Monday, September 22, 2025

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (70)

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

What is something you have done that you regret?

There are a few things that I have done, and I regret having done them, but they are all too embarrassing for me to record anywhere. I have to have the attitude that what is done is done and I learn from my experience and move on. Let me be clear though, none of the things that I regret are serious transgressions of any kind. They are only things that may have hurt other people’s feelings or in some cases may have even hurt their well-being.

What is an interesting fact most people wouldn’t know about you?

I have no secrets. I guess, just to put an answer down here, I will repeat my answer to a previous question I answered. I have travelled to twenty-two countries.

Which item do you own or possess that is of greatest value to you?

I guess I don’t own or possess my wife and kids so I can’t count them. I will go with my house and my new backyard. I love my house, and I really love how my back yard is shaping up. 

What is something that you collect that is meaningful to you?

There are a few things that I collect that are meaningful to me. I have an element collection. I have a collection of medals from the various races I’ve entered. I have a collection of Belgian stamps that came out during the two years that I served there. I have a few bottles of sand from some of the more significant beaches that Lisa and I have been to. I have a collection of Louis L’Amour books. I really love my Star Trek Starship Christmas tree ornaments. It isn’t really a collection yet, but I love my four belt buckles, and I wouldn’t mind a few more. I love my dad’s coin collection but mostly because it was my dad’s.

Wow, that is more collections than I expected. If I had to pick one that is most meaningful, I think I would go with the starships but the element collection is a very close second.

What is the scariest thing you have ever done?

There have been very few times in my life where I thought I might die but there is one that stands out in my mind. There are a few other experiences where I should have been scared but I wasn’t and there have been times when I was scared but I didn’t need to be. I will give one example from each of these.

One time Lester and I decided that it would be boring to hike down Bears Hump after just hiking up, so we decided to scale down the face of Bears Hump. There were times that we were clinging to a small ledge that was only a few inches wide, and we had a sheer cliff down and a sheer cliff up. At one point the ledge disappeared but carried on again a foot or two further along. We had to take a long step and a small hop to reach the other ledge. If we’d fallen, we would have surely died, but we were teenagers and invincible. Stupid is a word some would use.

Just a couple of weeks ago we were floating down the Salt River with Ben and Justin and Justin wanted to go cliff jumping. That sounded like good fun to me. I’ve always avoided cliff jumping in the past because without my glasses I am blind and cliff jumping seems like an activity where you would want to see where you’re going.

This time I had my contacts in, so I had no excuses. Once we got up on the cliff, I was terrified. That is dumb because people cliff jump from much higher heights and have no problems. I finally swallowed my fear, made sure I was perfectly vertical with my arms tucked in and I jumped. It was a ton of fun and completely harmless. I will not be scared the next time.

The only time I can remember where I thought I might die was when I was around ten or twelve years old. We were picnicking at the bottom of the St Mary’s dam. I went exploring and was climbing the hill next to the spill way. The hill was very steep and sloped directly down to the spill way. The spill way has been modified since I was there, but at the time the hill sloped directly to the spill way and there was no safety rail or wall. The hill was loose gravel, and I started sliding towards the spillway. I tried to stop myself or grab onto a weed or something, but I couldn’t stop. Finally, I was able to get a grip on something and stop myself, but for a while there I thought I was going right into the spillway.

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