Well....
1. I've jumped out of an airplane at 13,000 feet without a parachute. Okay, I was strapped to a strapping young man who had a parachute. Tandem skydiving. Don't know if I ever need to do it again, but I'm glad I did it.
2. In high school I did musical theatre. Sadly, being short I never seemed to get parts for adults, though. When I was 17 I played a 9 year old boy... Oliver. Yes, sad but true.
3. I ruptured my achilles tendon about 14 years ago... Unfortunately, my stupid doctor (don't even get me started about HMO's in the US) thought I was just being a wimp and I walked on it for six weeks before she'd refer me to a surgeon, who immediately scheduled me for emergency surgery. I've got a 24" scar up the back of my leg 'cause they had to graft tendon from up near my knee.
4. About a year after the achilles tendon repair I hiked to the top of Half Dome.
This photo of some guy climbing the cables doesn't really capture the steepness. Being short, I basically had to pull myself up these cables with my upper body (couldn't reach the cables any other way.) This photo also doesn't capture the traffic. I was almost crushed by a huge football player guy who was on the way down as I was going up and was terrified. Actually, terrified doesn't quite cover it. His friends tried to get me to move off the cables so he could go by more easily but I decided I'd rather leave one boot braced on a post and let the shaking but huge man slide over me than let go completely. what you can't really see in this photo is it drops off to the right and left, too...5. Now I'm on to physical feats... I've done a 100 mile bike trip in one day. The Solvang Century. Not an easy ride. It's not only is 100 miles in one day, there's about 4000 feet of climbing, some of it steep. Boy, I have got to get back into shape!
I tag.... Margaret Moore, Christine D'Abo, Nadine Dajani , Mel Francis, Michele Ann Young
4 comments:
Sorry, but I have to disagree about things you've done not being interesting..... omg: tandem skydiving, climbing, performing.... seriously impressive!
Yikes, on that doctor...
ok, i'll play. But it'll have to be tomorrow.
today's blog was dedicated to All Clown's Night.
And FWIW, my list of things won't be nearly as impressive. I'll have to think of something more than "I dance in the mirror" and "ocassionaly, I pick my nose."
You would NEVER get me up that steep mountain. Okay- maybe- if there was pitcher of martinis at the top.
Ha! You know what got me up? It wasn't martinis, (although, as you know, I heart martinis) it was water. We left our packs at the bottom of what they call the "saddle" that leads up to the dome... (You reach the saddle after about 5 hours of steep switch back hiking). So, I didn't have any water with me on the cables and about half-way up I thought I was going to die. Literally. I'd almost decided to give up when someone else in our group came up from behind me. I barely knew this woman but she reminded me that my friend Elaine had taken water to the top in kevlar packs attached to her belt... and that if I made it to the top, Elaine would give me water. It was seriously the thought of a gulp of that water that got me up there. and the thought that I never, ever, had to do it again.
Now when we got down again... Beer. Lots of beer.
Post a Comment