My friend Joanie asks, What Bit You ? Good question. Too long for her comments, but she got me thinking.

When I was about 8 years of age, I wrecked my bicycle into a beehive. Got about 30 stings.

A year later, (this is an almost) me and my buddy were damming a creek in the Tennessee woods. We saw a cottonmouth ( water moccasin, and they are aggressive) swimming directly at us. We broke for the bank...too late. It had four choices...his two legs, or my two legs...it chose his left calf, and he was on my right. Have you ever seen anyone bitten by a snake? Not a pleasant thing. His father did the pocket knife x-cut on both the fang marks, and started sucking blood out. It worked, he's still alive, but he spent about a week in the hospital. It was a close call. After that, when out and about in the woods, I always try to keep a shotgun with me. My first was gifted to me by my Grandfather. It wouldn't have done us any good in the creek, but still...it's better to have one and not need it, than to need one and not have it.

Another almost: I was hiking in he Pacific Northwest with some friends when we jumped off a natural Beaver dam. We were about a mile from "the truck" and had no gun. Momma Grizzly Bear with two cubs, about 30 yards away, was pissed...she stood up and roared like you wouldn't believe . We broke...I did a mile through the bush in record time. I would've made a Nigerian proud. I learned then and there, that I'm much more comfortable armed when there is a slight chance you might run into something that is 10 times your size.

Another almost: I was in an old Air Force (F-4 I think) survival raft about 400 yards off the coast of St. Augustine Florida when a 10 foot shark started paying attention to us. It was longer than the raft and came within about 5 feet of us several times. My ass was tight. The swells...now you see it, now you don't. We stopped paddling and got on the rails...drifted in and crashed onto the jetty, and I damn near broke my leg. It was a BIG fish.

Another almost. Climbing out of the Grand Canyon in August one year, I pulled myself over a rock at the top of a switchback, and came face to face with about 30 rattlesnakes. I pushed back and fell / rolled about 50 feet down and busted my ass for certain. I still had 5 miles to the top rim. Long day.

The worst: St. Augustine again. I received a phone call early one morning from my buddy who was in jail...minor infraction...but still needed to be bailed out. I told him I didn't remember where my car was...it was one of those nights...he said, take mine, you know where the keys are. No problem, got his keys and threw my boots into the back seat. Arrived at the county jail, which was surrounded by a tall razor wire fence...got out of the car and put my boots on and laced 'em up...hit the buzzer for access...and double wham. A scorpion tapped me twice on the bottom of my foot. It was in my boot. I was hopping around on one leg trying to get my damn boot off...the cops were laughing, and I was in pain. I got my boot off, poured the (big ass) scorpion out, and smashed it flat. The law finally understood what had happened and took me to the hospital. I'm not normally allergic to stings, but this was different...I started feeling queasy / dizzy almost immediately. I received some injections and slept for 2 days. Seriously, I thought I was going to die.

More later...