What amazing things have you guys done?

Me and a group of friends from Houston went to New Braunfels for a couple of days. We spent the night at a campground not too far from the big dam and spillway that everyone uses for tubing down the river.
The campsite was right next to a small river. We were all around 16 years old.

Me and three friends decided the next morning to take this big yellow rubber raft and paddle over to the spillway, while everyone else drove over from the campsite. Everything was going well, taking our time enjoying the ride, when somebody says "Hey, where did the river go". That kind of got everyones attention. We paddled as hard as we could and managed to get over to the side and up on shore before going over the 12 ft. dropoff. Scary and would probably have hurt a lot.

The four of us picked up the nice heavy yellow raft and were carrying it down the side of this little river. We walked for 30 minutes or so until somebody figured out we had to be on the other side of this little river to get to where we had to be. We could have put the raft back in the water and paddled across, but after our big scare we were kind of leery of that. But look, here's an old railroad bridge across the river. Good deal. We started across the bridge and halfway across we hear all this noise coming from behind us. A train.
So, here we are sprinting across the bridge carrying this frigging heavy yellow raft. I'm figuring if we can't make it, I'm dropping this raft and jumping over the side into the water.

Well we made it in plenty of time, we threw the raft down on the ground and everybody is dying from running so hard. The train goes by and the two guys in the engine are just laughing their asses off.

Finally made it to where we were supposed to be and the rest of the trip was a lot of fun.
 
Spent the last 2 months taking care of my father so that he didnt have to die in a nursing home.
 
Fed - did a spend a month with my dad in an apartment near the hospital 27 years ago. We did have to take him to the hospital one last time by ambulance, but it didn't last long and I was with him when he passed on.

I'm sorry for your loss, and glad you were able to go the distance for him. I hope you take satisfaction in what you were able to do for him. I was 25 then, I'm now two years older than he was at his death. Funny I don't feel any wiser, stronger, more mature than then.

I don't have the words, but will hold you in my thoughts and prayers.
 
I would just like to take the time to tell people to have their long term health care planned for. Even with good insurance my fathers final days was not the easiest. The hospice program failed to provide significant help, with only a 1 hr nurse visit once to twice a week. In the end my fathers care came from primarily my mother and myself, with the help of the occaisional family member or friend. Now I assume not everyone has a mother who is a nursing supervisor, aunts who are all RNs, and friends who are doctors to give them a crash course in nursing care. Or are able to drop out of the workforce for 2 months. Which leaves realistically one option to spend one's final days at home instead of a nursing home, which is a home-health care nurse. These nurses of course do not come cheaply, and if you are not of a certain age medicare will be of no use. Besides all the general indignities that are associated with a nursing home, in most states it is in a nursing home's right to seize all of a patients assets in order to pay for care if no other means are forthcoming (ie. long-term health insurance as even most good health insurance does not cover the costs). I have seen numerous people who have had homes, farms, and businesses seized and in return have received questionable care. Do not wait till the final days to make your plans. All it took was one seisure and my father was paralyzed and lost all ability to speak or even cognate in the basic of levels to make his final wishes known. Even the most loving and close of family can only guess at what one desires at this point. We all speak bravado about the end, but the end often comes suddenly and leaves us at our most weak and vulnerable state. Anyways who can predict their own end, despite whatever signs we always have hope.
 
You have performed very honorable deeds. When my grandfather was in the hospital for the last time.
I was 8,000 miles from home. I got to the hospital before he died. I will never forgive his three brothers. They were only 160 miles away.

I hope the Lord has mercy on their souls, for they are gone now.
 
Thank you everyone for your kind words. My father lived a good life, and had a good death surrounded by family and friends. He did much good and helped better the lives of all those he could. While his departure was much too early, there's not much more one can ask for in a life or a death. I am glad that I was lucky to be able to spend that time with him. It was a privelege that I understand many are not lucky to have. The ability to say goodbye.
 
Thank You, Pappy.

The only reason I brought it up is that I agree with you and wanted to let Federico know I've held onto having gone the distance for my dad for 27 years now. And I've taken consolation in it. I was there for him as best I knew how.

Listen to what Federico says about being afforded dignity in dying. And know that I'll never again allow myself to be placed in a hospital without having a gun and a knife.
 
Don Rac = I see you've changed your avatar now... ;) Nice hawk.

Rest = great stories. let's keep 'em coming.
 
The final adventure is waiting for me in the not too distant future and what I absolutely DO NOT want to do is croak in St. Mary's with a bunch of needles and tubes stuck in me and a bunch of strangers ministering to me in my last hours of this life. My preference is to die at Swayambunath with a couple of old capable monks doing their best to help me on my journey and with Yangdu there to wish me bon voyage.

As I mentioned, sobering stuff.
 
As an RN friend of mine said, there are people "taking care" of patients in hospitals she wouldn't trust to care for her dog.

In any field there are those who remain in hiding to be able to fight what the system has done to their profession. Who find ways to carry on with the ideals they had on entering in whenever the almighty accountants' backs are turned. Treasure and support those you find with your appreciation and give them unexpected and heartfelt thanks. A few honest words can help a professional hold out for years afterwards.

As to the other kind, hmmm...punji sticks treated with fecal matter from aids infected patients come to mind.
 
Good men, Fed and Rus. You did your fathers proud
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Absolutely---I couldn't agree more.

I'm 30 and my dad's 75. I know its coming and I don't feel the least bit ready, but I know I'll be there for him if I can when the time comes.

As to the other kind, hmmm...punji sticks treated with fecal matter from aids infected patients come to mind
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Absolutely---I couldn't agree more. (just happens to fit both quotes;))
 
I've survived 47 years with the same woman....wait...maybe that's her brag and not mine :rolleyes: There is one doctor I'm still biding my time over, tho'.....and it will come.
 
time to bring this back to life...

thanks for all the replies so far.

please continue to share your amazing moments.
 
has been a real test of my courage and my faith. The last three years my wife has been dealing with things she suffered when she was younger. Physical abuse when she was little and two rapes when she was a teen have all caught up with her. I have stood by her through nightmares, flashbacks, self injury, two suicide attempts and too many hospitalizations to count. There are times when I wasn't sure if I would have a wife to come home to. Times when I felt I had a hold on sanity by my fingertips. We are coming up on anniversary number five. This is really hard to write about. So I guess the thing I'm most proud of is staying with my wife - my best friend- through thick and thin. I believe that many couples today would not have survived what we have been through and still be married and in love. But these past three years have taken their toll. I have seen things that I wish I could unsee. I try to tell myself that everything happens for a reason. That we are stronger for it. That you can't measure joy without pain. I'll tell you this, it really puts things in perspective. All the little sh!t just seems to disappear when you stare death in the face. I've said way too much. If this is out of line, Uncle, please feel free to delete it. Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry.

Frank
 
I wonder sometimes about my wife. Why she has stayed with me is what I'm wondering about. We had a decent house in the city. We were on the very edge of Austin when we bought it. Suddenly they were building all the way arouond us and soon we were in the middle of a pretty big subdivision. We found the place where we live now and I built a house with my two hands. I couldn't waite to get it to where we could live in it. All the neighbors thought my wife was crazy for staying with somebody that would sell a prefectly good house to move out here and build a house by myself. Really it was worse than they even thought. I wasn't a carpenter, electrician, or plumber either. I got the two story monster so we could live in it but, I didn't like it. What I saw people in Kansas do, did not work in this sandy soil of Bastrop County TX. I had a slab poured and started taking the old house apart little at a time and useing the material to build on the slab. About the time I had a house on the slab without insulation and the other house half gone disaster struck. In the form of a accident on the way home from work. A woman pulled her car in front of me the bike bounced off here car and I took flight. One of the witnesses told me later told me that he doesn't see how I lived through that mess. I flew somewhere in the neighborhood of 80'. My pelvis was broken on one side cracked on the other, the left knee was messed up so bad I'll have the staples in there when I croak. The artery in my left thight was broken and no one found that out until after I was home and was on a check up visit to the Doc. that put my knee back together. Most of what pulled loose took pieces of bone with it so they could be stapled but, one right over the khee had to be tied in a hole in the top of my shin bone.

Now is when the wife got just a little upset. My left leg will not even bend to 90 degrees and I got up in the old house and took the second story bedroom apart while she was at work. The rest of the old house was manageable with the top part down so I could take it apart. We live in the second house with 6" walls with R-19 there and R-30 in the ceiling. The military retirement check saved our rear for sure. No I didn't farm out any of the work.:D
 
I think I have had many exciting and interesting adventures but I can't talk about them in public because either I have been sworn to secrecy, am waiting for the statute of limitations to run out, or I have just plumb forgotten what they were.
 
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