Eight Facts About Me…
… Courtesty of FbL, Who Likes to Play Games
List eight habits or facts about yourself, then tag eight more people
1.  I once organized and participated in a demonstration march on our provincial legislature concerning the lack of resources for students with special needs. Which, within half an hour, led to an in person meeting with the Minister of Education. Which, ultimately, led absoloutely nowhere.
2. I have been seriously considering running in the next school board election. But I haven’t decided yet whether I should run or just run the other way.
3. Before I had my first child, I was always a very shy and quiet person. Now, when it comes to advocating for her, I have a very big mouth. But underneath that, I am still very quiet and shy.
4Â Â I hate dread and despise confrontation in person. It much easier online 
5. After my first year of university, a friend and I traveled to Europe for the summer. We had open tickets back home from Amsterdam so we traveled until we ran out of money (Greece) and then took the ‘Magic Bus’ back to Amerstdam to fly home. That trip was absoloutely the most amazing, funnest, scariest, wildest and unsettling learning experience of my life. And someday, I will go back.
6.  My great-uncle was an American.
7.  *I* recently survived unscathed when a semi (transfer truck) cut me off and sliced the side of my car. The car wasn’t so lucky. But as of today, it appears to be as good as new. Which is good because it was only two months old when the semi decided that he liked my lane better than his.
8.  When I was 16 I drove from Saskatchewan to Houston, Texas. Although my family was with me, I did all the driving and loved every minute of it, with the exception of the Dallas freeways. But I navigated them. But after we arrived at my uncle’s house in Houston, I was completely unable to drive a vehicle for the month we were there. I tried once to back out of his driveway in a quiet residential neighbourhood and went in the ditch. That was enough of that. But strangely enough when it was time to leave, my uncle and I shared the driving. We drove back to Saskatchewan without stopping at night, just taking turns driving. And I found that Dallas was much easier to navigate at night and with someone who knew where they were going (my uncle) giving directions.
 Let me see……whom shall I tag…..
Doorkeeper
jpr
JAS
Miss Birdlegs
Deborah Aylward
Max Damage
Steve
Jeopardy
Posted by Michelle
On July 27th, 2007 under Unfiled.
Comments: 12
Comments
Comment from doorkeeper
Time: July 28, 2007, 12:15 pm
Wow….
1) My husband is skittish around my family, with good reason.
2) I’ve never been drunk enough to throw up, or pass out. I have been staggery once, in the middle of the afternoon.
3) I once considered deliberately becoming a single mother, against all my raising.
4) I want to be a (fiction) writer when I grow up.
5) My oldest daughter is my true best friend.
6) I have a very large, very close, extended family but I tend to feel an outsider even among them, however, I can relax in a group of utter strangers that I will only know for a couple hours.
7) I seem to be having a mid-life crisis. Only God gets me through most days, and I am an Independant Baptist evangelical Christian and sing for churches locally.
I wrote a song for my husband when he left for Iraq (lyrics) and another for my son when he went into placement. The boy who wrote the music for both, thinks they should be published but….
9) I love men in uniform…..oh, wait, you knew that!!
doorkeeper (glad to be home!)
Comment from Max Damage
Time: July 29, 2007, 12:09 am
Alright, I’ll play along — and since I’m not going to tag anybody I’ll increase my fact count to 10, that the readership may have a little compensation.
1) I can remember my telephone number from when I was six years old, but I cannot remember the names of my nephews. Likewise, I can remember my anniversary date but not birthdays. I’m pretty sure I’m still married to what’s-her-name.
2) I am fluent in ASL (American Sign Language) and am often the only hearing person in a group of friends. Unfortunately, this has resulted in some tendonitis in my right hand, so I’ve learned to sign with my left. Ever see the TV show “Taxi”? To my deaf friends I suspect I am much like the Andy Kaufman character Latka, jabbering in semi-literate jibberish as fast as I can go.
3) If it weren’t for physics and law enforcement I’d be unstoppable.
4) I have seven computers in my den. Each runs a different operating system, each performs different roles. I am familiar with every square inch of this room. I am not certain if I even have curtains in the rest of the house, and I most certainly do not know where all the plants that need to be watered when my wife is away are located. Or so I’ve been told. Many times.
5) I can tell the difference between a V-8, V-6, inline-6, inline-4, flat-4, flat-twin and V-twin motor just from the sound. I can hear a turbocharger whine at a half-mile. I can hear one bad bearing out of ten thousand in a combine or tractor with the radio cranked up and the AC blowing. I cannot, apparently, hear my wife ask me to take out the garbage at a distance of three feet.
6) I can perform a headshot on a rabid skunk at 100 yards, I’ve harvested more pheasants than I can count, deer and elk are taken each fall and added to the larder, the farm cats follow me at 10 feet whenever I have a rifle because rabbit is coming home to dinner. I have dificulty butchering chickens, turkeys, and cattle that I raise.. Just can’t kill them. They’re too much like pets. The little gomers trust me, think I’m going to feed them or something. I believe how we treat animals is a reflection of our morality, and darned if I can kill an animal that isn’t a threat to those I protect or like the deer is aware that it is the the prey. Good thing there’s plenty of venison in the freezer, because I’d starve if I had to eat the chickens.
7) I’m probably overweight, have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, drink too much, have bad water, and I really should ask my doctor about the little blue pill according to what I read and hear on the radio. I’ve not seen a doctor in nearly 15 years, and I’ve been sick for a total of 2 days in that time (annoyingly enough, on a weekend at that!). So far so good. Bed rest and chicken soup never killed anybody. Pills and scalpels kill every day.
If it can be done I believe I can do it. If it cannot be done, I believe it’ll take me a little longer. I’ve never met a challenge I was not up for. By sheer coincidence, I’ve never been a parent. I’m due to become a father in December. I am afraid it may be a he, and that he may be like me. Note to self – send flowers to my mother, and take wife out to dinner next week.
9) If I had a choice, and money was not a concern, I’ve often thought I should have been a writer or a comedian rather than an engineer. Unfortunately, those careers do not provide a steady paycheck and I have a family and mortage-payment habit to support. But I can dream.
10) I believe that as a society we are over-medicated, under-exercised, and take our easy lives for granted. If you want to know how well you have it, just spend a few weeks anywhere else on the globe. That’ll quitcherbitchin. I’ve visited every state in the Union (48 on a motorcycle) and there’s not a one I’d give up for any of the dozen or so other countries I’ve been to.
— Max
Comment from Steve
Time: July 29, 2007, 7:46 am
This thing has gotten around – last time it was just five though so I’ll have to add a few.
1. I was a not-so-exceptional student throughout high school (easy, Dad) and yet scored significantly higher on the SAT and ACT than I had any right to proving the parental theory that I had indeed been sandbagging all along.
2. My brother and I fought like cats and dogs growing up and now he’s a Veterinarian.
3. The summer after I graduated from college I had the privilege to sail from New York to the Azores, down to Bermuda, then back to New York as part of the crew on a 68′ yawl. Most memorable discoveries from the trip: it never gets completely pitch-black dark at sea (unless you’re trying to land on a carrier but that was years later), you can smell land long before you see it, bumping something of significant mass when the chart reveals that you’re in 3,000 feet of water will cure any desire for a swim break no matter how hot it is, and negotiating a right turn on a moped from the left side of the road with one eye closed is far more difficult than it would seem.
4. I duck-hunt because my dogs force me to (have you seen Moose lately?)
5. Amidst all the tools and sawdust in my garage resides a 16′ wooden canoe. It’s cleverly disguised as a stack of lumber but I find that the old Jeep fits in the bay much easier that way.
6. Most of the skills that my father taught me have come in very handy over the years for many people. Thank goodness for caller ID!
7. As I approach yet another birthday I’ve come to realize that one of the worst things about growing older is being able to clearly identify your past mistakes.
8. I live in Alabama and yet I have my grandfather’s snowshoes hanging on the wall (he lived in northern Maine).
Comment from PunkysDilemma
Time: July 29, 2007, 9:25 am
Obviously I don’t post much here or TOS. But I read almost daily. I feel like I’ve made a friend from very far away. Thanks Max. Your eight facts were pretty intriguing. I think you’d make a great comedian. 
Congratulations on becoming a Dad! Children *literally* change your life….all for the better.
PunkyD
Comment from MissBirdlegs in AL
Time: July 29, 2007, 12:56 pm
Gee, thanks, Michelle – I thought you were my friend. Commenting here is waaay above my pay grade, and I think y’all know a lot about me already. You might not know:
1. I’m 4’11â€, weigh 93 lbs. – but talk a whole lot bigger!
2. I have two children and four grandchildren and a brand new granddaughter-in-law.
3. I’m a deadeye shot with a .22 rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, formerly an avid squirrel and bird hunter – now I just watch ‘em.
4. I play the piano (not in Fbl’s league) and up until a few years ago, I played a mean clarinet and saxophone – not enough breath for that these days.
5. The first money I ever made was singing with my little sister at some sort of convention of railroaders (I can’t remember).
6. Besides my work at Redstone in the early days of the space program, which y’all know about, I worked for the Pearl Buck Foundation in PA during the Vietnam Orphans Airlift, placing them with families.
7. I used to drive in the Powder Puff Derbies at drag strips around N. AL, before any of you folks were even a gleam in your parents’ eyes.
8. Once a month, I have dinner with 30 or so members of my high school graduating class (1958), several of whom started first grade with me.
I’m not tagging anyone – this is pure torture!
Comment from Michelle
Time: July 29, 2007, 1:23 pm
“Torture”??
But that was great. You know I just realized that I can’t bring myself to call you Miss Birdlegs, at least not when I am talking directly to you anyway LOL
I had the sense you were a quite the character, now I have the evidence … a tiny little thing but don’t mess with her if there’s a gun or a vehicle around. Sounds like an amazing life. Thanks for answering.
Comment from MissBirdlegs in AL
Time: July 29, 2007, 3:38 pm
MissBirdlegs isn’t bad – My best friend’s hubby, who was 6′8″, called me that when we all lived in CA. It was a loving nickname coming from him. Just try “MissB” if that makes you more comfy. I’ve answered to much worse…
Comment from Michelle
Time: July 29, 2007, 7:10 pm
Miss B it is then
Comment from unkawill
Time: August 1, 2007, 7:06 pm
Geez, all of y’all are so funny and intriguing.
Kinda makes my life pathetic by comparison.
Comment from Michelle
Time: August 1, 2007, 7:18 pm
Quick!
Somebody tag him!
Before he up and leaves the country
Comment from unkawill
Time: August 1, 2007, 8:36 pm
Michelle, not to worry, FBL has already done the deed,indeed.
I’m sort of busy at the moment, but I promise, I’ll get around to it before I ship out to the sandbox. Keep an eye on my Blog, If you please.
Comment from Michelle
Time: August 2, 2007, 8:16 am
Will do, unkawill.
In fact, have been doing….
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