Adrenaline Junkie Too

I was reading Brad’s post, The Unrepentant Individual, about his being addicted to high energy situations. I think I have had almost all of those that I can handle. I used to ride motorcycles, Lucy on the back. That is a neat feeling, no arguing that one. I’d refer to Lucy as Mrs. T. F. except that it would come off the same as in the movie, “Forget Paris”. Now we get our kicks cruising around in our little BMW Z-3 coupe; not as much wind in our faces, a lot of fun all the same.

Having served as a police officer I had the opportunity to have the adrenaline rush on way too many occasions. I could write for hours recounting the most vivid; some were funny while others are still part of the nightmares revisited brand, the kind that pop up when I’m supposed to be having “sweet dreams”. For my own benefit I will list a few, just to get them written down; who knows, maybe I will expand on these later.

Pouncing on a drugged up teenager and taking a pistol away from him
Checking for burglary suspects at a furniture store ( Mover Mike would like this one )
Checking for burglary suspects at Rico’s Fried Chicken
Checking for burglary suspects in a warehouse while training a rookie
High Speed chase of stolen truck with burglary suspects
Chasing down a DWI suspect; on foot, a very slow speed chase ( not a misprint )
Checking for burglary suspects on roof of warehouse ( mild to moderate fear of heights)
Checking for burglary suspects on roof of restaurant ( ditto )
Putting a flare pattern out on freeway one evening
One on one fight in jail
Brawl in the DWI room where I slammed a chair over Lt. Smith
Patrolling for man with a gun, surprising him and taking it away on night shift
Doing a 180 on police three wheeler motorcycle, on purpose
Toy gun pointed at me on freeway
Taking pistol away from woman threatening her daughter
Tiger Mathews and the courtyard pistol ( ongoing nightmare )
Slow speed chase with “guest rider” on a Sunday afternoon
Chasing auto theft suspect through apartments at night ( already blogged )
Code 1 through a parking garage downtown to save 3 blocks travel time
Telling 3 Assistant Chiefs to stick it where the sun don’t shine ( insubordination )
Florida trip route, I thought you wanted Oklahoma
Taking pistol away on “routine traffic stop” while rookie admired the moon
Drawing down on priest/track coach
Big dog in back yard
The time clock at the brake shop
Rick Ashwood and the Shadow
Kicking in a door, a bathroom door
Drugged up suspect on Dowling where it took 6 officers to get him down
Arresting shooter at small club on a Sunday afternoon a block from Black Panther HQ

This is a very partial list of adrenaline junkie stories. It doesn’t include my need for speed addiction and sports cars I have either owned or still own. It doesn’t include many of the “kid” stuff that caused my parents to either lose their hair or have it turn grey.

Blowing out the center support of dad’s garage with a home made bomb
Taking down the electric power lines with a home made boomerang
Hitching rides on freight trains just to jump off and do it again
Riding on the storm water run off as it gushed out in to the bayou
Stealing golf balls that landed on the green to piss off golfers
Blowing all the windows out of a house under construction to test our bomb skills
Catching my bedroom on fire while learning the art of bomb making
Throwing snow balls at passing cars just to watch the brake lights come on
Throwing a snow ball at a police car, accidentally, and scoring
Swimming across the entrance to the marina in front of boats
Doing stupid acrobatic diving into shallow water
Playing catch with a hog snake
Setting a bridge on fire and putting it out

My daughter, Bonnie, decided she wanted to go skydiving last year. She went with my other daughter, Jennifer, Justin (son in law) and two of his brothers. They had a wonderful time. Bonnie spent the extra money to have it documented on film so that she could play the short movie for mom and dad to watch. JJ, my grandson got a real kick out of watching Bonnie jump out of the airplane. Bonnie travels all the time and we tell JJ that Bonnie had to go far away on the airplane. JJ then adds, “Bonnie jumps out of airplanes”. His eyes light up thinking that he one day can go jump out, all his family members along for the “rush”. I think we all have a little adrenaline junkie in us, some more than others. I think I’ll watch.