The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we will ask you a question or provide a topic, and you will talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: What’s the riskiest thing you’ve ever done? (skydive, drive over 100, bungee jump, etc.)
Talk about it….
Being born.
When I was young and stupid worked refinery field construction in 1975. Walked across an 10 inch diameter pipeline 45 feet in the air and refilled a tank with basically kitty litter without a dust mask. Looking back, wonder how I survived.
Twenty plus years ago after a fatality became hypervigilant.
Marriage.
Walking at 2 am in Oakland looking for gasoline.
Not sure I can think of several. Living on a kibbutz in the Golan Height with Syria just being less than a mile away. Although there were no mans land, and UN soldiers. Once out in the field picking apples, some Israeli jets got too close to Syria and they were shot at. The next summer my friends and I hitchhiked through Europe, arrived on a ship from Iceland to Edinburgh, then hitchhiked through England, Northern France, Belgium, Holland and up to Denmark. My girl friend and I got a ride from 2 middle eastern gentlemen, spoke English well, a doctor and an engineer, but they drove like a bat out of hell. Drove the wrong way on a bridge that was one way, just saying “we believe in Allah”. When I was young I was very impulsive. Once when I had a date we got into an argument, and I asked him to stop the car, and I got out. This when was an au pair in Westport Ct. we were up in the hills, not a lot of houses or traffic and a few miles from town, but I got out and started to walk towards town, it was late at night and pitch dark. I think he came back and picked me up. As a teenager in Denmark, I went into a train where my friends were, usually that train stops at that town for 15 minutes, I had left my bike by the station building, I just wanted to chat with my friends (could have used a cell phone) then all of sudden the train starts to slowly move. I ran to the door and jumped off the slowly moving train banged my knee on the cement otherwise okay. I was more worried about my bike and myself.
Hanne, I always enjoy reading your mini biographies,
you’ve had quite an adventurous life. The farthest I
ever hitchhiked was from San Francisco to Sausalito.
In Vietnam, when I volunteered for door gunner duty.
Flying in a Huey and being shot at was scary, and risky.
Dawg, you have the respect and admiration of this old bubblehead.
Yes right confess to a risky occurrence I did and be arrested and grilled over it even after statute of limitations has well passed.
While in Puerto Rico (2014), our Daughter & Hubby took us to Zipline. They were there for his 2-year assignment with the Coast Guards. I almost got caught 50ft away from the end, to of one of the 17 zip sections, because I wasn’t heavy enough and slowed down to a crawl. Mind you, it was 300ft up from the ground. The Guide Person had me ride with him on the last run, since it was really long and didn’t want me to get stuck. I don’t like heights and will never do that again.
I cut off those mattress tags.
HAJ ( High Altitude Jump) in a wingsuit over the island of Maui in 2019. A complete RUSH that overwhelms the senses to a point of almost passing out. The air temperature, speed, and height was something I’ll never forget and I’m grateful for a Gopro video my cousin took of us. I stopped both skydiving and using a wingsuit in 2022.
A married woman.
Eating at Rocco’s recently!
Drive over 100? Just did that last week on I10 (in the desert), and with the newer car, felt like doing 65, so not tremendously risky. As I look back, I really did not take anything I would consider risky. Perhaps the biggest “chance” I/we took was moving from the midwest to this area for a job, with no family here, nor any real knowledge of the state. Just one day in 2 feet of snow in negative temperatures, and 2 weeks later, moving to a new state.
Went parachuting when I was 24. This was when you could jump by yourself, not strapped to someone. Took a morning class about what to do if your chute doesn’t deploy and how to land. Jumped in the afternoon. My chute didn’t deploy completely but they had told me what to do and it worked. I figured if I was going to die I didn’t want to be old at 25.
I once jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. It was a tandem jump, and we were coming down fast after the chute deployed. The instructor yelled at me to dig in my heels when we hit the ground. It ended well for us, but 4 months later at the same place a young lady and her tandem instructor lost their lives when the chute failed. Very sad and sobering.
I hopped a moving freight train once and rode it a few miles..