Close to disaster. Tell us a story of disaster averted. I was on the phone

[applegrove]

one friday night with my sister who was calling from work. It was pretty late. My sister kept breaking in with "I hear something, I hear some rapping". After a while she went to investigate. The cleaning lady at her office building had locked herself inside one room with no phone and it was a long weekend. Thankfully she was rescued by my sister.

I was at a friend's fathers house to watch a movie. Halfway through the power went out. This was a rural area so it was darker than dark. We couldn't see a thing. It was not her house so she had no idea where to find a flashlight or a candle. I got out the car keys, moved the car so that was facing the front windows and not the garage and turned the car lights onto the house. The whole downstairs was instantly lit up.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I once fell through the ice on a Minnesota lake trying to rescue 2 puppies. I managed to get one of

them out and myself. I did not know how to swim and it was well below freezing. By the time we reached the house, we were both shaking so hard our teeth clattered. The other puppy drowned.

[applegrove]

2. Wow. You are much braver than I.

[Redstone]

3. You should get some kind of medal. You know, I am SO sick and tired

of hearing, for example, professional sports players called "heroes." A hero, to me, is someone who risks his or her own life to safe someone else's. (And, yes, that includes puppies.)

I salute you. And I don't salute many people.

Almost 20 years ago, a friend of mine died from a heart attack while rescuing two young boys who had fallen through the ice of a pond. It took me almost a year of badgering our Governor and the city's mayor, but was finally able to get the State to re-name the pond after my friend, with a nice bronze plaque and stone.

Redstone