Risks you didn't know were risks

[Whites Bay]

I’d made a post last week that got me thinking about life’s randomity. I’ve done some stupid things – things that by all rights should have left me dead or maimed, but I didn’t know these events were risky at the time. I’ll provide a few examples, and would like to hear yours. Bear in mind that I’m not looking for “risks” that you took knowing that they were indeed “risks”. Just stoopid schit that you’ve done that really could have ended in a horrible fashion.

 

1) Age 14-ish. Grew up on Lake Ontario in Webster. I used to love walking on the ice in winter. One February, the ice “flash-froze” during a cold snap, and the following sunny afternoon I grabbed a stick and walked out on the brash ice more than a mile, all alone, and never told anyone. If I’d gone through the ice, no one would have ever known. They’d have found my body in Oswego in May. I told my Mom this story a few years ago (she’s almost 80 now), and she just went ashen. I felt awful.

 

2) Age 21-ish. Really loved snorkeling. I was up in the Thousand Islands exploring a granite cliff at about 10’ in depth. I saw a hole that looked passable (I could see light on the other side), and tried to swim through it. I got caught; my shoulders wedged. I couldn’t get through, and I basically only had 30 seconds to live. There were bryozoans all over the rocks, which made it slippery, and after about 20 horrifying seconds, I managed to push myself through to the other side. I didn’t snorkel for a year after that one.

 

3) Age 40-ish. Not as dramatic, but I’ve put it here because “I should have been old enough to know better”. I was in an antique boat in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario with no cell phone or radio, and used to go riding out into the shipping channel and chase freighters. I didn’t know it at the time, but there was massive residue in the bottom of the gas tank that would clog the fuel intake, and stall the engine with no warning. If that had happened in the middle of the lake…

 

None of these events were planned risks. They just happened. And I’m glad I’m still here. It’s the off season. Go ahead and reply. What random events have almost killed you?

 

"Theme from Midnight Cowboy" - Harry Neilsen

[Hossage]

I cant believe I made it out of my twenties, especially out of jail. I dont think I would be so lucky after ten more years of that. Hundreds (at least) of drunk drives, wanton hard drug abuse, dealing drugs, driving well over 100 mph, football, rugby, fights, whitewater kayaking, all kinds of things like that. Just give me a rocking chair on the front porch these days.

 

I once found myself squatting in a bush in a drugged out haze and realized I had been there for a couple hours and it was 20 degrees out and I was wearing a t shirt. Good thing I was drunk and in great shape, or I would have frozen to death.

[/dev/null]

A can of Denty Moore Beef Stew

 

But seriously, if you put the can on top of the refirgerator a little too close to the edge. And sometime later you open the fridge and start moving stuff around with your head looking down (and back of the skull exposed)...and that heavy can comes falling down

 

Felt the can whiff just pass my ear. It left a nick in the floor

 

A couple inches difference from dead center right where the spine meets the skull

 

[Jim in Anchorage]

15 Years in Alaska, I don't know where to start. I should have been fish food long ago.

[WotAGuy]

A can of Denty Moore Beef Stew

 

But seriously, if you put the can on top of the refirgerator a little too close to the edge. And sometime later you open the fridge and start moving stuff around with your head looking down (and back of the skull exposed)...and that heavy can comes falling down

 

Felt the can whiff just pass my ear. It left a nick in the floor

 

A couple inches difference from dead center right where the spine meets the skull

 

 

 

Ha! I'm sure there are others, but your story reminded me of one time when I did try to heat a can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew on a Coleman stove....but neglected to vent the can. This was back before pop top cans. Thank God...that thing blew up like a balloon in no time. Would have died from the shrapnel......

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

I've probably got the wimpiest story here, but this is probably the closest I was to dying.

 

I had a pretty bad cold for a few days when I was 15 and one of the symptoms was heavy sneezing. After taking a shower, I stepped out to dry myself off. As I approached the bathroom counter to brush my teeth/shave/whatever, a sneeze suddenly came upon me and I sneezed so hard that I smacked my forehead against the iron, which my Mom had left out. Knocked me out for about 5 minutes, and I only came to after my family found me lying naked on the bathroom tile with blood seeping out of my head.

 

I had a fracture in my cranium and it gave me a very bad concussion...I got bad headaches for a while, but those have gone away. I still have a trianlge-shaped dent in my forehead.

[Doc]

Back when I was 7 or 8, I was at my local Wegman's in Penfield, NY. Back then, they had a big plate glass window in front, a "conveyor belt" of sorts that had wheels to roll plastic containers of groceries outside the store. Nearby the window were those candy dispensers. My mom was paying and I told her I wanted to go get some candy. She said "stay right here." A few moments later (enough time for me to be at the candy dispensers), a car came backing into the plate glass window, shattering the whole thing. had I been there, I'd have been seriously cut, maybe even dead. Who knew that getting candy was a risk!

[Jim in Anchorage]

I've probably got the wimpiest story here, but this is probably the closest I was to dying.

 

I had a pretty bad cold for a few days when I was 15 and one of the symptoms was heavy sneezing. After taking a shower, I stepped out to dry myself off. As I approached the bathroom counter to brush my teeth/shave/whatever, a sneeze suddenly came upon me and I sneezed so hard that I smacked my forehead against the iron, which my Mom had left out. Knocked me out for about 5 minutes, and I only came to after my family found me lying naked on the bathroom tile with blood seeping out of my head.

 

I had a fracture in my cranium and it gave me a very bad concussion...I got bad headaches for a while, but those have gone away. I still have a trianlge-shaped dent in my forehead.

It is wimpy. You fell on your moms iron? Good lord man, get out and do something

[ExiledInIllinois]

Hiking in the rocky moutains during a lightning storm... Get to the top of the ridge with lightning cracking down all around us within yards... As each one goes off, you just freeze. Get to the top of the ridge and a clearing... Straight across the clearing is the continuation of the trail... Made a mad dash straight across... It did save a considerable jaunt going around the top clearing.

 

No way we should have been on the move that evening... Let alone darkness... We were pushing it and trying to make rendezvous (which we did) with some others.

[LeviF]

Hanging out with my cousin in Letchworth State Park at age 7 or 8 or something like that. There's a bit of snow on the ground, so we slide down a hill on our stomachs. Ended up splitting my head open on a rather large rock.

 

Boy Scout camp when I was 13 or so. My tent-mate brought food into our tent without my knowledge, and forgot to take it out before bed. I wake up in the middle of the night with a huge brown bear in the middle of our tent. He ended up grabbing my tent-mate's bag and walking out with it. Scared the **** out of me though.

 

Got some near-death experiences, but those were all from obvious risks.

[Wacka]

Was at UB inthe late 70s. Taking computer intro course. Used punch cards (this was before PCs). After reading the cards you might have to wait several hours for the printout. Was there till about 2 AM one evening. Driving home down the 290 and 90. Fell asleep at the wheel. Came to and I was driving on the shoulder in front of the trooper barracks in Cheektowaga. Luckily I stayed on the road. Always made sure I didn't get that tired when having to drive home.

[Chef Jim]

Bills fan 45 plus years. Need I say more.

[Cynical]

I cant believe I made it out of my twenties, especially out of jail. I dont think I would be so lucky after ten more years of that. Hundreds (at least) of drunk drives, wanton hard drug abuse, dealing drugs, driving well over 100 mph, football, rugby, fights, whitewater kayaking, all kinds of things like that. Just give me a rocking chair on the front porch these days.

 

I can't believe I made it out of my teens.

 

Drunk driving, excessive speeding (not uncommon to happened at the same time), the occasional fight, ...

and the speeding had no limitations. Straight, drunk, day, night, with lights, without lights, dry, pouring rain, snow, ice ...

 

I once found myself squatting in a bush in a drugged out haze and realized I had been there for a couple hours and it was 20 degrees out and I was wearing a t shirt. Good thing I was drunk and in great shape, or I would have frozen to death.

 

I did a bunch of partying in the woods of Central PA, and I had similar situation to yours among others.

[DC Tom]

Hiked down Sandia peak. The west side (the steep slope). Along a cliff-side trail. At 10 at night. Without a light.

 

 

And there's bears.

 

 

Easily the dumbest thing I ever did...and I once picked a fight with a guy waving a revolver.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Hiked down Sandia peak. The west side (the steep slope). Along a cliff-side trail. At 10 at night. Without a light.

 

 

And there's bears.

 

 

Easily the dumbest thing I ever did...and I once picked a fight with a guy waving a revolver.

 

Don't worry the bears in that area wouldn't have hurt/killed you (only black bears)... The fall would have... The bears would have just eaten the nice food in your pack before morning!

 

One early morning a small black bear wondered into camp and took nothing but the Pop-Tarts and grape drink! Left the freakin' granola and proceeded to eat the good stuff only a few meters away from our prying eyes. Gee thanks Mr. Bear, another day on pure granola and water!

[Philly McButterpants]

You know how your mom always said to wait a half-an-hour after eating before swimming?

 

I went to Sleepy Hollow campground with a friend and his family when I was 15. I remember the day cuz it was the day WZIR came on the air and played "Psycho Chicken" all day.

 

They had a great lunchtime cookout and we ate like kings. Immediately afterwards my friend, his brother and I ran into the lake there and decided to swim out to the diving platform which was maybe 100 yards out.

 

Half-way there i cramped up, bad. My entire midsection exploded in pain and I curled up like a ball. I flailed my arms around a little, but my friend and his brother were well past me, and all of the swimmers on the beach were well behind me.

 

I was literally going down for the third time when my arm hit on a rope with floaters on it running out to the diving platform. Thanking God the whole time, I started to pull myself in towards the beach.

 

The genius lifeguard begins to yell to me to, "get off the rope!" through a bullhorn. He wanted to yell at me when I got to the beach but I kinda told him off when I got back on land.

[/dev/null]

One early morning a small black bear wondered into camp and took nothing but the Pop-Tarts and grape drink! Left the freakin' granola and proceeded to eat the good stuff only a few meters away from our prying eyes. Gee thanks Mr. Bear, another day on pure granola and water!

 

The bear that stole your pikanik basket sounds smarter than the average bear

[BillsRUs]

The bear that stole your pikanik basket sounds smarter than the average bear

 

hahahaha. Classic. I wonder if kids today know who Yogi Bear is. They probably don't know anyone outside Disney.

[Wooderson]

1. A couple years ago, myself and two of my friends went up to the U of R to visit my one buddy who was in a frat. We drank all night long with the occasional smoke down in between. We decide to hit a bizzong around 4 am when my buddy who lived there decides to leave us to go to some broad's room. He throws us in two rooms with random frat brothers that we didn't know so we could sleep. Once he leaves, we decide that there's no way we're just sleeping there by ourselves so we decide to drive home drunk/high from Rochester at 5am. My buddy easily could've got a DWI or crashed. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but when I woke up the next morning I realized how dumb it really was. Not to mention my buddy in the backseat was throwing up all over himself, so we had to cover him up in a garbage bag.

 

I know there's more, but I can't think of them right now. I'll have to check back in.

[zow2]

2) Age 21-ish. Really loved snorkeling. I was up in the Thousand Islands exploring a granite cliff at about 10’ in depth. I saw a hole that looked passable (I could see light on the other side), and tried to swim through it. I got caught; my shoulders wedged. I couldn’t get through, and I basically only had 30 seconds to live. There were bryozoans all over the rocks, which made it slippery, and after about 20 horrifying seconds, I managed to push myself through to the other side. I didn’t snorkel for a year after that one.

 

I can relate to the snorkeling story. I was 34, in Maui on my honeymoon. Snorkeling about 75-100 yds offshore near some coral. I thought it would be cool to check out the coral up close. I got caught in some waves, undertow or whatever? i kept getting sucked over the sharp coral..could not get my bearings, and started to panic. I had a hard time getting to the surface to catch some air while at the same time trying to avoid scraping up against coral. I freaked, thought i was gonna drown but managed to pull out of there. When i got to shore it was so serene and i tried not to upset my wife so i just acted all cool like nothing happened.

[BB27]

Used to do a lot of climbing, ice, rock and general mountaineering. Took a couple of nasty falls and am still here.

 

As the saying goes, there are old climbers, and there are bold climbers, but there aren't any old, bold climbers.

[DrFishfinder]

When I was in Spain, I went to this Ranch House outside of Toledo. There was a big patio with a short stone wall (maybe 2 ft high) enclosing the patio. Thick trees all around the edge. I stood on the stone wall to get a better look at something in the distance & take some pics. Walked back & forth along the wall trying to get a better shot & finally gave up.

 

About an hour later, driving away, I looked back up at the ranch house and realized there was about a 75 foot sheer drop, off that 2 foot stone wall I was standing on. I never realized it because the trees had grown right up against it. What I thought were maybe 6 foot high trees were actually the tops of 75 foot tall trees.

[erynthered]

I was putting in a above ground fish pond on our new pool deck, cleaning it and filling it up with water then setting in the electric pump. Well the pump wanst working, so I steped in the water to pick up the pump to check it out. Thats when I started to get electricuted. Good fourtune for me that we had the electrical outlets on the pool deck set for emergency shut off. I steped out of the pond un pluged the pump and pulled it out, sure enough, a small piece of electrical tape had peeled away showing wires.

 

Got zapped for about 15 seconds. Scared the shiit out of me!!

[BuffaloBill]

I've probably got the wimpiest story here, but this is probably the closest I was to dying.

 

I had a pretty bad cold for a few days when I was 15 and one of the symptoms was heavy sneezing. After taking a shower, I stepped out to dry myself off. As I approached the bathroom counter to brush my teeth/shave/whatever, a sneeze suddenly came upon me and I sneezed so hard that I smacked my forehead against the iron, which my Mom had left out. Knocked me out for about 5 minutes, and I only came to after my family found me lying naked on the bathroom tile with blood seeping out of my head.

 

I had a fracture in my cranium and it gave me a very bad concussion...I got bad headaches for a while, but those have gone away. I still have a trianlge-shaped dent in my forehead.

 

 

Knowing that you came out of this OK I can't help but laugh at the mental image of the situation. It sounds like a chain of events that could be worked into a good comedy.

 

As for me when I was about 9 years old my brother and I came up with a brilliant idea to disassemble 22 bullets to see what was inside. We added to the stupidity by deciding to light the gunpowder (keep in mind it was a very small quantity) with the box of bullets nearby. Fortunately, nothing came of it but not a bright activity.

 

I was also very lucky another time in my teens when I decided to use gas to ignite a brush pile that needed to be burned. When I threw the match on it the pile flashed. I jumped back and actually knocked the gas can over in the process. How I walked away with nothing but the hair on one arm singed off can be explained only through luck. I probably would not have died but I could have been seriously burned.

[Doc]

I was putting in a above ground fish pond on our new pool deck, cleaning it and filling it up with water then setting in the electric pump. Well the pump wanst working, so I steped in the water to pick up the pump to check it out. Thats when I started to get electricuted. Good fourtune for me that we had the electrical outlets on the pool deck set for emergency shut off. I steped out of the pond un pluged the pump and pulled it out, sure enough, a small piece of electrical tape had peeled away showing wires.

 

Got zapped for about 15 seconds. Scared the shiit out of me!!

I got a swingset for my boys that has a slide on it. I put a pool at the end of the slide, filled it with water, put a water pump in it, and ran a hose to the top of the slide, to make a water slide. It was plugged into a GFCI outlet. It worked great and the kids used it a few time, but I wasn't sure I wanted to chance anything really bad happening so we haven't used it in years.

[ExiledInIllinois]

The bear that stole your pikanik basket sounds smarter than the average bear

 

Oh... They are pretty smart... Especially the black bears on Mt. Marcy... They seem to follow the rope of the bear bag and go for the knot! As an extra precaution, I would stand on another's shoulders to get the knot extra high! Boy that is a fiasco... But it beats not having food...

[BB27]

Oh... They are pretty smart... Especially the black bears on Mt. Marcy... They seem to follow the rope of the bear bag and go for the knot! As an extra precaution, I would stand on another's shoulders to get the knot extra high! Boy that is a fiasco... But it beats not having food...

Yeah, the bears around Mt. Marcy are really smart. I remember back in the late 80's / early 90's when I was hiking/camping/climbing in the high peaks area that you couldn't use a white rope to hang your food because they would find it immediately. A black rope would be left alone, but every white rope in the backcountry camping area near Lake Colden (flowed lands) would be gone in the morning. Eventually the bears figured out that people were using black rope too!

 

Bear proof containers are the way to go! Out west in a lot of the backcountry campsites they have large bear proof storage containers that all the campers can use. Seems to work really well.

[Rubes]

I was at a Sabres game once as a kid, with my stepfather. We had seats pretty close to the ice, somewhere behind and off to the side of the penalty boxes. During the game, a player shot the puck around behind the net, but it was up high on the tall glass. Since the glass along the rest of the ice is shorter, the puck eventually flew around the glass and off into the stands. It ended up hitting my stepfather in the shoulder. It was a rocket, and it hurt him pretty good.

 

If I had been sitting in his seat instead, that puck would have nailed me right in the side of the head. Game over.

[Terry Tate]

I can relate to the snorkeling story. I was 34, in Maui on my honeymoon. Snorkeling about 75-100 yds offshore near some coral. I thought it would be cool to check out the coral up close. I got caught in some waves, undertow or whatever? i kept getting sucked over the sharp coral..could not get my bearings, and started to panic. I had a hard time getting to the surface to catch some air while at the same time trying to avoid scraping up against coral. I freaked, thought i was gonna drown but managed to pull out of there. When i got to shore it was so serene and i tried not to upset my wife so i just acted all cool like nothing happened.

Sounds like a riptide. Waves come in to the beach, water recedes back into the sea. But sometimes it channels together, and it's force is not one you will escape by swimming against it toward the beach. Very quickly you will find yourself far from the beach and getting further out at an alarming rate. You have to swim parallel to the beach to escape the riptide, then you will be able to return to the beach. Beaches are nice. Oceans can be scary.

[coloradobillsfan]

ive done some pretty risky (no, stupid) things with fire over the years. among the best

 

- CO2 cartridge. probably the loudest explosion ive ever heard in my life. completely disintegrated a chest-high fire such that absolutely nothing was left. nothing.

 

- Anti-aircraft bullet, about 4 inches long with the casing. we were 'smart' enough to wait behind a large boulder, but when it went off we could hear it ricochet off of trees and rocks for the next 4-5 seconds, no exaggeration.

 

- Grolsch bottle. empty but sealed with their famous stopper. it exploded glass in every direction but by the grace of our guardian angels it didnt hit any of us, except for one piece - the ceramic top which hit my friend square in the chest. it was attached to a very pointed shard of glass.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Yeah, the bears around Mt. Marcy are really smart. I remember back in the late 80's / early 90's when I was hiking/camping/climbing in the high peaks area that you couldn't use a white rope to hang your food because they would find it immediately. A black rope would be left alone, but every white rope in the backcountry camping area near Lake Colden (flowed lands) would be gone in the morning. Eventually the bears figured out that people were using black rope too!

 

Bear proof containers are the way to go! Out west in a lot of the backcountry campsites they have large bear proof storage containers that all the campers can use. Seems to work really well.

 

 

I remember one ranger saying they named one: "Cliff"... "Tie your line extra high"... We were camped that night and somebody heard something move... We all joked like he was paranoid... Went to shine the light and here was this bear on all fours growling and scraping at a tree... Thank God for getting on somebody's shoulders! Were heard clanking of pots and pans down stream and found out that they were raided... Went up a small hill in the morning to find all their sh*t strewn all over the place... Our's was in tact... Thank God some other hikers had "better and easier stuff" to get!

 

I never used bear proof containers... Wouldn't they get kicked around all over the place and get lost??

[PromoTheRobot]

I used to blow stuff up with M-80s and played on railroad tracks.

 

PTR

[udonkey]

I've got a ton, and almost all involve alcohol in some way or another. Fortunately, I've grown up a lot in the past ~8 years or so.

 

A couple that stand out:

 

I was working a summer job my second year of college, delivering ice. Absolutely terrible job - I seemed to get routes that had me going to all of the really rough "carryouts" in terrible parts of Cincinnati (crackheads asking me for money after some shop owner just paid me in cash, etc.). While others had routes where they could unload entire skids of ice into a huge cooler, most of my customers were needing 20-30 at a time, which meant that I was out on the road a LOT longer each day. Typically worked 12-13 hour days that summer.

 

I got home one night around 9pm, exhausted. A girl that I grew up with (and always had a huge crush on, still do) was going to college around 3 hours to the east of me and started sending me text messages that it was her 21st birthday that night and that I should drive over to hang out. I resisted, but really wanted to. Called around and found a couple of really spontaneous friends and convinced them that there would be drunk girls at the end of our journey, so we hopped in the car around 11:30pm, heading east.

 

We managed to shave some time off of the trip by excessively speeding and made it to the bar just in time for last call. Needless to say, serious binge drinking began. To my dismay, the birthday girl was nowhere to be found, but several of her friends were still out, so we drank with them. Ended up back at the birthday girl's apartment to find her passed out, so the remaining soldiers sat around and drank the rest of the alcohol in her apartment (including some incredibly strong jello shots). I can't really say what happened the rest of the night, as I definitely blacked out from trying to play catch up. My next recollection was waking up on the back seat of my car, both of my friends in the front seat, parked on the shoulder of the highway, about 10 miles west of the college town that we had been in.

 

Part of me was proud that I was smart enough to give my keys to someone else, but I guess I wasn't in the right mindset to realize that my friends were equally intoxicated. Fortunately, someone was smart enough to realize that it was a bad idea to drive home.

 

 

The other, also involving a girl. A buddy's kid sister (she was about 22) had just moved to town and we had reconnected as I was one of the only people in town that she knew. I went out with some friends and was having a good time. Towards the end of the night and closing time, quite drunk (not driving), I started getting text messages from her. The bar that I was at was on her way home, so she told me not to leave until she got there. She stopped, was more than flirtatious, and insisted that I go home with her.

 

Without thinking, I totally blew off my friends and left with her...OBVIOUSLY. So we get back to her apartment, I'm thinking that things are going my way, and we walk inside her apartment to find some random dude sitting on her couch. I initially had a huge WTF moment, but an even bigger WTF moment when she walked over to him, straddled him, and started making out.

 

Now, I don't know what her intentions were, but I wasn't really interested in finding out, so I took the first opportunity to sneak out the front door. What I hadn't mentioned yet is that this night had a wind chill of around -10 degrees and I hadn't brought a coat because it would've been a hassle at the bar - I wasn't going to be outside, right?

 

I started walking (I was a few miles south of the Ohio River in Kentucky - I lived about 5 miles north of the river). Walked a couple of miles to the bar that I was at, all closed up and everyone was gone, including staff, so I kept walking.

 

Called my buddy that was originally going to drive me home - by this point, he was about 30 minutes away and a bit pissy that I just bailed on him (rightfully so). I was so cold that I had to switch the phone from hand to hand, because my hands were literally freezing in the position to hold the phone, so I had to keep peeling back my fingers and putting the phone in the other hand. At this point, I was pleading with him to pick me up - it's now ~3am on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, I could see the Cincinnati skyline, but no one around to help me. I was crossing a bridge that went over some Ohio River backwaters and my level of desperation (and drunkenness) almost led me to jump...I recall telling my friend on the phone that it was nice knowing him.

 

Fortunately, I kept walking and 10-15 minutes later managed to flag down an off-duty cab driver. His lights were off and he was heading home, but I was able to convince him to drive me home. I had him stop at an ATM on the way and ended up giving him a $30+ tip. He probably deserved more, as the guy probably saved my life.

 

I now live in Florida, but I learned my lesson in Ohio - I don't leave the house in the winter without a jacket and gloves, no matter how dorky or burdensome they are when I ended up at my destination.

 

 

Sorry for the novel...

[BB27]

 

I remember one ranger saying they named one: "Cliff"... "Tie your line extra high"... We were camped that night and somebody heard something move... We all joked like he was paranoid... Went to shine the light and here was this bear on all fours growling and scraping at a tree... Thank God for getting on somebody's shoulders! Were heard clanking of pots and pans down stream and found out that they were raided... Went up a small hill in the morning to find all their sh*t strewn all over the place... Our's was in tact... Thank God some other hikers had "better and easier stuff" to get!

 

I never used bear proof containers... Wouldn't they get kicked around all over the place and get lost??

The big containers out west were the size of a small dumpster with shelves. They were made of steel and were attached to the ground. No way a bear was moving that thing. Although, a reallly determined brown bear might have a shot.

[udonkey]

Damn, looks like another thread has fallen victim to my thread killing abilities.