Longeuay Vacation  
9 Lives
(as of June 2001)

And in the “If I was a Cat with 9 lives” category:
 
1. In 1958 (at the tender age of 5) I accidentally lit myself on fire, causing severe burns to my left leg.  The first doctors wanted to sew my leg together.  Luckily for experimental skin grafting by Children’s Hospital, my leg was saved.

2. In 1960 at the highly intelligent ages of 9 and 7, my older brother Mike and I decided to see if a 22 bullet we found in a field would still fire.  If you ever slam a rock against the bullet firing pin, be sure you have the round point AWAY from you.  Luckily the bullet only grazed my arm and impacted into the house across the street.

3. In 1969 I experienced a sudden appendix pain that required immediate surgery.  Luckily the operation was performed before any secondary problems resulted.

4. In 1970 while motorcycling down from Mt. Baldy, I hit a patch of dirt on a turn.  I slid down the road on my helmet avoiding serious injury and luckily stopping short of sliding over the side of the mountain.   The helmet was ground down and  not usable.

5. In 1971 the Cessna plane crash described in that paper.  That wiped out 95% of my permanent memory prior to the crash.

6. In 1972 (the summer) while re-tracing my steps at the crash site, I accidentally stepped on a loose rock, slipping and breaking my left ankle (at least it wasn’t the right ankle I broke in the plane crash).  So here I was again, at the bottom of a steep mountain, with only one good leg, and had to crawl out.  Not too mention driving my four speed stick shift truck back to the hospital in Fullerton.
 
7. In 1972 (the fall) while a bit intoxicated and driving home from a party without a helmet, I grossly over estimated my approach speed into a 90 degree turn on a dark country road and crashed my motorcycle into a tree, again avoiding serious injury (60 mph in a 10 mph turn).  The motorcycle needed the entire front end replaced (unlike me).

8. In 1973 after a fraternity party late in the night, I accidentally lit my motorcycle gas tank on fire by using a match to see where the gas smell was coming from.  I only suffered a scorched gas tank and a healthy dose of humiliation instead of a detonation.

9. In 1974 while rowing in the Ballona Creek (Marina Del Rey), I contracted a staff infection in my left knee that could have resulted in the loss of my left leg instead of a three month recovery.

10. In 1975 on my first cross-country motorcycle trip around the US, I forgot to put up my kickstand while accelerating to about 60 mph, which caused me to run off the onramp into a Texas sign.  I suffered a broken windshield instead of a broken face.

11. In 1976 my friend, his wife and I entered a bar with only one patron huddled over the bar by the bartender.  We had been there a few times before and the bartender knew us.  He carded my friends wife, and since she didn’t have her ID with her, demanded we leave – so incessant that it didn’t make sense.  We found out later that we walked in when the patron was committing an armed robbery and had the bartender get rid of us or he would get rid of us.

12. In 1977 while trying to rescue my wife from sliding down an extremely steep snow laden mountain side, I leaped into her path, grabbed her and protected her while we slid 200 feet down to the bottom, avoiding trees, rocks and other dangerous objects along the way.

13. In 1979 I was on the next to last flight of Flight 191 out of Chicago (all 273 perished when the three engine bolts broke off).

14. In 1981 I was asked by the military to *!@#$%&* - I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you!  To say the least, if things went wrong, I wouldn’t be here to write this.

15. In 1982 while attempting to bypass the electric meter at a friends new home, and no lights coming on after jumping the meter with my battery cables, I decided to check to see if there was any current from the pole by striking the battery cable ends together.  It is not wise to mix electricity and alcohol together before testing.  After our eyes re-adjusted to the blinding flash (30 seconds), we noticed that we forgot to flip the master circuit breaker on.

16. In 1983 I ended up in the hospital for 10 days with a near death case of pneumonia.  I have annual relapses of bronchial pneumonia ever since.

17. In 1992 I staked out my laundromat business for a multi-million dollar bank robber and arrested him without any incident.  I did not know if he was armed or dangerous, but had to stop him anyway.

18. In 1993 I entered the gang infested Long Beach Projects (slum housing community) to rescue a friend who had been held hostage by his own drug dealer.  Unknown to me, the drug runner that had to accompany us (as part of the agreement to release the friend) kept a gun pointed my back (and was prepared to use it) in case I broke the agreement to give them another getaway car.

19. In 1994 I was in a head-on car crash on a country road in England that left me with total amnesia for 12 hours and 3 cracked ribs.  The composite crash velocity was about 100 mph.  The subcompact rental car was totally demolished (it became a sub subcompact).  
 This left me with a permanent short term memory recall problem.
 I was also asked to leave the country (and never return) by the local authorities once I was released from the RAF hospital. 

20. In 1996 my wife, son Don and I were caught in a powerful ocean surge (caused by an off coast earthquake hours before) while snorkeling off the coast of Laguna Beach.  Besides the three of us not drowning during the surge, I also avoided drowning while trying to rescue both of them (they were swept to calm waters and I was stuck in the middle of the surge).

21. In 1997 my RV caught on fire twice (while driving) within 2 days of each event.  Each time I only suffered minor hair loss instead of body loss.

22. In 1998 I avoided the Piper airplane crash on Chapman Avenue.  It hit the exact spot I drive by every day to work by 30 minutes.

23. In 2001 I experienced true back pain with a swollen L5 disk pushing into a mild case of spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal cavity), which was probably caused my the head on crash in 1994.

 ...the sage continues!


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