I am a USELESS carpenter .

my father was in a horrible car accident on Sleepy Hollow Rd - Lost the vision in his right eye.

I think before speaking.

You think we wouldn't have guessed that?!

This is a little long, but this memory resurfaced with all the Pink Floyd talk lately.

Back when I was doing a semester abroad in West Germany in ’88, I had the opportunity to go see Pink Floyd in concert in a city about two hours away. Buying the tickets was easy enough, but my friends and I didn’t have any idea how we were going to actually get there. Eventually, somebody heard that a local record shop was organizing a charter bus to the concert. The “tickets” were handwritten scraps of paper, but we were assured that the bus really would be waiting for us at a local parking lot.

Arriving at the parking lot about 20 minutes early, we were encouraged to see a bunch of scruffy Germans standing around waiting for the bus too. But we got increasingly nervous as no bus showed up for an hour, and we were about to go beg another friend to drive us when a bus finally pulled into the lot. It looked a little old, but seemed just fine. We all got on, and the mood on the bus became very festive almost immediately.

We were barreling down the autobahn, with Pink Floyd blasting out of somebody's boom box. There was a lot of sweet smelling smoke mixed in with the ever present European cigarette smoke, and everyone was having a good time. This was the way to travel to a concert! No designated driver worries at all. Then I noticed we started slowing down. It was almost imperceptible at first. I looked out the front window, and there was no traffic causing our slowdown. Others started to notice as the bus really lost speed, and in no time, we were sitting by the side of the road.

The vibe was gone. Half the people were looking at their watches and trying to calculate how far we were from the concert and how much time we had left before the start. The other slightly more paranoid half was sure the driver radioed the cops, who were on their way to arrest them for smoking pot. The paranoid half got more paranoid when the angry looking bus driver slowly made his way to the back of the bus, where they were sitting. But he only bent down and opened the hatch in the floor leading down to the engine. He fiddled around for a while, making the engine rev and idle, rev and idle. Then he started talking to one of the passengers sitting next to the hatch. My German wasn’t that great, but it was obvious the driver was giving the passenger some instructions. I didn’t get it, until he put a small cable leading to the throttle into the guy’s hand.

The bus driver walked back up to the front of the bus. Put the bus in gear, and then yelled “NOW!” in German. The passenger pulled on the chain, and the engine responded with a loud roar. The bus slowly pulled back out onto the autobahn. The driver kept shifting through the gears with the engine running at the constant high RPM. I wouldn’t say it was a smooth ride, but we were on the road! Then once we were up to speed on the highway, and he was in top gear, he would call out “schneller!” or “langsamer” as we came up behind trucks, etc. in the lane in front of us. We stayed in the slow lane for the next 45 minutes or so until we got to the concert. It was a little dicey getting through the packed parking lot at the arena, but the passenger in the back seat and the driver in the front had pretty much figured out how to work the thing by this point.

We had a great time at the concert, and when we returned to the bus afterwards, the driver had fixed everything.

We got home without incident.

Wow...cool...great story glatt. :D

I used to be a professional bicycle stunt rider

Killer road trip story !!!!!

Wow....now that's a story Glatt!

Wecome to the Cellar, Man. Little young to be a has been, ain't cha?:lol:

A woman pushed into the bus queue ahead of me the other day. She was 4 in front, so I couldn't make a comment without making a REAL fuss. It wouldn't have been so bad, but the witch took the jump seat (seat closest to Driver and door that I always prefer to sit in).

Now I had just bought hot-BBQ-chicken-in-a-bag. She didn't know. Nyah, nyah, nyaaaah. Took the next best seat (next to her) and put my chicken bag on top of her clothes-shop carrier bag. Ha. Perhaps next time you jump the queue you'll remember the night you went out smelling of chicken.

I am vindictive.

I think muffin mix is better uncooked.

And I just ate a whole bowl of it.

Bleggghhhh...

Ugh, that just reminded me...

I liked eating dry, uncooked pieces of spaghetti when I was little, and called it "pie" for some unknown reason.

I have a very patient and understanding mother, I think.

Naw, just a Champion of Truth, Justice and the British Way.
A new super hero, Chicken Stinker :D

I like to eat raw Potato

I like to eat raw fish

now way! what kind of fish jinx?



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The only cold sandwich I really like is tuna.

That cold tuna is cooked, Jinx eats raw fish. :greenface
I believe she's talking about sushi rather than standing in the water biting fish as they swim up to spawn. But, it's still raw fish.

Only because that tends to piss the bears off.

I'm genetically Indian, and I don't like rice. Or hot weather.
I'm defective.

i tend not to give cash to the homeless who are at every intersection. (in phoenix we have a lot of... professionals) i do hand out giftcards to places like mcdonald's and target though.
i usually keep a handful with a couple of bucks on them for this very reason.

yesterday i handed a target card to a guy and as i was driving away i realized that i had just given him my father's day gift which was a target gift card with $150 on it. oops.

homeless jackpot!

maybe he will 'pay it forward'. Maybe he will get a room, take a shower. A whole string of good fortune results causing a ripple effect for the rest of his life. * crosses fingers*

Large -- or glittery -- whatevers that attract the eye hanging on a rearview are a bad idea anyway; take 'em down and see more of the America outside your windshield. I see people driving around with those four-by-twelve-inch blue "Handicapped" placards hanging, and all I can do is nod, grimly, and agree they sure are driving handicapped.

monkeys have yet to fly from my butt.

Certainly not, Bruce. You're NEVER too young to be all washed up.

No, just American.

Or as one of my Pakistani docs put it ... an ABCD "American Born Confused Desi"

I'm half-latino, and yet I have no rythm... :sniff:

Standing up, anyway. :eek:

Hell yeah!

Mmmmmmmmmmm me too!

You're all gonna get worms, grow scales and have Slang feed you junk food. :haha:

I was going to say those very words but thought it was too rude to mention.


That means..I am either not rude or ....



(side note - the fact the people are so mature and can take kidding on this site is such and eye opener:eek:)

My friends would like to challenge you on that one.

I chopped off the end of my finger when I was five.

I am the youngest person to be enrolled in a college in the history of my county.

wow that's incredible!


are you still young?

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I can't hear vowels very well. I can't here low tones much at all.

I have a degree in american sign language.

Sorry, but depending on the county, I'm likely unimpressed. I've met lots of small-town "valedictorians" who would be lucky to be in the top 20% of the semi-urban upper-middle-class high school I went to. How's your ego now? ;)

Are you PSEOP or did you graduate HS early?

Congrats, anyhoo!:) :)

I live in an urban area, not a huge one, but still an urban area. My brother goes to the upper-middle class high school founded by a tobacco mega-millionare. Ego = intact.
Not sure what PSEOP is, but high school was non-existent for me. Gotta love loopholes.

I'm not sure he was looking to impress. This is a thread about "Would you believe ..." after all, and he was simply on topic ...

Mmmm....Sushi....Mmmm

Something about myself?

I stalk squirrels with streetcars.

http://marmelmm.livejournal.com/91149.html

;D

-MMM-

Depending on the county, he might be not only the youngest but the only. I ranked 17th in a graduating class of 890, and had 1341 on my College Boards before they started dumbing them down. I still dropped out of college. Nobody cares.

My parents return from a 17 day holiday today, and just knowing they are back in the country makes me feel less lonely.

Would you believe that my entire world revolves around computers/digital photography yet I cant seem to keep a personal PC working well enough to enjoy non-work activities?

It's painfully true. :blush:

Dude, that is so awesome!
I like to look at squirrels and point, but that is so much cooler!

I have a pornographic memory

I have potentially pornographic mammeries
but I'll wait til I am old enough for Fat and Forty Monthly I think....

I contend that mammaries are never pornographic.:D

At times, they're downright majestic. :D

-MMM-

I have potentially pornographic mammeries

We can be the judge of that ;)

Holy shit... no offence zippy, but I didnt realize that was you at first... every word is spelled right (well, except in the quote... heh).

I have a new obsession with Prince that is probably bordering on unhealthy.

I saw Prince open for the Rolling Stones in ... 1984? Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. He got booed from the stage. Fsckers.

i am finding comfort in the arms of too many feminine types. i may seek professional help. only after i'm done enjoying this, though.

I think I'm some sort of physiological freak.

I look reasonably normal, and don't have any spectacular ailments, but almost every doctor / medical specialist / alternative medicine practitioner says to me "now, THAT'S interesting, I've never seen this before".

I saw an Chinese traditional doctor once, and she looked at my tongue and listened to my pulse, looked alarmed and shouted "oh dear! I don't think I can help you!" The next two I saw did the same thing. As well as the Tibetan (medical) lama. I think I'm a hopeless case.

I didn't sweat - not even in saunas - for the first 35 years of my life, and had no body odour.

I appear to have a recurring stigmata on my right hand, but have never had religion of any sort.

I have a distinct and detailed memory of a episode of a few minutes from when I was still in my mother's womb.

Be greatful you don't have Ed Zachary disease.

Keep it quiet, sandypossum...they might nail you to a cross. ;)

Alas, "freak" but not "special". Not even sure I don't have Ed Zachary, foot!:thepain3:

No worries about crucifixion, Bruce - I also have an unbelievably low pain threshold (I've come out of general anaesthetics screaming and have bitten and kicked several doctors - sort of in a spasm, not deliberately - esp my heroic dentist) so shortly after nailing me they'd shoot me to shut me up. :scream:

No, even though you are pretty darn close to the camera, I can tell that you haven't got Ed Z disease.

I am terribly female....yet drink the pickle juice out of the jar when the pickles are gone. It's delightfully refreshing!

I sip the leftover olive oil from the sardine can after I eat them, too.

(bats lashes....)

Anemia?

Had no problems with my blood, Jebediah, (and I was a regular blood donor) until I began sweating about 10 years ago. A few years AFTER that started I became slightly anaemic. I have a constant battle keeping my iron up. I've also developed a mysterious bleeding disorder - almost bled to death twice, after two minor day surgery ops, and am seeing Melbourne's top haematologist, who, two years down the line still has no idea what it is. All tests come out normal. It's not ALL bleeding, just these two ops and WHOOOOOSH! I exploded blood all over an emergency room at one point. Quite spectacular.