JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Sunday, May 6th, 2007

Hi Folks,

This has been one of the busiest weeks in a long time around here. We're trying to lock down all these events before leaving for the first leg of the 2007 Roadtrips. There's a couple of projects we just haven't been able to get to which sucks. If only those projects had come up 3 months ago or 6 months later once we're back off the road.

Timing is such an important part of everything. A little too early or a little too late can make all the difference in business and in personal life. Some examples?

Go back and think about your life and, if you're married or in a serious relationship, imagine how the timing was perfect for you to meet your significant other. Imagine if you hadn't been in that place or frame of mind when you first crossed paths. I'd love to hear your stories of a possible near miss and how it came about. Or, perhaps you're the exception and there was no way you could have missed pairing off with your significant other.

So what's your story?

Brian

Near Miss?
Well there we were somewhere over the Med on a bright sunny day flying off the carrier doing some training. I was in the front seat with my Officer-in-Charge of our detachment. We were in an AD-1 Skyraider, single engine prop with a Curtis-Wright 3350 Recip engine. All of a sudden a F4D Skyray came past us about 300 feet away going down. He was moving fast. The F4D was the fastest time-to-climb jet aircraft in the Navy at that time. Don't remember the exact top speed but it probably came close to the speed of sound in level flight. This all happened in the summer if 57.

Needless to say the Officer-in-Charge of the Skyrays got a royal chewing out by our Officer-in-Charge when we landed back on the carrier. Such is the life in the service. Carriers can be a dangerous place to be. We lost 6 people on that cruise. Not our group but others.

Our detachment lost an aircraft but the crew all got out safely.

Interesting Ray.. I thought you were going to incorporate your spouse into that story somehow by the end. Did you have a similar near miss with her?

Brian

I love this topic - have often thought about writing a song about it. But I heard Don McLean sing a song in concert once about the same idea. What are the odds of topping that?

Take all these stories though - and then factor in the odds of your parents meeting - and of her parents meeting - and then the odds of the 4 sets of yours and hers grandparents meeting - and, well, it gets mind-boggling pretty quickly.

I commuted to college with a kid I went to high school with. He was very charming, very good looking, and the girls liked him. I wasn't terribly outgoing. The only reason we commuted together was that we had picked the same major so we were always in the same classes. He attracted the attention of one young woman and she would go to his house once a week or so - which meant that all three of us were in the car together.

One day she just started coming to my house instead. We celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this year

I don't know who was more surprised - me or my buddy. I haven't seen him in 20 years but we were still friends...of course he always made sure to remind me that I owed him

Scott

On Sept. 1, 2001, I flew from the east coast to LA, on one of the same flights that tragically went down on 9-11-01.
I had originally planned to fly a week or two later; I am, of course, thankful that I changed my plans.

Emily

Well,
After we got back from the cruise I met my wife of nearly 44 years. Don't know how we I made it but we did. I like to tell people I was on a wrong road at the wrong time. But I guess you don't believe that, do you? Life has been pretty good. We did it one day at a time.

An elderly DJ acquaintance of mine asked me to judge a talent contest at a restaurant/bar. My initial feelings were "why would I want to judge a contest like that?" Then, a little voice inside told me that I had to go. So, I listened to that little voice and I went to judge the contest. That's where I met my now husband of 17 years. He was also with the panel of judges. I hired him that night to do a two-week gig with me in a Vegas lounge. We're still together. That was nearly 20 years ago.

Heidi

Great story Heidi.

Anyone else?

Brian

My Dad just missed staying at the MGM Grand when it burned years ago. His trip got cancelled at the last minute.

But in terms of love, my hubby and I had to wait for our timing to line up.... when we first met, we were both with other people. We were friends for a couple of years before we were both free and had the thought we'd make a good match. Once we got together though, it was obvious that it was something different.

I was at the tail end of a divorce and HAD to get out of the house. I called my sister and she said they were going to a club that night and that I should meet them. The guy she was dating invited a young lady that he was friends with and had just broken up with her boyfriend of a few years. Neither of us had a clue about each other, but we met that night. My sister was trying to fix her up with a co-worker who thought she was hot. Somehow, she liked me....I'm still not really sure how (they all told her it was nuts to date someone IN a divorce situation)...she waited for me to get my divorce, and now we've been married 8.5 years. (Of course NOW after almost 10 years together she probably thinks they were right!!) LOL

Great stories.. and after meeting Christine and her equal half (notice I didn't say better.. you can only do that when talking about wives, not husbands.. double standards DO exist) I must agree they are a great match!

Brian

Upon returning from a Year in 'Nam, I hitchhiked to the Pentagon to get re-assigned Overseas, rather than spend my last yr-&-a-Half Army Hitch in the US as a Viet Vet. Ended up in Heidelberg, GY rather than Ft Holabird, MD.

2 Months there, I'd made friends with a guy in Army Security Agency, whose duty it was to cruise the Local Bars with Underground Booze & see what was up among The Locals.

May 28, 1969 we hit The Old Timer's Club, STILL There (As "Club 1900") on the Hauptstrasse. ALL were dancing, EXCEPT 5 French-Speakin' Gals all seated around a Bottle of Champaigne.

If my Wife had had Her Birthday Party any Other DAY..Any Other PLACE..we'd probably Never Have Met. (Woulda STILL been A Stretch if she hadn't JUST finished livin' in London 2 years perfectin' Her English, too....I'd FLUNKED a Semester of College French earlier.)

The Gals still get together & Trade Notes every time we get back to Europe. 3-of-the-Remainin'-4 Married Well/All had kids/Live Happily-Ever-After. The 4th, & Most-Religious of the bunch, had an Abusive Hubby & committed Suicide rather than Divorce Him.

At any rate, so much of Life IS "Purely Luck\"...& we raise a Glass Annually to poor Katrine, knowing that not ALL Luck IS as "Good" as ours.

Big Guy-Hug,
Stan

A near miss.

Hmmmm. I was seperated from my second wife(yeah I know) Well It wasn't a particularly good time in my life. I was a bit of a drinker(actually I was an alcoholic, but don't tell anyone) I was also a Paramedic. I loved the action.
One day this young EMT female stepped into the back of my ambulance. She was there for training.
I was a drunk but I was a very good Paramedic(I did save a few lives and don't think I ever killed anyone)
Well we connected right away and it wasn't long before we were dating.
But, I had a bit of a problem. I had been married twice and didn't relish the thought of another marriage. So I kept it loose. Dated other ladies as well.
One in particular because she liked to drink just as much as I did.
I trained the young lady and she also became a Paramedic and I drank with the party girl.
This went on for a couple years. The Paramedic girlfriend wasn't much of a party girl which was good. She kinda kept me grounded but I needed the other girl for drinkin' and such.
Well, It got to a point where I was spending more time with the party girl and less time with the Paramedic girl.
I was having fun. But I was becoming more and more a drunk. Pretty soon I kind of quit calling the Paramedic girl and was figuring I'd stay with the party girl.

Well, one day I woke up with a terrible hangover and was feelin kinda poorly. I went to my favorite watering hole and was having a drink with a friend. He told me the Paramedic girl had been asking about me and that she had given up on any thought we would ever be together. She didn't see any sense in trying to have a relationship with me and wasn't gonna see me any more. He also told me I was a dumbass.

A few days later I was having a long talk with myself. I did that a lot back in my drinkin' days. Then I said to myself...Self, what the hell is wrong with you...that is a fine lady. She's been loyal and stood by you through all your Bulls**t. You have really screwed this up.
It was a good talk I had with myself.
The next day I went to see her....She didn't want to talk to me....
Imagine that...here I was a great Paramedic and a pretty good lookin' guy and she didn't want to talk to me.
She said it was over between us..

Now that was a shock....So I went back to my party girl and we went out and got good and drunk.

But....it wasn't fun. something wasn't right.
The next day I went to see the paramedic girl again..
Damn good thing I did. She had decided we were through.

We talked a bit and I realized then that I was a damn fool.

I asked her to marry me that same day. I didn't quit drinking right away but it wasn't long. I have been sober for 24 years.

We have been married for twenty six wonderful years.
She saved my life, she is my best friend. And I love her with all my heart.

OH!!! The near miss. She was scheduled to ride with a different Paramedic that day but he was out on a run when she arrived. So they told her to ride with me. Turned out he liked her too and had requested she ride with him..

I can relate, Bill!

Great story, Bill.

I understood that this thread was about near misses in relationships but I have also found fascinating the near misses with death that people talked about.

I had a near miss along those lines.

My wife and I were on a photography vacation with a couple we are friends with. On this particular trip, we planned to photograph (among other things) a slot canyon in Arizona. Slot canyons are typically 50 to 100 feet deep or so and very narrow - maybe as wide as 8 or 10 feet and as narrow as a couple of feet.
You do not want to be in one if there is a flash flood - there is simply nowhere to go.

So we got to the canyon - it's on native american land and they control the access. The woman there said she didn't have any release forms so she couldn't let us in. I asked her if she could just write a statement on paper and we would all sign it. She wrote, "If I am injured in the canyon, it is not my fault". We all signed it. Yes, you read that correctly.

It was sprinkling at the time. We all knew you didn't want to be down in these when it rained but we all went anyway. I can't speak for the others but my IQ always took a nose dive when there was an opportunity for a good photo.

The native americans lower ladders into the canyons so thats how we got down. We spent a couple of hours photographing. Then we climbed out and left, patting ourselves on the back for getting good photos and not being scared off by a few sprinkles.

Exactly one week later in the same canyon at the same hour of the day, ten people were killed in a flash flood.

What's the near miss? I had a two week window to take a one week trip. We went the first week, pretty much for no good reason. Our day to day itinerary would have been the same had we gone the second week - just shifted by 7 days. Yikes...

Scott

Great story Scott.
Kind of scary ain't it.

It makes you wonder.
I was coming home from Indiana a couple years ago. I was on a country road. I came around a curve and seen a horrible accident in front of me. A car had run the stop sign and T-boned the car ahead of me, killed the passenger and severely injured the driver.
Had I been a minute or a few seconds ahead it might have been me. My Grand daughter was my passenger.
I guess our lives really are measured in seconds.

I went to Yucca Valley a number of years ago on a shoot for a TV commercial (dry lake bed…car spot). All went well and I came home. The next week, a significant earthquake had its epicenter in Yucca Valley, almost right under where we were shooting.

Like the photo shoot story, we had a 2 week window and chose the first. Had we chosen the second, we’d have been right there when it the quake hit.

Actually, it might’ve been fun. ;-) What can fall on you in a dry lake bed?

Wow these are great stories!!!! Good thing you stopped drinking Bill...this reminds me of a hook idea I had....what do you think
"life is a game...of inches"

Hi Herbie
That might make a good topic for a song.

Don't know about inches though. But only because I have heard the phrase used before. But, I don't know that I've heard it in a song.
I've heard it used in sports. As in. Football is a game of inches, you win an inch at a time.

I wonder if seconds would work better. After all our lives are measure in time.
Kind of along the lines of living life a picture frame at a time, leading to life in seconds. something like that.

Go for it.

Of course you could always add some innuendo with the inches thing, LOL. Might be more fun. Heheh

If I wrote to all of you about my near misses, you'd never believe it. From multiple tornados, to planes that crashed, to getting hit by a train, to getting hit by lighning, to being bitten by one of the most poisonous spiders in the world, to some serious health near misses, I have to think that I am hear for some reason. Hopefully I am taking advantage of it and making good on the time.

Brian

"making good on the time" sounds like another good song hook. This thread has got a bunch of them. Maybe it's time for some songwriting....hmmmmm...lol

Bill, I loved your paramedic story. My hubby and I are definitely best friends too. A good relationship really starts there doesn't it. (Thanks for the endorsement on our match Brian!)