Time for everyone to feel old-today marks the 35th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger explosion. I remember sitting in class in Middle School and our teacher came in and told us.
Time for everyone to feel old-today marks the 35th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger explosion. I remember sitting in class in Middle School and our teacher came in and told us.
Thirty-five years, eh? Seems like yesterday.
It was a day I'll always remember and not just for the Challenger. I had just parked my car down range on Fort Dix (NJ) to enjoy a quiet lunch away from the office when the news broke. As I sat there listening to the radio in total disbelief, a tiger (yeah, you read that right) slowly walked through the tall grass about 30 feet in front of my car! I audibly "WHOOOAAA'd!" and he stopped and stared at me for a second, and then continued on his way.
I probably looked like a cartoon character with velocity lines when I peeled out of there. I rushed back to work where I was the only female among 30 men on a remote compound in the middle of the Jersey Pine Barrens (trust me, not as fun as it sounds). Everybody was in the lunch room huddled around the TV watching the Challenger disaster when I busted through the door out of breath and yelling about a tiger down range.
Now for those of you not familiar with the fauna of New Jersey, tigers are not native to the state; however, we weren't too far from a safari park with tigers aplenty. My colleagues thought I was high, and it took me a very long time (if ever) to live it down. They laughed and joked about it like a group of teenage boys, and pooh-poohed my worries. Nobody believed me, and I mean NOBODY. I spent the rest of the afternoon responsibly calling everyone I could think of, and they all treated me like Dorothy when everyone was too busy to listen to her warnings about That Bitch Elvira Gulch! 'Yeah, thank you for calling but we don't have any reports of a loose tiger....' They insinuated it must have been a deer, or a big dog; because you know, I've worked in the middle of the Pines for years and literally see hundreds of deer a day - and they DO look a lot like tigers from 10 yards. It felt like everyone was in a daze about the Challenger and didn't have the focus to deal with a silly tiger call.
The Challenger Disaster, an encounter with a loose tiger in the Jersey Pine Barrens, and my own personal WizOz moment all within an hour. It was a very surreal day, indeed.
Last edited by KimTisha; 01-28-2021 at 05:24 PM.
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
And you never heard anything further about the tiger???
Is the board acting odd today for anyone else?
That cracked me up way more than it should have. MDS is trying to get rid of you, lol.
It's super slow, keeps giving me an error when I search, and it's putting threads with new posts not at the top of the list for me. Also, I saw that DT bumped a thread and I went to do something, and I clicked "new posts" and hers wasn't there, but one after it was. Odd. I hope it's not getting ready to go down.
If it keeps doing it I will reach out to Mike and see if he can reset the board or something.
Nothing, and I worked out there (near where I saw the tiger) for another 3+ years. I have told that story dozens of times in the ensuing years, and no one has believed me. They all think I thought I saw a tiger, but it must have been something else. But what else looks like a tiger that lives in the Jersey Pine Barrens?!* Seriously. It wasn't that far away and it had VERY prominent stripes. I'm telling you, it was a tiger. Sonnuvvagun might still be out there for all I know - plenty of deer to live off of. It's just bizarre to me that #1, nobody believed me (I was a responsible professional); and #2) nobody else saw the damned tiger! The whole day was surreal, I have no other words to describe it.
*Someone actually suggested that perhaps I saw a large, buff-coloured great dane that someone had 'painted stripes on' as some kind of joke. That made about as much sense as a tiger stalking the Pinelands.
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
I don't quite see it... but maybe a brindle Mastiff? But no, if you saw a tiger, I believe you!
brindle_mastiff_2.jpg
Puzz, when I first saw it moving in the grass, that's EXACTLY what I thought it was - a brindle mastiff! I had rescued many abandoned dogs from that area* but nothing as big as a mastiff, I was contemplating how I was going to do it as it was sort of zig-zagging through the grass toward me. The vegetation wasn't heavy, but it was tall, and as it got closer I could see the stripes more clearly defined and realized this wasn't a brindle mastiff; but my mind still wasn't screaming Tiger because it wasn't in the realm of things I expected to see in the Jersey Pine Barrens in the middle of winter! It slowly dawned on me but I still couldn't believe my lying eyes, and when it got about 30 ft away it turned and walked straight across my field of vision. I yelled, "Whoooaaaaa! That's a $#@&!*@ TIGER!" And it froze and turned it's head and stared right at the car for a few seconds and then slowly strolled away, totally relaxed and calm. I couldn't get out of there fast enough! I'm such a wuss, but dealing with tigers was NOT in my job description.
*In fact, I rescued a beautiful black lab from there just days later. I had seen him hanging around, but he was afraid of the car. I was desperate to rescue him because I was terrified he would be eaten by the tiger. Happy ending for Max and my sister's family who adopted him.
Last edited by KimTisha; 01-30-2021 at 09:39 PM.
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
Funny you mention this. One of the calls I made that afternoon was to the nearby Safari Park run by a major corporation which I will not mention here (but the name rhymes with Dick Sags). As soon as I explained the reason for my call, there was a heavy silence and I'd be transferred. Finally, I was told there were no missing tigers but they wanted very specific details on the location where I "thought" I saw him.
I always suspected the tiger was an escapee from the "Dick Sags" Safari Park; but now I've watched "The Tiger King" and I realize the exotics trade is more common than I thought. Chances are it was just a pet kept by someone who lived near that remote location.
But thank you everyone who believes me. This has weighed heavy on my heart for 35 years until RBW ripped the scab off that wound by asking us to remember that fateful day.
All of us at the compound rescued dozens of dogs (and a few cats). We had a Compound Dog who lived there and a rescued deer who followed us around like a puppy. It was a great place to work.
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
Mike is aware of the board issues. I know it went down completely. Hopefully it will reset and stop acting odd.
So does anyone day trade? Has anyone been screwed or helped by the Reddit jerkoffs' stock manipulation? I do a little day trading, but so far haven't really been affected, other than overall market uneasiness, which isn't always a bad thing for day trading.
Really odd things are happening with the board today. Quotes are wonky and a thread I was looking at moved from Preemie to general (I moved it back, but no one moved it). I don't know what is going on.
Anyone else get a credit card charge for a really small amount from COLOADTEST.com? Mine was for 1.35 and it was on my old credit card but the cc card company authorized it because they said it was set up as a recurring charge from a merchant (it wasn't) and they sent me an email and text saying so. I had no idea who this was, so I googled and there is a big thing going on with people getting this charge. There is a huge Reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Advice/comm...m_source=share on it.
So I had to go dispute the charge. Since it was on my old card I don't have to get a new card, and they locked the old number so no new charges can flow to my new card. Anyone else get hit?
So no one here got hit except me? I promise you it's a 'thing' it wasn't just me. Go look at your credit card (and some debit cards I read) account. I am wondering if they are testing the accounts and then plan to hit with a big charge in a couple of days.
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