Well yeah! When did that happen? I didn't know you had experienced a home burning down. My best friend's house burned and it was a horrible experience. Thank God I've never had it happen.
It's about 4:00 am, I'm riding up a long, U-turn shaped on ramp, to the freeway, and I smell something. As I start to make the U-turn toward the freeway, the front end of my motorcycle instantly washes-out and we are sliding across the pavement. What I had smelled was diesel fuel.
The crash has completely ripped-off the points cover and points mechanism, so there is no way to start the bike. I'm fifty miles from home on an L.A. freeway on ramp just before rush hour traffic. I move the bike to the side of the road as best I can and start to wonder ... now what? (no cellphone).
I'm sitting there, on the curb, and I see a red pickup truck coming up the ramp. The driver stops and asks me if I need help. I told him what had happened and he said, "Well, let's load it in the truck and I'll take you home." I asked him if he lived in my area and he said, "No, I live just up the street."
He made a one hundred mile round trip, in Los Angeles rush hour traffic, and wouldn't accept gas money.
I'd been studying my a$$ off all day at the State Library, getting information for a college assignment. I'd been invited to a friend's birthday party that evening and I was tempted to make an excuse and not go (I was very tired). I decided to show up, but leave as early as could politely be managed. So ... the party was as uninspiring as anticipated, but I spotted a VERY superior rack on a young lady I didn't know. I was checking her out as surreptitiously as I could manage, my eyes drifted up to her face, met hers - I fell into them and drowned. This girl had (and still has) the most amazing eyes in the known universe. She also seemed to be upset about something, so I went up to her and used what has to be the corniest opening line in history. "What's the matter, beautiful?" It was as if I'd thrown a bucket of cold water over her - she actually shook herself. It turned out she wasn't upset, just as bored as I was and daydreaming. We got talking, I got her number - asked her out a few weeks later. We've been married over 28 years now.
A wise old Magrathean planet designer, from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Author Douglas Adams was trying to invent a name that sounded vaguely obscene but would still be broadcastable (by 1970s standards), so he started with "Phartiphukborlz" and played with it until he got Slartibartfast. The story tickled my quirky (warped? probably) sense of humour, so I appropriated it as my 'Net handle.
I found myself on the other side of the country by myself with one of my children in a hospital close to death. I did not have any place to go or anyone to help me. I was in shock. A social worker at the hospital introduced me to someone who said they wanted to give me a room at a Kiwanis house close to the hospital in Sacramento and provide me with transportation back and forth. Those people just were really life savers. I've never needed help so much in my life and they just showed up. I am still in awe of it and so thankful to this day. I don't really call it luck; I feel like angels were sent.
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 