Your most exciting or terrifying moment(s) in life?

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm just sitting here watching the news, PFing, and thinking about this hurricane and the many folks enduring the night in Florida.

I guess for me, a few stunts on motorcycles and in cars, along with a 7.0 and a 7.1 earthquake make for some of my most terrifying moments. Sometimes the fear reaction doesn't really set in until after the fact, but you still know when life has gotten dreadfully serious. I must say...it's very strange to say it this way, but a few of my fondest, or at least most treasured memories involve life threatening situations. Others were certainly no fun at all. I guess the most terrifying was a near fall from the top of Feather Falls, in northern California - a 600+ foot drop. It was a very close call - inches from going all the way down.

http://www.shastacascade.org/butte/butte3.gif

http://www.shastacascade.org/butte/feathrfl.htm

 

[Imparcticle]

unts on motorcycles and in cars, along with a 7.0 and a 7.1 earthquake make for some of my most terrifying moments.

Wow! That's really frightening to go through. My sister says that during an earthquake of that magnitude, you should not get under a desk as most people tend to do. Instead you should go somewhere where there is nothing that can fall on you or by a bare wall. Is that the correct precaution? What kinds of precautions do you use?

I guess the most terrifying was a near fall from the top of Feather Falls, in northern California - a 600+ foot drop. It was a very close call - inches from going all the way down.

Well, I'm glad you're still alive. You're a great person.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow! That's really frightening to go through. My sister says that during an earthquake of that magnitude, you should not get under a desk as most people tend to do. Instead you should go somewhere where there is nothing that can fall on you or by a bare wall. Is that the correct precaution? What kinds of precautions do you use?

Well, my own experience is that in major quakes the walls collapse outwards; so don't run outside. It is best to be in a closet, bathroom, or a hallway; the idea being that these areas are typically structurally sound as compared to the larger areas of the house or building. Also, stairwells are very bad since they tend to pull away from the wall and collapse or fall over. The problem is that you usually have no warning. Get to the nearest best place and try to get under something strong. First and foremost, you don't want to be running around in a panic. It helps to think about your actions ahead of time so that if a quake hits, you know what to do without thinking about it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I think you're a great person as well.

 

[Adam]

Sixty US marines were on the beach, the people in charge ****ed up the communications and planning and pretty much everything else, and the marines were nearly caught in the middle of a shore bombardment. I let my captain know what was going on (he was right near me in the ops room), and luckily everything was put on hold until they got out of the way. That was kind of exciting. A bit.

I spotted a drug-smuggling ship and reported it. That was okay.

Some goons involved with illegal drugs and such caught me and beat the hell out of me, causing years of both major and minor operations to fix the damage. That was a very exciting time, but not in a good way.

Getting on the bus and going to basic training was very exciting, a first step away from home and off to something new.

 

[Monique]

I guess the most terrifying was a near fall from the top of Feather Falls, in northern California - a 600+ foot drop. It was a very close call - inches from going all the way down.

I actually once went down a 165 foot waterfall. I was already very tired and cold of repelling waterfalls and swimming through rapids and as the big finale I found myself staring down the abyss with water rushing past my feet.. the moments securing myself to the rope (quite impossible) and actually going over the very slippery edge (also quite impossible) were the most nerve wrecking

 

[flexten]

The sound of a SAM site lockon is unforgetable, even then it wasn't until later .. there was no time to think, only instinct. Well I'm still here so never heard that final fatal up-doppler screach. And then those two earthquakes in Sylmar/Northridge. For some reason the earthquakes were more fearfull, yet clearly less dangerous.

Thanks Ivan Seeking

 

[jcsd]

I just found a piece of Edam in the fridge!

 

[Evo]

I just found a piece of Edam in the fridge!

Does that fall under exciting or frightening, or both?

 

[jimmy p]

Exciting: Reading that jcsd found a piece of Edam in his fridge

Frightening 1: Hearing my cousin was in intensive care after falling off a 40ft wall.

Frightening 2: Hearing that the same cousin was in intensive care after she OD'd on paracetamol. She swallowed 30-40. She is still alive thankfully.

 

[jcsd]

Does that fall under exciting or frightening, or both?

It looked as though it might of been there for a while, so a bit of both.

 

[Loren Booda]

Exciting: Ending three years of schizophrenia by manically falling in unrequited love from across the room at GWU

Terrifying: After my finally withdrawing from pot, meeting the Devil in a psychotic dream and almost drowning in my own vomit

 

[Moonbear]

Hmm...I'm not much of a daredevil, so if I've had any experiences even close to anything like falling off a waterfall, I've blocked those memories completely

So, for me...most exciting, watching my nephew being born...wow! Talk about an emotional experience for everyone.

Most frightening...the 25 min drive to the hospital while my sister was in labor and the contractions suddenly started to get MUCH closer together about half way there. Of course, they slowed down again once we got to the hospital, just enough that they almost sent her back home.

I think my relatives have been the source of most frightening events in my life. There was the time mom cut her arm with the lawnmower (not the blade, the actual lawnmower...she had it tipped up to clean under it or some such foolishness and it fell back down on her)...mom showed up from the backyard with a bloody rag held against her arm and the frightening part is not knowing just what to expect when she pulls back the rag to show me and asks me to help her clean it and put on some bandaids! Bandaids, right...it was a friggin 3 inch gash clean through the skin and then some! There was the time when my step-brothers and cousin were fooling around by the pool, and they through my cousin in and missed, and he cracked his head on the concrete edge and promptly sunk. At least that same stupid step-brother has quick reflexes and reacted quickly enough to jump in and get him back to the surface as he was coming to so he didn't drown. (Boys must have really thick skulls to survive these things. ) Or there was the time my step-dad managed to slice three of his fingers with a knife trying to do something foolish in the backyard...another request for band-aids turned into a trip to the emergency room for stitches and me cleaning the trail of blood from the backyard and through the house. Good thing I'm not squeamish about blood! At least I haven't had to watch those things happen, it's just those moments before the damage is revealed when I'm wondering if the fingers are even going to be still attached when the towel is pulled away. Those are the days I swear I'm adopted

 

[Loren Booda]

The time when my friend Brad, after I had mused about severe burns and warned him about the high voltage he was near, climbed on top of a train, opened up the tanker lid, then stood up and was electrocuted by 5,000 volts, which ignited the solvent fumes that tanker had carried. My other friend and I thought Brad dead, but I found Brad (glasses blown off by the electric field and circled by what appeared to be gauze, actually burnt skin) blindly disembarking the train with the strength of shock, hand over hand down the side of the car. I grabbed him at the bottom, said "Brad, you're alive" to which he responded "my foot, my foot" - the charge had exited his foot, blowing off the bottom of his shoe.

We were soon surrounded by emergency vehicles, including a helicopter that took him to the intensive care burn unit. Eventually he joined the Army, got married and divorced. All of this taught me to donate blood, the folly of getting high, and Brad's stubbornness.