Strike Three May Be Coming

I have dodged death this summer - multiple times.

Encounter 1

While in Wisconsin, I went white-water rafting with my friend Lindsay. Now, if you know mountainous regions of Wisconsin, you know that there will be some difficult and dangerous rivers. We spent four hours braving the intense rapids and tumbling over waterfalls.

And "intense" I mean "sad". In all reality, we drifted peacefully (ie. boringly) along the river. Of those four hours, about 15 minutes of that was spent on "rapids" and waterfalls. Another 15 minutes was spent stuck on rocks that.

I did bruise my foot going over the last waterfall (once Lindsay and I finally got ourselves unstuck from the rocks). So I'll call that my first close encounter with death.

Encounter 2

Last weekend I visited my friends Amos and Meredith Anderson in Arkansas. Amos and I went hiking on Saturday morning in the sticks of Arkansas (and when we talk about the sticks of Arkansas, we know its out there). We had intended to go early enough to beat the midday heat.

But we didn't. And it was 110 degrees outside.

And we hiked for 2 hours.

We also had their dog with us, a black lab, who drank most of Amos' water. And Amos in turn drank mine. We quickly used up our already small water supply.

I like to tell people I'm almost died from dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Encounter 3 (maybe)

I am currently in Houston, with Hurricane Dean possibly on the way. As I write this, The Weather Channel is saying that "This is a very intense hurricane" and that it's heading towards Jamaica. The hurricane may or may not make it far enough north to affect Houston - we'll know by Monday.

The concern also regards my flight on Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, I fly back to Bahrain for another year of fun in the sun and teaching. But will my flight be able to leave? If it does, will the plane be sucked into the hurricane and be thrown off course? Will I be stranded on a mysterious island where monsters chase and a secret organization harasses me and the people I am stranded with?

Hopefully I'm not out after three strikes.