Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't.

[athelind]

1. Dragged a dead sea lion off a breakwall.
   
2. Taken a body down to the morgue.
   
3. Passed under the Golden Gate Bridge almost as many times as I've passed over it.
   
4. Accidentally climbed up an almost-shear cliff.
   
5. Buried my favorite author.
   
6. Teargassed myself -- without noticing.
   
7. Moved eight times in under two years -- two of those moves being halfway across the continent and back.
   
8. Gone from being a bachelor to a grandfather in less than a year.
   
9. Driven from St. Petersberg, Florida, to Pasadena, California, in 56 hours. (No, I wasn't one of the drivers.)
   
10. Been to every single Year of the Dragon parade in San Francisco held within my lifetime.
    

Huh. Of the ten, three involve death, two involve impressive physical feats achieved accidentally, and four involve Extreme Mobility.

Comments

[drleo.livejournal.com]

Passed under the Golden Gate Bridge almost as many times as I've passed over it.

Depends on your definition of "almost." I've been over it so few times, that it isn't that far away from zero, which is the number of times I've been under it.

Moved eight times in under two years -- two of those moves being halfway across the continent and back.

If you count college, I moved several times a year: In for the spring semester, out for the spring semester and into summer, out for the summer and into the fall semester, and then out for the end of the fall. One year I moved mid-semester, even, when I got assigned a single room.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

The Golden Gate Bridge is another Coast Guard story, but a brief one. When I was stationed on the USCGC Rush, I made six Alaskan patrols -- thus passing under the Bridge a dozen times. At that point, I'd been OVER the Golden Gate no more than four times, and possibly fewer than that.

Since moving up to Northern California in '97, we've made enough jaunts to Muir Woods, Sausilito and The Battery that I've probably JUST barely exceeded that dozen.

And no, college dorms don't count, unless you happened to have pretty much everything you'd ever owned along with you at college.

[jirris-midvale.livejournal.com]

You're making me feel unimpressive, again. Granted, you have about twice as much time under your belt as me, but still. Damn.

[tephra]

Accidentally climbed up an almost-shear cliff.

Um... if "cliff" is defined as a nearly vertical to vertical face more than 8 times your own height and "climbing" can begin from the middle of said face... I've done this.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Accidentally?

[tephra]

Pretty much, I certainly wasn't looking to climb a cliff. Unfortunately when one finds oneself in the middle of one with the trail one used to get there collapsed behind them the choices are slim. Up looked less hazardous than down.

Though the final stages were interesting. Having to shimmy out of the pack and toss that over the top since it wouldn't fit between the fallen tree and the cliff with me was exciting. And when I was finally within reach of the top I had the "I could put my hand right on top of a rattlesnake" thought. Followed by the "there's a bear in the area that has been attacking hikers and I tossed a pack with food in it up there a bit ago" thought. Which was in turn followed but the "there's a cougar in the area too" thought. All of which were followed by the "fuck it, I'm not climbing down this cliff now" thought.

I was chastised by the prof for climbing a cliff "unnecessarily" too. Never did like that guy.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I think that beats my story.

This was the early '90s, when I was staying with my folks. They were in the habit of heading out for jaunts in their tent trailer when long weekends or the occasional week off popped up. Since I was still Between Jobs, I joined them on a few of these.

One was a jaunt to Arizona, specifically to Picacho Peak (not to be confused with Pikachu Peak). Picacho is this huge hunk of rock jutting out of the desert, visible miles away, and looking for all the world like a ship that took the proverbial Wrong Turn At Albequerque.

If you follow the link, you'll note that one of the trails listed is "Hunter's Trail". They give a little more information than we had. We read the trail listing, and saw "2.0 miles -- allow all day". We scoffed. Two miles? That's nothin'! Heck, I walked farther than that just ambling aimlessly around the neighborhood!

So we took it. We each had a bottle of water and a banana and a sandwich; we were PREPARED!

Um, the sign didn't say that the trail went to THE TOP OF THE PEAK and back down. Or that large stretches of it were nearly vertical ("steep" -- Hah!), with steel cables that had been hammered into the sandstone face by intrepid Boy Scouts decades before. Or that once you got to that point, you really couldn't turn back. As far as "climbing up a mountain" goes, it was actually pretty easy -- but as far as two-mile trails go? It was pretty impressively exhausting. And we really weren't prepared for it.

[collie13.livejournal.com]

Who was the author?

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Robert A. Heinlein.

He lived (and died) in Carmel, California when I was stationed at Coast Guard Group Monterey. We got to do all the military burials-at-sea for the area. It was common knowledge that the ashes of "some local author" had been waiting in the XO's office for several days of inclement weather and fairly busy Search and Rescue activity, but I didn't know who it was until the day of the actual burial.

I wasn't originally on the duty crew that day, but a friend of mine was, and he knew that I was a Heinlein fan. When he found out, he ran up to my barracks room and let me know. I threw on my dress blues and got permission to join the crew.

Of all the burials at sea I participated in at Group Monterey, this one was perfect. The weather was ideal, with scattered clouds and dolphins leaping from the water a ways off (something I almost never saw). No odd little mishaps occurred -- the container didn't get stuck, the wind didn't blow the ashes back into the face of the crew. It was quiet and calm and perfect.

[collie13.livejournal.com]

Oh, my.

Thank you for sharing that. He was my favorite author too. It's nice to know how his burial at sea went, and that people who cared were there.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

At least one other person on board was a fan.

I brought my paperback copy of Stranger in a Strange Land aboard, and wrote the latitude, longitude, date and time inside the front cover. If I'd had more presence of mind, I would have grabbed The Past Through Tomorrow, and read the opening of "Requiem".

But then I would have cried.

[collie13.livejournal.com]

Oh, I so loved Stranger in A Strange Land. And yes, I'd have cried too.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Who knew that big fat dragons had extreme mobility. ^^ You must be able to roll rather well.

[skorzy.livejournal.com]

2. Taken a body down to the morgue.

I've been in the morgue where the M.E. gave me specimens, right from the autopsy table, to take back UP to our lab. Does that count? :)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I think that counts as Something You've Done That I Haven't. I only made morgue DEPOSITS, not WITHDRAWLS.

[delako.livejournal.com]

I maced myself and a roomful of people...does that count? :)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Only if you didn't notice.

Another Coast Guard story: we would perform regular inspections of the weapons belts on the boats, including the tear gas cannisters. Some of the holsters for the cannisters were a little tight, and once, when I was trying to get the thing back in the belt, my thumb slipped and hit the button on top. A jet of tear gas sprayed across my chest.

Now, for those of you who watch too much TV and think that spraying someone in the chest with tear gas is No Big Thing, I should note that we were trained to do exactly that -- tear gas in the face can permanently injure someone (and we had better methods of inflicting permanent injuries if such were deemed appropriate). The fumes rising up from a chest burst give exactly the results intended: tearing, sniffling, incapacitation.

At least, for normal people.

Your Obedient Serpent spent the first 20 years of his life with a chronic sinus infection, and still suffered from periodic bouts of severe allergy. I may have teared up a bit, my nose might have gotten sniffly -- but I'd suffered through worse on a daily basis for most of my life.

I actually thought that I'd just gotten a blast of propellant with no CN gas -- until everyone else on the boat had to leave the compartment and get above decks.

Previously, as part of our training, we'd experience the stuff deliberately -- none of the classic Army "stick'em in a room with a CN grenade" bit. They just swabbed a bit of the stuff onto our cheek with a Q-Tip. When I had little or no reaction, everyone (including me) figured that I'd just gotten a smaller dose at that point -- but the evidence seems to indicate that I'm pretty close to immune to that stuff.

[delako.livejournal.com]

Mine happened at a party in my house. I knocked off the cap to my grandmothers mace, and as I was putting it back on I accidentally let it out right up in my face. This happened right at the door as we were allc oming in the room..so each person that walked through the door got hit with the cloud.

I felt bad...but afterwards we all laughed ;)