I'm such a dunce!!

Wow I've just had silly accidents by comparison. Although once I drove a single decker bus down a narrow road with cars parked either side and managed to swipe a few wing mirrors as I went! I was a temp and told I could drive the bus on my normal licence, I think they got that wrong though.

Glad to hear you're ok Paul, I think its about time you built that jet pack and fly to work, that way you can be sure you get to work, fit it posting and being high on the browning points at home ;-)

Sj

Man! You guys have all the fun!

I did a nice smash on my motorcycle when I was in college. They had just oiled and sanded the off ramp that I came off of at 60 MPH. Trying to slow down on that slippery stuff before I reached bottom, I lost control and skidded down the off ramp and on into the street. Tore through my pants. Still have an inch sized mostly rounded Road Burn on my right kneecap from that adventure.

And of course the minor accidents. having a fool turn left in front of me when the light was changing so I went tumbling over the back of his trunk - while on my motorcycle. Or being rear ended a half dozen times in my life. Missing a deer bounding out in the road in front of me. That kind of thing.

No train wrecks. No bombs. No robberies.

Though my mom did tell me the story of how she walked in and out of a bank robbery and didn't know it until the policeman grabbed her and yanked her to safety as she came out of the bank. Her hair was dyed blonde at the time so that's probably why the armed robbers didn't stop her as she left.

Near miss indeed! My experiences pale in comparison. I was the only person out of a busy street to get the registration of a car used in an armed jewellery robbery whilst everyone screamed and ran for cover. I was considering (at the time) taking on the guys (there were four, in clown masks, with shotguns) but I was 19 years old and an idiot. Another miss years later when I struck a tree with my train at 70mph, destroyed the cab front and showered me in glass, just avoided derailing and careening off a viaduct, with train full. I was covered in blood and muck, but got the train to a point where the passengers could be offloaded, had to stop other trains running into it etc.

Oh, and today, had a blow out whilst out on the motorbike. At 60 ish mph, back tyre blew out completely and left me slithering along the road. I carried on for a few more miles guessing which way the bike would turn and wondering what'd happened, then pulled over finally. Back tyre, flat as a pancake (and only 800 ish miles old )Nothing to suggest why - no nails or anything. Admittedly, I'd been 'enthusiastic' earlier and melted the sidewalls a bit but that's to be expected. Anyway, as a result I was hours waiting for the AA to turn up, hence delay (I should have been in bed for work an hour ago). So yeah, had I known my tyre was flat I'd have stopped straight away instead of carrying on (through twisty bends and overtaking cars) whilst sliding all over. I was quite enjoying it too So yes, I am a dunce

Living in London I've had a few near misses myself over the years.

1994 my train just pulled out of London Bridge heading into Waterloo when the train behind us was hit by an IRA bomb hidden on the platform my train had just pulled out of.

I was in the building opposite the Nat West Tower when it was bombed, luckily the meeting room I was in was round the other side but all the glass facing the tower was blown out of the office I was in.

7/7 my wife and I got off the tube at Edgeware road just before the bomb went off in the train in front of us.

I'm starting to think someone out there has a personal grudge against me

I'm such a dunce. On Saturday a group of tornados ripped through Raleigh, NC where I live. I had no idea that there were any around!!

I was out shopping and saw the black clouds of a thunderstorm coming in. Lightning all over the place, as per our usual thunderstorms. The power went out at the store as I was being rung up. Went to another store in another location where they had power. Then headed home. All this time, I was playing my CDs instead of listening to the radio. Get home and find the power is out. Ate my sandwich I bought and went to bed to wait out the storm and the power coming back on. Power came back on an hour or so later, got involved watching my latest Dr. Who DVD - Claws of Axos - Jon Pertwee, then went to bed until the next day.

My mom calls me on Sunday morning wanting to know if I was alright. When I asked her why I wouldn't be, she told me the Weather Channel was going on and on about the massive tornados that had hit Raleigh the day before. That's when I found out that they had come and gone! hehehe!

Like I told an office mate, sometimes, ignorance is bliss!!

Not completely funny because something like 21 folks died in our state from the tornados. The storm had ripped through a dozen or so states and killed folks in every state but ours was hardest hit. The closest tornado hit about 4 miles from me. About six blocks from where work is.

Weekends, I tend to not listen to the news as I am usually on the computer, reading or out with friends, so I didn't know a thing about it until it was all over and just got most of my news on it today as I was coming to work.

Such a dunce!