How have you endangered your life?
 

What is the biggest risk you have taken with your life and why?

For me I did jump out of a perfectly good airplane in my youth, just to see what it was like.

I cut off a semi. I felt really bad and scared shitless but it was that or get runover by a truck that didn't see me.

I also have done the "ripcord" ride. It was scary but the biggest fun/scary adrenaline rush I've had.

I "squeezed the lemon" a little too hard once.

I was riding my bike through an intersection and based on my experience at this one, I knew the light was gonna turn red the moment I hit the beginning of the intersection. For some reason I thought I could milk that moment between when the perpendicular traffic saw the green light and when they moved out into the intersection.

I kept pedalling hard and I made it but I'm pretty sure I felt a bumper graze my back tire. I maintained control of the bike, but I hit the curb hard and almost fell off. I was much younger then...

Have you ever seen the film, Duel? I'd think twice before cutting off a semi.

I dunno
skydiving
walking around really bad neighborhoods late at night just to see if I could get mugged
flying around on an OLD motorcycle that had a LOT more engine than it had brakes :lol:
hunted mountain lion on foot without dogs

all sorts of stuff.

I have not, but believe me, I had no choice and my sister in law and I were screaming at the top of our lungs.

Lets see all those close calls.....

1. Riding a scooter with a bus next to me on my left, a woman opened her cardoor on the right not seeing me (or the bus it seems). I still don't know how I threaded that needle between her door and the bus. Smart thing would have been to hit the car door and get a little beat up, had I lost it would have been under the bus time.

2. Almost drown deciding I could swim in pretty heavy surf in Hawaii, made it in myself, barely.

3. Decided to pass on a 2 lane road, turns out that on comming semi was moving faster than I thought. Plus side the guy in my frat using me for free rides home never asked to go again.

4. Eating to much butter and bacon :)

1. When 16 I gunned my truck off the line of a 4 lane oneway street and cut across all four lanes for basically no reason at all. (yea I was a fuckin moron)

2. Tried to hit a ski lift tower with my pole at 15. I did it, my pole snapped, and so did the stranger sitting next to me. O_O

That's all I can think of for things i've done to endanger my own life.

I almost got sucked into a laminates slitter at work.......twice!

Driven 150mph+ on several occasions. :o

Honestly most of mine would have to do with various driving stunts I've pulled. I've calmed down a lot in the last several years though. :D

Recklessly working with ladders on a daily basis. I've often stood on the very tippy top step, with both hands holding heavy gear.

One maneuver, which I consider advanced, involves holding on to the lighting grid above, bracing my feet inside the ladder, lifting it up off the floor with my legs, and swinging it a couple of feet forward to my next work position. I don't think I've ever done this with a ladder over 8' tall though.

As a kid, I used to bicycle through intersections without thinking about it. Now, as a dad, I always look both ways before crossing, and am very cautious in general.

One thing though. You know how most people follow the 5 second rule? I go to 7.

some assorted bad driving...too much beer...smoking every now and again to taunt the Lung Cancer Fairy...and being a wise ass.

That's about it.

I smoke. :rolleyes:

This just reminded me. I demolished a section of a plaster wall in our 98 year old house - without a face mask. Stupid, stupid, stupid. My lungs were a wreck for several days afterwards and I probably took a year off the back end of my life.

Spouse has you beat-he removed asbestos covering our heating pipes by spraying it with water, wrapping lawn bags around it, then smashing it with a hammer-with no face mask or protection. Been 20 years. His insurance is paid thru 2010.

Nothing extreme in danger, but all together I did a lot of dangerous stuff in my youth. Ran (it was dark) into barb wire fence, slid down a tree into a rusty nail, whipped in my open eye (went temp blind), all sorts of dangerous quad and dirtbike stuff, climbed some dangerous stuff, a few really stupid skiing and snowboarding scenes, waterfall/cliff jumping, not to mention a few dumb driving incidents...its amazing I never seriously got hurt. Although all that stuff has made me much more cautious now.

Oh and I should specifiy most of those things that got me hurt or close to hurtin were hobbies I did between ages of 7-16 on a daily basis.

I almost forgot...I used to play with fire, a lot. And explosives. :thumbsup:

Having several eating disorders.
Drinking too much.
Overdosing.
Pissing my mom off (when she used to hit us).

Skycoaster at Kennywood, aka a "ripcord ride." Scariest thing of my life. Made me want to go skydiving for real :) But that can wait a while.

skycoaster, bungee jumping, rickeys rocket ride thingie... speeding on a regular basis... uh many things i cant mention here because i am ashamed...and being a smartass in general

oh and I eat.. a lot and I like fire.

Going against a gale in a smelly old misrigged leaking pathetic fat toad of a sailing boat. It took maybe three hours to travel one nautical mile. We were in no hurry and I was the most experienced sailor onboard. Looking back, I should have taken us back to the port, but I was 18 and stubborn. Was scared shitless though, thought the tiller would snap in my hands several times.

I used to start fights in questionable establishments because I could. I carry a cluster of cigarette burns on my left shoulder from one of the ones I lost.

I've never had a knife pulled on me, but I've seen it happen.

I openly admit that I am an aggressive driver and have occasionally gotten into bad positions because of it. There was only one that would've been declared my fault had it resulted in an accident, but it happened to be the one that probably would've killed both myself and my girlfriend of the time next to me had it occurred. Needles to say I've gotten a lot more cautious since.

And then an incident that involves an emergency procedure and near-death on my part, but that was caused by my Crohn's Disease and I'd rather not recount the full story.

I think the only time I came near death was on my 21st birthday. I drank way too much alcohol and passed out. I wouldn't respond to anything and my mom was about ready to take me to the hospital to get my stomach pumped. Don't know what changed her mind, but luckily I woke up...or unluckily, I had the worst hangover ever.

Oh yea, I also used to drive under the influence of various substances. I drove my car up a hill once that wasn't a road, but because of hallucinations I swore it was there. That's what I remember, I don't even want to know the things I did that I don't remember.

I'm a pretty safe person and try not to put myself in any danger of dying.

Well apparently when I was younger I used to be quite a handful. :p Jumping into the deep end of a pool at age 1, running in front of cars at age 3, trying to drive at age 4 and ending up in our neighbors behind us garage door. I don't remember any of that, but it's amazing I made it through my childhood. :lol:

Other than that, I've gone repelling off of a cliff in Colorado, and white water rafting on the same trip. However, it was a pretty controlled situation with specially trained guides and stuff, so I don't think I was in too much danger. But still, I thought I might die at the time. :p

Done a couple things as a pilot I really shouldn't have. Trying to get a Cessna to barrel roll, for one.

Re-tarded.

I ate shell fish once.

Let's see. I've broken 6 bones (left middle finger, left index finger, right elbow, right thumb, right femur, left ankle), usually while doing something stupid. Skiing down <><> slopes past signs saying things like "Warning: Extreme terrain! Experts Only". Skycoasting. Scuba diving in a cave 50' below the water surface. Fell down a 8' ladder and slammed headfirst into a concrete floor. Once fell asleep for about 5 seconds while driving. I have a scar on my right cheek from falling onto a sharp stick. That needed about a dozen stitches. I've probably drank enough liquor to cut some time off my end. I'm still kickin'. I wanna skydive and bungee jump! Oh and treks to the North & South Pole would rock.

Oberon is quite the adventure seeker, I know this from experience.

Though how in the hell did you survive your 8' plunge into death? Heads and concrete dont mix...

alcohol and tobacco. seventeen years.

mental illness, the usual suicidal stuff.

rode a bike with no brakes for six months when i was younger. i hit two cars while coming down hills. will probably get me into the brain dead hall of fame i'm thinking.

My first reaction was going to be telling a former girlfriend to fuck off (in the loudest, most angriest way possible) after a large enough argument as it was. Wasn't sure if i would make it through the night without losing my head, amongst other things.

Then i remembered the time i decided it would be a wonderful idea to take 10 E's in one night. That almost killed mem, and its taken over a year to get back parts of my personality from it, but i went and did a similar amount the week after, and the week after that, and after that. Stupid boy.

Other than that, just normal idiotic stuff, riding bike into oncoming traffic, throwing myself through weirs in a kayak in wasn't ready for e.t.c.

i've been skydiving a couple of times, 21 and 22 birthday....and would do it again :)

does driving to work every day on Atlanta interstates count?

if not, then I went skydiving when I was a carefree, fearless young adult.

I don't purposefully endanger my life, but it has been in danger a few times.

I've been almost hit by a semi on a busy late night highway as I was riding home from the store on my bike. I've had a knife and a baseball bat pulled on me and once this asshole waved a crowbar maliciously at me.
Been shocked (a few times, fairly serious) because of my inability to remember that electricity is dangerous and shouldn't be capriciously dicked around with. Nearly set myself on fire, which was fun and fell off a low second story balcony/deck thingy once trying to catch a stupid little Nerf (nerf, nerf...) football.

I don't split hairs with death too often. Not often enough to look back and say I should've been dead by now. More like...I should've been seriously maimed/disfigured and or with some chronic condition by now.

Hanging upside down, over a deep bottomless hole deep inside a cave, so I could see what was on the ceiling. Hell of a rush though :)

I think I would crash the fucking server if I posted the stupid, life-endangering shit I have done.

Lately? Besides the chemical spill at work (excellent response by everyone, training works), I would have to say that I have become too dependent on 4 wheel drive, and my driving habits are starting to scare me.

In my youth, I'd say my occasional drinking and driving was very risky, not just for me but for other people around me. I haven't done that for almost 20 years now. Fortunately, I never got in an accident and would NEVER do that again.

Now adays, I drive my 500+hp GT car on road courses at least a few times each year, the more times I can do it each year the merrier; but my wife isn't too crazy about it and asks that I keep my life insurance up to date. On most tight courses, the speeds are usually under 150mph, but there are a few track layouts where I can hit well over that.

I really believe that driving to work every day on the PA Turnpike is more dangerous than the road course action sited above.

Got married a couple of times. :p

*95 mph around an (almost) 90 degree corner..
*Passing cars on the shoulder when doing triple digit speeds
*Ignoring most stop signs
*Passing on a one lane (each way) road with maybe 500 feet to spare
*Repeatedly yanking the e-brake New Years 04 (icy here) until I could do a 720 (on a public road)
*Doing twice the speed limit on icy roads, causing me to launch sideways into Interstate 25
*Drinking enough to pass out
*Xilerator at Six Flags (psuedo bungie jumping)
*Flipping off a crowd of 10+ "Crips" with knives in their pockets
*Chasing drunks along a mountain bluff (eyebrow scar and broken nose)
*Exploring Pike National forest at 4 am with 4 margaritas in me, one in my hand, and a loaded double-barrel shotgun in the other hand

can't think of any more, at the moment..

I smoked crack.

I have a thick head. Literally and metaphorically speaking. ;)

That was the incident where I broke my elbow. I was confused for a few minutes due to shock but had no problems other than the elbow... :cool:

I know your thick headded... you and your brother