. I was very uncomfortable with and decided to tighten the suspension (but didn't test it before the run). I ended up going up and thought I was going back so closed the accelerator. The bike jumped down and the front wheel was at a slight angle. It caught and I was thrown over the front handlebars. I bounced on the road and the bike passed over my head and slid on the road, as I did. I was not wearing any jacket or helmet and only my t-shirt and jeans were available to protect me. I banged my head against the pavement, I had extensive road rash, my right elbow was rubbed almost to the bone (it continues to itch more than a year afterwards), I broke two or three of my ribs and some muscles seperated from the spine in my back.
FW - Motorcycle - When living on Calumet, I took my bike out for a run. Unknown to me, constuction crews decided to scrape up part of Calhoun to repave it. The street lights were out, for some reason, so I did not realize the road had been scraped up until I'd already hit it going a decent clip. As I tried to slow down, my front wheel hit an exposed manhole and my bike jerked violently as I attempted to maintain control. Although my seat jerked open and everthing in it spilled out and my front tire got a flat in it, somehow the bike didn't go down. Lucky.
NYC - Suzan and I were driving to NYC and a deer jumped right in front of us. I broke hard for a moment and it was enough for the deer to miss us.
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