The most recent near death experience was on the way to work. It was typical morning here in Italy. I was driving to the base dealing with the usual traffic and headaches from driving here. Little did any of know that the overhead sign leading to an exit ramp would collapse down in front of us. Luckily, the worst damage was done were to the cars that we were driving with a case of oh fuck with a puckered up asshole to go with it.

I used to get into a spot of bother when I was younger, I'm sure I've been close to death a few times hit over the head with a bottle, fell asleep on a roundabout there's plenty more stories 

I have had 3 distinct near death experiences.  I learned at least 2 things for my journey.

1. Stop Trying and Let Go

2. I have no say as to what will happen in my lifetime at any given moment

but I can bedazzle the Fuck out it along the way 

Well mine is something that didn't happen....might only mean something to those in the UK and old enough however I was due to catch THAT train from Paddington station and I missed it by about 30 seconds and was completely livid as really needed to be somewhere. I just recall going to look at the screens to work out my plan and them all just going blank and no one knowing what was happening.....slowly info started to come in but it wasn't until I did eventually got home I realised just how bad the crash had been. A real sliding doors movie moment that still makes the hairs on my arm stand up. For those that don't know it was the Ladbroke Grove rail crash that killed 31 and injured 417 others, the worst one in UK history that I was 30 seconds from being involved in. Yikes!

I wouldn't say this was a direct near death experience for me, but it definitely gave me chills and really made me think how quickly things can change and happen, even when doing routine things you enjoy in life and feel are normal, safe things.

Back in 2015, I went to see a band called Eagles of Death Metal live. Two days after I went to see them, they played a sold out gig at The Bataclan Theatre in Paris, which I won't go into too much detail about but a terrorist attack occurred - I think around 80 people were killed sadly.

The most near-death experience I've had that's worth telling is when I almost got trampled by a kine of cows. I can't remember how old I exactly was, but I was in the beginning of my teen years. Back then, I went to the Tim Horton's camp for children. One of our outings was to go visit a farm and on that farm, they had an enclosed field of cows and one bull. There were two girls at one end of the field feeding a cow and I was in the middle of the field feeding two cows and almost all of the other cows and the bull were at the other end of the field. While I was feeding the two cows, the girls shrieked because they got "scared" when their cow reached for the food in their hands. When they shrieked, the kine of cows started running because they were scared and I looked over at the direction of the noise. Then, I felt the ground kind of grumble and I turned around and I saw the cows running scared and running in the direction of the girls, but having to go towards me in the process. I ran and dove away because they were relatively close.

So, yeah. Almost got trampled to death by a stampede of cows.

Not a near death experience for me, but instead for my father. My father, a retired police officer, was out in Las Vegas for a week on holiday. One of his activities was visiting the Harvest festival, including the concert. He visited the concert directly on Saturday, September 30th, back in 2017. He planned to go to the concert a second day, what was then Sunday, but my mother convinced him to come home early for other reasons.

On Sunday, while at the airport preparing to fly home, only then did he receive news of the massacre now taking place at the concert he just visited and otherwise would have been there for, but thanks to my mother, did not end up going. I’ll just remember his call to me once they locked down the airport. It was all pretty surreal.

I have had a total of  7 near death experiences, I was in ICU  just before I was a year old  due to 3rd and 4th degree submersion burns,  two car accidents (one I had to relearn how to walk from ), an electrocution by 220v, and in the last 4 years I have had 3 more near death experiences all due to complications from my Crohn's. March this year was the anniversary of my last  win against death.

When I was a teenager, our lifeguard group were a bunch of fools.

After we put the cover on the pool, and it hugged the walls, we would slip into the water on one side and then swim underwater, under the cover, to the other side. Often we would do in the start of evening after the regular swimmers were gone, so it was beyond stupid.

But we did it because no one wants to be called chicken. But, many a time, I got to that edge, pushing up, to suck in a big breath. Man, it was dumb.

When I was younger we went to a party and this guy was super wasted and pulled a gun on me and my friends. When you are under the influence anything can happen. That was my near death experience 

I almost died this year, if I had waited to go to the hospital I probably would have died from a cool breeze. It was scary and I was in the hospital for about a week. Not quite all the way better yet, but I'm better than I was, or would have been without help. Super scary.

One time long ago, I was driving to the meet with Qui-Gon-Jinn. Not far in front of us, a Semi truck blew out a tire, and the tire went careening into our lane. I shouted, basically shat myself, waking him up from his nap, swerving to avoid the tire. It was intense.

And then we overpaid for Arby's. Good times.

Quite a few years back, I had friends that had a place on Middle Bass Island in Lake Erie, Oh.   They also had cottages and in the winter rented ice shanties for ice fisherman.  Quite the business when the ice was good.  Probably the stupidest thing I ever did and to me was the closest to death experience for me was being a passenger in these friend's 4 seater airplane.  One winter when the ice was good, I was picked up on the ice in the Sandusky Bay and we traveled to a frozen area between Middle Bass and South Bass (aka Put-in-Bay) and landed that plane on the ice where 4 wheelers awaited our arrival to take us to land.  I was never so scared in all my life.  I saw my life flash before my eyes and thought for sure that plane was going to break thru the ice and we would drown a horrible death.  Then the ride in you could hear the ice cracking (stress cracks) making it even more scarier til we reached land.  Needless to say when I finally arrived to the cottage I spent the remainder of my night in the hot tub.  No more ice for me.  Later than week, the ice began breaking fast, and an islander's son fell thru that same area where we landed in that plane and lost his life...    

Young and Dumb... 

When I was 17 I was starting to get to a place in my life where I didn't care about anything. I had dropped out of school, started selling drugs and doing B&E's. This was partially due to the fact that most of my closest friends growing up got into the same shit, but it didn't help that I was living with a single mom who was also a recovering addict. She simply didn't have time to keep up with what I had going on. There were times that I wouldn't be home for several days in a row. Eventually I was asked to leave, and I did. 

Looking back I did a lot of shit that could have resulted in stories worthy to post here, though I don't have any that were a direct result of my recklessness. It happened to be just a chill night visiting a friend that almost got me. A couple of my friends and I pulled up to another friends block around 2:00am. When we parked we saw a crown vic on the other side of the street cut their headlights on and pull out of their parking spot. None of us thought anything of it. We started getting out of the car and walking towards the entrance of our friend's apartment building. Right before we got to the door we heard a car start to accelerate quickly, it caught our attention and before you know it shots started ringing out. I don't remember anything but running, I don't remember how many shots I heard or if my friends were saying anything. We all had the same idea, we ran straight into the apartment's stairway and ran up as quick as we could. We stopped for a minute on the second floor and checked on each other, full of adrenaline none of us knew what to really say. Everybody was good, nobody was hit so we went straight to our boy's apartment. We sat there for hours smoking and talking.

I couldn't tell you if the cops ever came or if those guys ever came back around. All I know is daylight came and we had to make the walk back to our car, which was parked on the street not to far from the front of the apartment building. I'll never forget making the walk back out thinking "are these guys just posted up waiting for us?" It's irrational in reality, but when you're on the wrong end of the gun these thoughts really linger. Despite this event, my stupid ass kept going down the wrong path. It wouldn't be until a later arrest, a lawyer that believed in me and a justice system that forgave me until I would finally turn my life around.

It's been over a decade since these events, but they stick with me to this day. Of the 3 friends I was with that night, one was gunned down on his front porch within 6 months, one is in prison and the other actually turned his life around for his daughter, but had to fight through an AM charge to get there. My point in saying that is that it never lasts. In life itself nothing ever lasts, but there is no life in that lifestyle. Not a sustainable one at least. 

growing up poor white boy in canton ,ohio   home of the hall of fame.... just a few miles to the rock and roll up in cleveland you have to see i .

My first near death experience came as a result of a car wreck at 16 in my (then) corvette. Thought I was a great driver, went around the curb at about 70, hit an oil spot, spun out, went over, flipped about 5x. Jaws of life, all the fun stuff.

Needless to say, I learned to drive better :)

Yes, i have been in quite a few close calls over the years, nearly drowned about twice when i was still a kid, first time got caught in a riptide and was trying to swim against it, got cramp another time while diving, Had a heavy metal trolley fall off the back of a truck one time and nearly land on my head, that may not have killed me but it was close enough. Those are the main events, those and being in a car wreck, and a couple of times when i was on back of friends motorbikes when they lost control and dropped them. 

Only one experience luckily, I was Windsurfing on a big lake and there was a lot of wind so I used my security line, then there was a wind hose that knocked me and my sail over, I landed on my head on the water with great speed, it knocked me out, the life vest saved me really, a little late I was back so to speak, safely floating above the water, after that ordeal I never surfed again.