Seven

1. I have a 5 inch piece of steel in my left arm. Initial break occurred when I was the smallest of 3 people involved with a tackle during a Rugby game. Steel was added when a 2nd Orthopedic Surgeon decided to operate and found that the bone had spun ~60 degrees. I only set off airport metal detectors 30% of time.

2. Impact of number #1 on golf game can be spectacular. I have hit a 400 yard drive on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, had a ball clear the 325 yard sign on range at Ben Sutton golf school. Only time my left hand ever goes “palm up” is on golf swing follow through and side effect of either moving in manner it rarely does or a nerve crossing one of the screw heads my left arm has been known to go numb during downswing after spectacular pain. Amazingly only twice has club gone flying because somehow right hand tightens up while left lets go. My worse golf drive went off my left ankle, ricochet past Steve W. left side hit the cart and hit Steve W. in the back of the leg. He was a little pissed but did think it was strange that I was shaking my arm and not concerned about my ankle. At this point Steve P. rather than teeing off pointed out that “I was away”

3. I was in Navy ROTC program during college. On my summer “cruise” I pulled duty as boatswains mate and was aft lookout on Helicopter pad after midnight as Destroyer passed through a hurricane. I was supposed to be wearing a harness that was connected to one of the tees in the deck. Ship did a 40 degree roll on one of the swells and I went tumbling towards the edge but managed to grab the rail of the hangar door and slammed into door. Something big slid by and I then scrambled inside. Minutes later I learned that it was an 1800 pound reel of cable that went sliding by and it had taken the harness with it. I opted out of ROTC scholarship before the next summer.

4. I am father of now 12 year old daughter. Until she was 4 I was her favorite. When she was 6 she grabbed me by my shirt collar pulled my head to side so she was looking me in the eye as she said “Dad, I don’t like you”. I never felt lower.

5. I share a birthday with my sister who is 6 years younger. A couple of years I did not even get a piece of cake on my birthday because I was in ocean late into evening or playing baseball. My wife thinks this is why I am bad about sharing.

6. Before I got married I scheduled a vasectomy, 2 days before procedure was scheduled I canceled but did not tell anyone other than wife (then fiancé). I slept in morning of “procedure” and managed to pull a muscle in groin region getting out of Pathfinder that morning so limped around office and moved slow all day. Year later a co-worker (Bill) asked me about procedure and I passed on what I had learned as if I had been through it. Wife and I decided to have a baby early the next year and we found out on March 31 she was pregnant. Next day (a Friday) I told my group’s administrative assistant that wife was pregnant but hadn’t told anyone else and was only trusting her with this secret. She was tortured all day trying to figure out if this was an April Fool’s prank or not and I told no one else until Monday April 4. Bill gave me less grief than I expected.

7. I have fallen from a 7 foot high rock and landed head 1st on a 2nd large rock. It was during lunch break of whitewater raft trip on the Gauley in West Virginia and everyone who saw the fall is amazed that I did not break my neck. I did have a scrape on my head and another on knee and lower back was sore. My lack of neck came in handy that day.

I can only assume after I have been tagged by kajagugu that the outer reaches of the blogishere have been reached and there is no one left to tag.