Random Thought Thread

Blues said:
I've got a few, but a couple quick ones...

When I was in the 4th grade, I didn't know that my maternal grandfather, who I was very close to, was ill and dying from leukemia. Never even knew he had gone into a hospital down the block from his apartment in the Bronx. One day, getting ready to leave for school, the phone rang, I looked at my mother before she picked up the phone and said "grandpa's dead". It was my grandmother calling from the hospital to tell us.

When I was a senior in high school, I was walking home with a buddy of mine and passing the junior high my sister had just started at. I looked at the building as if I could see the classrooms within, (this was a big school), turned to my friend and said, "My sister's not in there, something's wrong". My buddy asked me how I knew, and I just said "I know, I can feel that she's not in there".

Ran home about a mile, up the stairs to our apartment and yelled to my mother..."Where's Linda?" My mother said how did you know? Know what, I asked. She had been hit by a car on the way to school that morning, but only knocked back to the curb and bruised up...not needing hospitalization.

Nobody at my high school knew my sister, or told me anything about the event.

Don't know how. Don't know why. But that's what happened.

I've got others, but for another time...

It's a big strange world we live in. We've only scratched the surface.
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Along those lines:

When I was younger, my family had planned a trip to Singapore. I was of course, pretty excited about it. One of the things/sights we knew we would be going to was a smaller island called Sentosa Island just off the main island of Singapore.

There were 2 main ways of getting to Sentosa Island; a cable car, or the ferry. The plan was to take the cable car.

About 2-3 weeks before the trip, I woke up soaked in sweat from a nightmare. In the nightmare, we were in one of the cable cars headed for Sentosa Island, when the cable suddenly shook HARD. I saw one of the cable cars get knocked off the line, and the next thing I knew, our cable car was falling towards the ocean 100+ feet below. I remembered the screams, but woke up just before the impact. The dream was SO vivid.

That morning my mom noticed that I seemed really upset, so I ended up telling her about my dream. At the time, the memory was so vivid, I even recalled the colors of the cable cars (the color of the one we were in, that fell, as well as the color of the other one that I saw fall in the dream, and told those details to my mom. The cable cars were painted different, solid bright colors; red, yellow, blue, green etc.).

My mom comforted me and assured me that it was just a dream/nightmare, and I eventually forgot about it... until we were headed to Sentosa Island on the trip. The closer we got to the cable car station, the worse my anxiety and the feeling of dread grew.

As we waited in line, I noted that the cable cars looked exactly as they did in my dream, and they were painted in the bright colors, just as in my dream. I had broken out in a cold sweat by then.

As we got to the front of the line, the next car that pulled up, was the color of the car we'd gotten into in that dream. I grabbed my mom's arm, and whispered fiercely, "NO! Remember that dream I told you about? That's the color of the one we got into!".

She could see that I was visibly distraught, so she apologized to the line attendant and asked him to board the people behind us as we stepped to the side.

My dad, who I'd never mentioned the nightmare to, as he was the more 'practical minded' type, went, "What's going on? We've been waiting in this damned line. What are we waiting for now?". My mom, knowing my dad well, simply replied, "I'll explain later".

She then waited for the next cable car, and asked me, "What about this one?". The 2nd car that pulled up was the color of the first cable car that had fallen in my nightmare, and I shook my head.

When the 3rd car pulled up, she asked again, "How about this one. Was this one of the 'bad' colors?". I shook my head, and she asked, "Do you think it'll be OK to get on it?", and although my anxiety was still high, I said, "Yeah, I think so".

The whole ride across, I had a death grip on the handrail inside the cable car, but we made it across without incident. My anxiety came back a little when waiting for the ride back from the island, but the cable car that pulled up as we got to the front of the line wasn't one of the 'bad' colors in my nightmare. Nothing happened at all. When my mom eventually told my dad about my nightmare, he just rolled his eyes and harrumphed.

~6 months after the trip, the news happened to be on TV and I suddenly yelled, "MOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!". The news was reporting a story about a cable car disaster in Singapore.

Apparently, a ship with a tall derrick had been mistakenly allowed into the channel between Singapore and Sentosa Island during high tide. The derrick had struck the cables and knocked 2 cable cars off the cable. The occupants were killed. The cable cars were the same 2 colors as in my nightmare (it's been a long time, and I don't recall the actual colors anymore, but that news report freaked me out).
 
A couple more of the "mysteries" but greatly shortened or they would take too long to relate.

1. Many years ago I was climbing in the Wind River Range of WY, (along with Scott Fischer of "Into Thin Air" fame, and others), and sustained an injury to my Achilles tendon that was worsening and looked like it would require me evacuating.

I was very upset by this and a buddy on the trip who was like an older brother to me, suggested I go off and meditate on the matter and make my peace with whatever my fate was to be.

I went off and stood on a big boulder looking off across a body of water at Payson Peak. I stood there for I don't know how long watching the face of the mountain obscured by clouds and communing with the great spirit.

After a period of time the sun broke out and illuminated the face of the mountain, a ground squirrel came up on the boulder and sat at my feet and something, not wind, not anything I can explain, pushed me off the boulder toward the mountain.

As I began walking, I realized I wasn't in pain. I pulled off my boot and rolled up my pant leg and the wound was no longer evident. I went back to camp and yelled for my buddy, he came over to see what happened and when I explained and showed him, he wept.

Some say it's psychosomatic. Some say divine intervention. I don't honestly know...or know if there's a difference.


2. Back in NYC in the mid 80's, getting tired of living the singles scene and bachelor life, I lay in my bed one night and asked the great spirit to send someone special my way.

I was duty agent for my office the next day which meant I would have to stay an hour or two later and field calls involving potential investigations.

I had a premonition beginning that night that I shouldn't take my government assigned vehicle home. Why, I didn't know, but the feeling was strong.

Next day I did the duty agent thing and one of my partners offered to take me to the garage, about a quarter mile away in his vehicle. I told him no, I had a feeling not to drive, but to take the subway that evening.

He eventually cajoled and convinced me into going with him in his car to be dropped at the garage. A block away from the office I told him to let me out. He asked me why and I told him I couldn't explain why, but I had to take the train.

Walked back to the subway entrance outside the federal courthouse and promptly missed my train as I was on the way to the platform.

Was pissed but what could I do...then this beautiful woman walked down the steps, and while I was talking with a friend I met on the platform, (that I hadn't seen in 10 years), I said to him..."Let's get on whichever car she gets on".

One thing led to another and I got her phone number and a couple days later we went on our first date.

Next week we'll have been married 34 years. (And I still have the matchbook cover I wrote her phone number down on.)

(Even more strangely, it later turned out that not only did we know people in common, but that she turned out to be a "girl" I used to watch walking down the street from her family's apartment to the subway near a gov't job I worked at in the mid 80's. I would always try to catch her eye but she studiously ignored me. Guess I finally got even...a few years later.)
 
vkp78 said:
^ Scott Fisher?? Into Thin Air? the book by Jon Krakauer is great read for anyone who likes adventure/non fiction. I felt as if someone had punched me in the abdomen at the end of the book
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Scott Fischer on Mt. Bonneville, Wind River Range, WY. (Summer, 1974)
(Me sometime in the late 70's climbing in the Shawangunks of NY.)
A picture of me taken by Scott Fischer atop Mt. Bonneville, Wind River Range, WY. (Summer, 1974)


Scott Fischer on Bonneville.jpgphoto3.jpgbonneville.jpg
 
Lol funny and true story, the house we bought and live in now was a grow house. They dug an elaborate grow room under the house. I can go in the crawl space and stand up, I am 6’1 tall. It’s quite impressive, theirs even electrical outlets down their. I had to get the ground and foundation checked for stability issues and what not, and had the soil tested, all is good. I think one day I may build something down their to go hideout.
 
My takeaway from Into Thin Air... If everything (ev-ery-thing!) goes perfectly, and you are in phenomenal mental and physical condition, and you cath absolutely every lucky break.. that mountain will almost kill you. All 3 of those conditions must be true for you to survive
 
even though I don't drink, I can still get hammer'd
bnJM30p.jpg
 
Murphjd25 said:
Lol funny and true story, the house we bought and live in now was a grow house. They dug an elaborate grow room under the house. I can go in the crawl space and stand up, I am 6’1 tall. It’s quite impressive, theirs even electrical outlets down their. I had to get the ground and foundation checked for stability issues and what not, and had the soil tested, all is good. I think one day I may build something down their to go hideout.
Click to expand...
grow tomatoes year round
 
TRfromMT said:
My takeaway from Into Thin Air... If everything (ev-ery-thing!) goes perfectly, and you are in phenomenal mental and physical condition, and you cath absolutely every lucky break.. that mountain will almost kill you. All 3 of those conditions must be true for you to survive
Click to expand...
I think that's largely true, but not necessarily true...but the point is well made. I've certainly learned a humbling thing or two from the mountains in the Wind Rivers alone...rock fall, lightning, whiteout, avalanche, glaciers...there's a lot of things needing managing...and sometimes you're just happy to make it back down to base camp.

I stayed in touch with Scott when he started Mountain Madness and he wrote me to invite me on proposed trips to the Himalaya...but it wasn't in the cards financially at the time, nor career-wise.
 
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