Was talked into swimming in a semi frozen mountain lake- sub zero temp
in Canada . Yes your heart will stop if you totally immerse too quickly, it does take your breath away. It has benifits for circulation - but best to do it in the shower .

I have kept a secret i knew about my best friend from 2nd grade through early adult until I left for the military. I knew his middle name. He hated it. He, quite literally, feared people knowing it. It was

Lived for a while in a house on stilts by and sometimes in the Mississippi River

I got married at 16. I wasn't pregnant, just stupid.

No fucking way! What happens in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Florida, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota stays in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Florida, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota!

I'm sure the statute of limitations has expired and the structure is no longer there but I'm still not gonna tell about it.

I just saw a post about 'heroes' and thought that's more or less only a stick away from 'herpes'.

Around the age of ten years it was decided that I would attend Sunday school for religious instruction. It had been agreed between our parents that a friend and I would go there together. We deliberately walked slowly because neither one of us did not want to spend and hour reciting religious nursery rhymes.

We arrived late and the big Gothic door was shut. Through the closed door we heard a preacher shouting, ‘and there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth!’ Wide eyed my friend and I looked at each other and I said, ‘fuck this!’ Then he suggested that we go for a walk along a nearby river. Every Sunday thereafter we went for a walk along the riverside.

At one job, they'd give us annual fire-fighting training including using 2" hoses and fire extinguishers. A decade later at a different job, they thought they'd hold two contests for employees to try to extinguish a simulated fire with a simulated fire extinguisher. I won both contests.

At another job, they had a different contest. This contest had everyone lined up and given balloons to blow up. Maybe not so easy in Los Angeles? With everybody on their marks and ready to go, the signal was given. I immediately filled a third of the balloon while others were struggling. After glancing at the competition, I quickly finished it off way ahead of the rest. I can only wonder that they thought I cheated. Well, sort of... Before starting, I had stretched the balloon making it much easier to inflate...

When I was in 6th grade, two friends and I went into a deserted house and found a human skeleton. We admitted what we saw to our bus driver. She said not to tell anyone as it "might have been a murder." Hid in my house all weekend. Monday at school went well, so, thought everything was peachy keen. Until, that is, on Monday evening when my Dad asked, "Seen any skeletons lately boy."

A friend named a plant after me, a kind of Polypodium. The trouble is, I really don't like Polypodiums at all.

I started on the violin (as all my siblings before me) in Elementary School.
(I quit in favor of sports)
In college I took up the guitar -- I also have had at least five of them.
(recenly I acquired a Gibson SG Classic -- electric)
I decided that 6 strings was too many -- I took up the 5 string Banjo.
(Bluegrass is now my favorite genre)
A few years ago I bought a Ukulele -- again, one less string,
When the pandemic started, I started teaching myself the Piano (and music theory)

I still have them all . . .
I LIKE them all, but the TRUTH is, I kinda suck at all of them.

Very tough decision but here is a story I've been invited to tell to groups for inspiration. My parents gave me the boot at 15. Before long, the high school VP had me into his office to say the school was kicking me out for irregular attendance. Periods of homelessness and unspecified bad behavior. Married at 19, baby at 20, husband gone at 22. Finished high school by correspondence at 24. Associates degree in criminal justice at 27. Bachelor's degree in social work at 32. Law degree at 35. Professional accreditation and practice at 36. It doesn't matter where you come from, it matters where you end up.

Don’t give away your security question answers.