We should never regret growing old, after all it is a privilege denied to many.
Greg.
Quote:
Originally Posted by casstony
Some scary times and some serene times; circling in smooth lift with a curious wedgetail at my wing tip mimicking my flight - he's looking at me, I'm looking at him - quite surreal.
My philosophy is the older you get the more risks you can afford to take, since there is less of your life to lose.
We should never regret growing old, after all it is a privilege denied to many.
Greg.
Growing old is acceptable to me, provided my health is ok. I wish to depart before dementia sets in or before my body is too crippled. Voluntary euthanasia should be available to people over a certain age who have given legal consent when their mind is still sound.
Tony, I could not agree more, and realised that the quote could have been read out of context as soon as I touched the submit key. To retain the ability to live out our lives to the fullest is something that I think of often and voluntary euthanasia would allow that. If the economists get a handle on it we may even see it in our time.
Regards,
Greg.
P.S. When I can no longer ride motorcycles I am going to purchase an open topped sportscar.
P.P.S. I went flying in a friends powered trike a few weeks ago and have some appreciation of your sport, wonderful.
Bones : You look busy
Spock : Uhura is busy, I am monitoring.
Bones : Perhaps we could discuss some of the philosophical disciplines. Life, Death, Life that kind of thing.
Spock: While on Vulcan I did not have time to study the philosophical disciplines. In any case, it would require a common frame of reference.
Bones : You mean I have to Die !
Spock: Excuse me doctor, but I am receiving a number of distress calls.
Bones : I don't doubt it
If my cancer ever came back, there's no way I'd want a long painful drawn out death, I'd like to have a final friend (tablet/ injection) that would let me go with dignity and no pain.
Euthanasia should be every persons right.
Timothy Leary, what a weird dude, when he knew that death was due within hours, dropped some acid and went out tripping. It doesn't appeal to me, but to each their own.
There are two ways to squander it that I see. One is to throw it away early on recklessness, and the other is to try to avoid risk and not really enjoy and live your life in an effort to make it longer. Both, to me, are equally as sad.
So while I enjoy some risk taking, it's a matter of taking calculated risks not stupid ones.
Like most people I've had my share of scrapes and close calls, but for near death... let's see...
I've nearly drowned twice (once pushed underwater in a childhood fight while swimming without any breath in my lungs, the other time skylarking while swimming in a deep hole - I had to crawl out of the hole and put my head on the ground with my bum up in the air to get the water out of my windpipe... I seem to remember it being hilarious to everyone but me!)
When I was little (3 or 4) I remember ending up in the middle of a busy Sydney street with traffic going past on both sides of me... I don't remember how that came about apart from being separated from mum.
I've had a few close calls riding motorbikes, but in every instance it has been instinct developed from years of experience rather than conscious thought that has saved the day. (Things like powering on, on a blind left hand corner in order to sit the rear end of the bike down more to take a tighter line to get past an oncoming truck on my side of the road - which inevitably pushed me wider after the truck - but by then that's OK! Brakes would've pushed me wider into the front of the truck...)
For all the adventures I've had, so far I haven't had a bad strike rate! I'm still here!
Al.
PS. I think it was Confucius who said something like: It is better to live one year as a tiger than 50 years as a lamb (roughly to that effect! ).
I have had my share of close moments as you all have had. Flying sans motorbike over four cars, stepping from behind a tram and nearly getting run over by another tram coming the other way. A few more that we don't mention for fear of self incrimination.
We all have to learn by experience. Keeping your children in cotton wool does not work. We were all someones children once!
All you can do is have or teach rational survival skills. If this means putting yourself or your children at a slight risk to advance any skills so in the future you can dodge or minimise any real danger, you are far better off.
We should never regret growing old, after all it is a privilege denied to many.
Greg.
Hi,
It is, so true, and now I'm 60 I have seen many tragic and seemingly unfair deaths. Didn't Woody Allen say:
"It's not that I'm afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens"
He also had a few quotes for us generally:
"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown. "
"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought-- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things."
Other memorable (not necessarily life threatening) incidents that come to mind are: flying under power lines, landing in the bull paddock, flying with wedgetails, being attacked and damaged by wedgetails, having a squadron of American jet fighters blast through a couple of hundred feet below me ......... you'd have to be bloody mad to fly hang gliders.
Good on u mate, a fellow flyer. Some memorable ones for me . One was when low cloud came in, its base lowering till just above the hill, visibility falling till the ground was visible only through a small circle below me. I thought it a wise idia to head down to the park and land when I saw one of the other gliders dissapear into the gloom, knowing when he reached thge end of the ridge he'd be turning and coming back head on. I didnt want to find out what a mid-air was like.
Another one was watching a nasty rain squall slowly get closer, then see from the air the streamer at the take off suddenly swing 90 degrees when the gust front hit, I turned tail and headed for Dixon Park, where I launched from, by the time I got there the wind had swung 45 degrees, but I landed okay, 5 mins later wind was blowing over the back, a near 180 degree swing.
An astronomy related one was many years ago when there was a viewing site at "Black hill", NW of Newcastle. On my way there with my 22 year old 10 inch scope in the car I thought I saw some white objects above the road. I was past them in seconds, realizing it was the eyes of a pair of jet black cows standing on the road. had I hit them ........ too scary to think about.
Scott
Timothy was always into the lsd that was his trip...he had wonderful vissions for where we could go and has taken the first step.
I sat with my mother dieing of cancer and they doped her up on Morphine
I was sad to see her go so confused as she was never into drugs..
In retrospect I wished I had taken control and stopped them pumping her with dope... she was confused and fought it.. I will never forget the way she looked at me for help to bring her back to reality.
She would have preferred the pain to the confussion and lose of control of her mind... I could see she was scared..becuase it was lose of control.
I could manage the doped out trip because I am able to control a drunken stupor but for her it was cruel I wish I was the man I am now for I would have forbid it..she could handle pain but she could not handle the loss of control...it was so sad in retrospect..and when I left the room only for a moment she dies..I knew they gave her a final shot ...out of pity so I let it go, they thought they did the right thing I could not hold it against them but it was murder and it was wrong for they made a judgement that was wrong for the person with whom they dealt.
I live with bad pain ..it is as part of me as is my face , my hair, my thoughts..it is no big deal finally you manage it..nothing absolutely nothing when you understand it is part of life..its like an itch really and you just have to over come it...
I relax and it is just something that is there but I am over here... I wont say more I have said too much.. but pain or infirmity is no reason to give up...to give up is easy, to go on is a little hard but we have the gift of life and that gift has good and bad attached to it ..
I accept the gift and all the good it gives me and manage the things that makes others want to quit. So many people think I am superman because I dont share what I share with you now... they need not know.
Pain is nothing ..you simply move away from it..you understand it is in your mind..you understand it is the way your body works.. Pain it the price of being...
I worry about the prospect of sanctioned suicide ...I hope it never is law that one can choose that way out and the system sets itself up that way...for how easy is it for someone who is old and a burden to wish to relieve others of that burden...
Anyone who says to me ...yes but you don't know what pain is..well I disagree I know what pain is ...its a myth..its an excuse not to take everything that life gives you. I have fainted from pain as it over powered me but I got up refreshed and moved on.
I am happy and although it shows sometimes that I am irritated it really is not the pain it is more the annoyance that others give in and want to accept life must be easy.
I think of my ancestors...I don't know them but I know what they did to get me here..I see a great great great grand mother perhaps savaged by a beast dieing but finally dragging herself to a new camp ..where she was beaten, ravaged, mistreated and yet she hang on and gave birth to my other grand mother..thousands of years ago ...to give me all I have today...my pain is nothing to what so many of my ancestors would have endured to sustain existence I feel..so I will never complain or grumble that life is not wonderful.
Day to day I complain about the stupidity, the pettiness, the evil and all those things but within I thank my ancestors for getting me here.
My mother, my grand mother, my great great grand mothers I owe them and to bear what ever and be grateful that I am here and alive.
Life is so so precious, we live in a world that creates an impression that is not in keeping with survival and managing hardship...shallow and meaningless.
Don't wish it away, don't fear the pain don't fear being less than you once expected strive for you and all your mothers.
Sorry but we have developed a society that wants beauty and perfection and that is nice but without the balance of the reality of what it took our ancestors to get us here it is shallow.
It is wonderful to hear you all speak your ideas but please think of what those that went before you suffered to get you here.. don't disappoint them with weakness when they have suffered so much more.
I hate the choices that humans make for convenience ....abortion and suicide it shows no respect for those who went before us.
We are developed where efficiency sees most not really producing food and shelter ..real things I mean... we have sports stars, thinkers, lawyers all sorts of folk who really do not produce zip yet in this world we can contemplate convenience to rid ourselves of those that are a small burden.
I said to my father and I mean it ..If the day comes where you can not wipe your bum I will be there happy to do it for you, happy to wait on you for anything you need there is nothing I will not so for you... I never want him to think he needs to get out of the way because he is a burden... my joy would be to be there for him.
So I share my thoughts with you all... sorry that I can be so open but I am me and I have no complaint with that.
An astronomy related one was many years ago when there was a viewing site at "Black hill", NW of Newcastle. On my way there with my 22 year old 10 inch scope in the car I thought I saw some white objects above the road. I was past them in seconds, realizing it was the eyes of a pair of jet black cows standing on the road. had I hit them ........ too scary to think about.
Scott
That's pretty funny Scott. Just imagine what the cows were thinking. Good to see you got the word 'astronomy' in there too - someone's got to keep the thread on-topic. I also had a run in with some black cows but unfortunately I didn't miss them - smashed the windscreen, launched the cow over the top of the car. I checked your profile - I'm also 43 and recently unemployed (freaky). Are apples your favorite food?
I've been shot at..(drunken yahoo's shooting at fish and anything on the banks of the Murry river)...electrcouted via a faulty electric drill..near drowning...plus numerious times being cut off riding motorbikes over 20 something years..(which I had give up on account of an inner ear problem which cancels my balance without warning!!)..and the last one nearly choking on some bok-choy!!..so now I do spend extra time with friends over dinner..I will stop and watch the Sun set when I can..take a trip up to the hills to relax...dance with my work colleagues just for fun..and remember the special times in life..
Good food..good company and good memories!
Cheers!!
That's pretty funny Scott. Just imagine what the cows were thinking. Good to see you got the word 'astronomy' in there too - someone's got to keep the thread on-topic. I also had a run in with some black cows but unfortunately I didn't miss them - smashed the windscreen, launched the cow over the top of the car. I checked your profile - I'm also 43 and recently unemployed (freaky). Are apples your favorite food?
I actually DO eat an apple a day lol.
Actually I get a few hours/week in a cleaning job now, I must change my profile, id forgotten about it lol.
Last year, I ambitously applied for (didnt get) a telescope operator job at the AAT, now wouldnt that have been the ultimate job lol
My "most interesting" brush with death came just over 10 years ago in my "former life" -- I was in the NSW Police for 22 years until 2004.
11pm, Easter Sunday 1997 I was sitting in my home watching T.V when there were was the unmistakable sound of several gun-shots from outside. As I then lived over the Rd from a 24hr/7day petrol station, it was the immediate suspect.
I raced outside and then a little more cautiously to my front yard. There I could see the attendant (who I knew on a first-name basis -- he knew I what I did for a living) holding a revolver pointing it across the shop. I could see he was on the phone.
I crept across the road (armed to the teeth with a tee-shirt and a pair of shorts) and onto the apron of the station -- luckily there were no cars there and I could see inside the shop. There were two Arabic looking guys lying/sitting propped up against the ice-cream freezer just inside the glass doors. The attendant (also Arabic) was conducting a heated "frank and free exchange of views" with them -- mostly in Arabic.
Hiding partly behind a petrol bowser, I waved and tried to get his attention. Finally he noticed me and he waved me over to the shop. I got to the glass doors, the Arabic guys had both been shot, one was bleeding profusely and already had the death-rattles, the other was still arguing the toss with the attendant partly in Arabic, partly in English and asking repeatedly "But why the f**k did you have to shoot me?".
There was a pistol (actually it turned out to be a convincing non-functioning replica) and a butterfly knife on the floor beside them. The attendant still had the revolver trained on them. After I finally got the argumentative one (he was shot in the thigh) to shut-up and roll on one side and the attendant to lower the gun I started to crouch-creep into the shop to kick away the weapons.
I was exactly between the attendant and them when the argument started again and suddenly the "crook" stirred. The attendant, out of instinct and excitement started screaming at him and raised the weapon. The last thing I saw as I was diving was the hammer going back. Somehow (don't ask me how), he failed to let that shot go. There was one more bullet in the gun. I finally flicked the knife and replica gun away with my hands and just then the cavalry arrived.
I was more than a little surprised that I hadn't defecated myself.
I administered basic first-aid to the one who was real bad (shot twice in the kidneys and liver -- surprisingly he lived as it turned out) and then about 10 minutes later when I was outside and shaking like a leaf, a car drove in and a girl hopped out and started shouting "What happened? Is that my boyfriend, oh my God they shot my boyfriend, oh my God why did you have to shoot him ..." and being closest to her I grabbed her and with the assistance of another threw her in the back of a paddy-wagon.
Yep, it was all on video.
The earlier video of the hold-up gone wrong revealed that these guys just ran into the shop full-tilt, hurdled the counter and stabbed the attendant in the forearm (huge gaping wound) all in one action without even getting to the point of asking for money. However, the attendant pushed one back who fell onto the other and then reached down and grabbed his 5-shot .38 cal Smith & Wesson and tracked 'em around the shop until he had two slugs in one and one in the other. 3 out of 4 shots on target ain't bad in the circumstances.
The wobbers got 2 1/2 years each. The girlfriend got a good behaviour bond for being an accessory before the fact (she drove them to the station).
I was recommended for a bravery award. It was declined. I got a 4-line letter congratulating me on "good police-work"
Was it attitude changing for me? Just a little -- in more than one way.
All my life (well as far back as I can remember) I always told people that when I go, I'd rather it was by saving someone else, not just some wierd accident or illness.
All my life (well as far back as I can remember) I always told people that when I go, I'd rather it was by saving someone else, not just some wierd accident or illness.
I still believe that.
That is a wonderful thing Ken...
I need a new heart so......
I could not imagine you would stand back when a hero is called for mate... but on second thoughts keep your heart it is probably too big for me..
Lesd that was some account thanks very much for that one... lucky they did not have a mate in a car keeping a lookout to take you out from behind..wow.. thanks for sharing such a frightening experience.
You were lucky to get anything out of the force .. a copper mate of mine chased a bandit when off duty in a patrol car chipped some paint and they near charged him with neg driving... he got the shotgun off him and the cash... I thought that was so strange..noted his record unfavourably he found out years later when he got a secret peek at his personell file.
He went crazy poor devil.
Thanks for taking the time to provide such an exciting account.
).
I also had a run in with some black cows but unfortunately I didn't miss them - smashed the windscreen, launched the cow over the top of the car. I checked your profile - I'm also 43 and recently unemployed (freaky). Are apples your favorite food? 
