Meme of Eight

Sean Ferrell has tagged me to share eight random facts about myself. These kinds of memes are always fun! Here is how it goes:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their 8 things and post these rules.

3. At the end choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

So, with that in mind, I cleared the decks and let eight things pop into my head. Here they are:

1. I'm generally pretty mechanically inclined. I even fixed our furnace once. However, when we were in Disneyworld in February, I came out of the bathroom and told my wife, hey, there's one of those emergency pull cords in the bathroom. Um, not so much. It was a retractable line for hanging clothes to dry.

2. I think I had true hypothermia once, and it had nothing to do with winter. In my late teens, I used to go exploring by motorcycle in the winding mountain roads of western Pennsylvania. One late summer/early fall afternoon, I got lost. Before I could get my bearings, the weather changed. A cold front came in and started to bring on nighttime early. It also started to sprinkle. When I found a familiar road, I was already late. I rushed over the mountain in the cold dark. By the time I got home, I could barely uncurl my fingers from the grips. I completely covered myself in blankets and didn't stop shivering for close to two hours.

3. I have a faded scar by my eye where the obstetrician grabbed me with forceps. However, my difficulty in being born had nothing to do with my mother being petite and small-framed, I'm sure. I think she just made me work for it.

4. Speaking of eyes, I really should have lost my right eye when I was around 11 or so. My friend and I were messing around in the woods. He was cutting something with a pocket knife, and suddenly it sliced through. The knife point flew up towards my eye and barely penetrated the white (sclera). I had a nasty sensation of having something in my eye, and my friend saw a small line of blood. It disappeared in a few hours. Mucho lucky.

5. In high school I used to carry (and demonstrate) one of those martial arts butterfly knives. Certainly can't do that stuff today (it was in the mid to late 80's).

6. The closest thing I've ever had to a man crush is Rob Thomas. If I had the skill and opportunity to be a musician, I would want to be like him, I think.

7. Back to number 4, my friend and I may have been doing something naughty. I discovered that when you burn a certain hollow, dry weed (no the weed, mind you), smoke would come out the other end. We used to smoke them and think we were uber cool. I never did develop a general smoking habit, though.

8. Although my friends and I drank in high school and college, I've never tried any other drug. To be honest, it really wasn't offered to me. I think I would have turned it down, but part of me wonders what LSD would have been like. Not that I would try it now. The window for doing that stuff has long since closed. Chalk one up for Nancy Reagan, I guess.

Tagging eight people feels kind of excessive, so I'll only tag a few: Scott, Canterbury Soul, Kaycie, Jade, and Joni. No pressure though!