IN BETWEEN

Has anyone besides me ever gone from brilliant to stupid with nothing in between?

Once upon a time, (about 50 years ago) I decided I could swim across a rather large pond in Turnertown. Yep, bout halfway across I got the "cramps" and proceded to drown. At least until Leo Ellis swam out and helped me to shore. I'm only alive today because of Leo. Thanks buddy, wherever you are?

Another time, about 40 years ago, me and Calvin Johnson decided we would go into the Angelina river bottom and hunt 'coons all night. Never mind that it was below freezing and we had never been in that neck of the woods afore. Never mind that I to this day have no clue what I would do with a 'coon if I "caught" it, we needed an adventure. Yep, spent the entire night wandering around lost while breaking through the shallow, but frozen swamp water. Did we have warm clothes, heck no. Did the mud, crap and corruption envelop us, Yep. About daylight we finally found a highway. Didn't have a clue where we were, but pavement was a sign of civilization. Only trouble was, we had to decide which way to walk on the road. Ole frankie was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt to go south. Calvin was equally sure that we needed to go NORTH. Calvin won the argument and we shortly found the car we had started the journey in. When I got home, I filled our claw foot porcelein tub with scalding water and got in it for as long as the water was hot and still didn't warm up. Why I did not get pneumonia is beyond me?

When I was a Highway Patrol Sergeant in Houston, I stopped a car that was weaving from one side of IH45 to the other. The occupants were in another world due to their extreme state of inebriation. For reasons I can't to this day fathom, I went to the passenger side and opened the door. The passenger promptly put a pistol against my stomach with his finger on the trigger (and I thought Holy Crap, this might not turn out so good!). I survived that episode, but dang, how stoopid could I be??????? (Only one of thousands of times that the Lord Almighty has saved my bacon from the follies of my own stupid butt)

I remember the time I went outside our house to check the road conditions (I spent my entire professional life going out in the storm to help others instead staying home) during a rare Austin ice storm and stepped from the curb to the road and.... woke up some time later because the back of my head had hit the cement curb on my (rapid) way down. DUMMY! That was some concussion/headache/emergency room visit?

OK, how bout the time me and the bride went to Kinder, Louisiana for our anniversary and ole wonder boy decided to come back across the country without use of a map and just "see the road"???????? After the requisite number of hours, ole Daniel Boone was about to declare to the bride that Austin was about to come into view when lo and behold the city limit sign for Bryan, Texas came into view??????????????

Well, this could go on "ad infinitum" but you get the idea. I have shown a propensity over the years for going from brilliant to stupid at the speed of light with nothing in between. Damn, I hope I can slow down that transition down with the years I got left????????? (and that it isn't hereditary kiddos?)