Tagged!

Yesterday I admitted I was a luddite, at least in part.  This morning The Wife informed me that the ‘Gimp tag’ posted on my ‘wall’ on the social networking site by Sabine requires me to post 5 things about myself that are not commonly known.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Let’s see, in no particular order:

1)  I was awarded two Air Medals during the little confict in  Southeast Asia back in the early 70’s.

2) I have six siblings, four sisters and two brothers.  I am second in the pecking order with a sister two years my elder.

3) I survived malaria in the early 80’s, contracted while working in Peru as a field biologist.  While awaiting official diagnosis and treatment my fever cycles would peak at over 106 degrees F (BTW, at that time number one factor leading to death from malaria was inability of medical folks to properly diagnose; I knew what I had but the doctor did not want to believe and was chasing other exotic diseases).

4) I have walked away from two helicopter crashes, one in western Texas and the other on the side of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines.

5) My temporomandibular joints (both sides) are so loosely connected that I can disarticulate them at will.  Or more correctly, they disarticulate so freely that they do so unless I consciously work to keep them articulated.  If I do not control it, the joints will alternately disarticulate and rearticulate as I chew, each movement generating an associated loud popping sound.  Great party trick, but it freaks out a  lot of folks so I need to keep it under control.  The problem was caused when I was struck in the jaw by a shoulder during a football game ca. 1970.

Enough of  baring my soul for today.  I see Chris from Austin was just tagged on his blog and I will be interested to see what he divulges.