Three on Thursday - Crazy Things

A while back someone, sorry - I don't remember who, posted three crazy things they had done throughout their life and I thought it made for a fun post so...

Choosing three things to go public with turned out to be more difficult than expected.  During my youth I was reckless, fearless, and a little stupid, but I did have a LOT of fun.  It was hard to choose which crazy things to talk about.  What did I do that was crazy, but not so crazy I don't want my kids to know about?  That one took some thought.

In date order...

1.  Water skiing at night.  First, let me point out that I was never a good skier.  I could get up easily and stay up as long as I went in a straight line, but I was never good enough to jump waves or even really steer myself out of danger.  And I never fell. In all the years, I don't think I've ever just fallen.  I wipe out WIPE OUT!  As in, my body somersaulting in the air, skies flying off my feet, the people in the boat thinking they'll need to call 911 type of wiping out.  Yes, there were a few times I got tired and simply let go of the rope, but mostly, it was me totally wiping out.

So, with my skill level explained... Skiing at night is fun.  The water tends to be calmer and flat water is my kind of water for skiing!  There are less boats out on the water which means less waves, less obstacles to maneuver around, less people to see you wipe out and well, let's face it - less people to notice if you're drinking your weight in beer.

Besides drinking my weight in beer and attempting to water ski, the other thing that makes night skiing so crazy is that you can't see well.  And when you can't see well and you can't steer, at all, you tend to crash into buoys, docks and crab pots.  And sometimes, when you wipe out and your skis go flying and you go under the water, you come back up out of the water just as the ski falls from the sky and it slams you in the face.  Yes, I have a scar in my eyebrow from getting hit in the face with a ski and now my eyebrow grows funny. 

Jason Momoa, photo courtesy of rottentomatoes.com

Yes, Jason Momoa and I have matching eyebrows.

2.  My best friend in the world moved to Key West and I used to go down to visit her frequently.  On one of my trips, I met a boy, as you do when young and on vacation.  The boy drove a motorcycle.  The boy also won a raffle and the prize was a bunch of liquor from a store on Islamorada.  Islamorada is only 80 miles from Key West.  

Being young, fearless, reckless and slightly stupid, I thought nothing of jumping on the back of that boy's motorcycle while wearing flip-flops (you know the kind you buy at the grocery store for 99 cents,) shorts and a tube top, (remember tube tops?) and heading off to pick up his prize.  

photo courtesy of realestatescorecard.com

When we got to Islamorada, we stopped off at the bar because we were thirsty after that long ride.  In 1981, Islamorada only had one bar and it was the kind of bar where the patrons did their lines of cocaine straight off the table tops and no one thought anything of it.  We did not do lines of cocaine, but we did have a drink or two before heading across the street to the liquor shop to pick up our winnings.  

We got to the store and they handed us three large, paper grocery bags full of liquor bottles.  Glass bottles, of course.  So we climbed back on the motorcycle with me on the back, wearing shorts, a tube top and flip-flops and holding a bag full of liquor in each arm and one wedged between the boy and myself.  And we drove all the way back to Key West like that.  Without issue, I might add.

My good luck didn't hold out though.  That same trip, I had a windsurfing accident and broke my back.  But that's a whole other story.  

3.  My best friend in the world was moving back to Virginia from Key West and I drove down to help her bring her stuff back.  She drove a Mustang and I drove an EXP (a two-seater hatchback) and she didn't rent a moving van.  We crammed her car so full we couldn't have crammed a single extra grain of sand in it, then filled mine with the rest.  Liza's car was so full she couldn't see out either of her side or rear windows.  We made the entire trip from Key West to Richmond, Virginia with me following her and whenever she wanted to change lanes, she'd put on her blinker, I'd change lanes and honk my horn so she knew it was safe for her to change lanes.  Good Lord!

Oh, and did I mention that Liza's car had been having overheating issues for several weeks before we made the trip?  The car would get over heated and she'd just have to turn it off for a while and let it cool back down.  So that added to the adventure.

So, there we were, sitting on the side of Interstate 95, somewhere near the Georgia/Florida line waiting for the car to cool.  We laid our beach towels on the back of my car, got out the cooler and were just having a fine old time waving at passing cars and enjoying the sunshine while we waited.

Suddenly there was a loud screeching of truck tires and brakes.  A tractor trailer pulled over to help us and moments later, another one pulled over.  They were buddies and happened to both be in the area and had heard we were there on the side of the road.   Apparently we were quite the topic of conversation among the truckers. 

photo courtesy of 123rf.com

So, the crazy part of this adventure was that this time, Liza's water hose had sprung a leak and the truckers offered to fix it.  And here's where it gets really reckless, fearless and slightly stupid - Liza got in the truck with one of them and drove off to buy a new water hose while I stayed with our cars with the other trucker.  Unbelievably, they turned out to be really nice guys, not serial killers.  After they made the repairs to Liza's car, they even took us to dinner.

All I can say is that my Fairy Godmother must have some Very gray hair.

And thank God my kids are nothing like me.   Or at least they don't share my fearless, reckless, slightly stupid traits.  Or more importantly, I don't know about it if they do.