Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

I was tagged by Dave to post eight random facts about myself.

All right, here are the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Facts:

• 1. I’ll start with a good one. On a dare at about age 12 I threw an aerosol can into a fire at a scout outing. I was fairly confident it would explode, but I had no idea what kind of damage it would do. Turns out, quite a lot. I was standing about 20 feet from the fire when the can exploded and, wouldn’t you know it, the bottom of the can literally hit me in the groin. I know, you’re saying I’m making this up, but I’m really not. Here’s the deal – the bottom of the can was circular and covered with soot. I was wearing a baggy white t-shirt that hung down past my waist. When it exploded I immediately felt something hit me and collapsed in pain. Everyone else was hiding and no one else was hit by anything from the fire. The bottom of the can left a circle on my t-shirt that, yes, ringed my penis. There was no hiding the irony – I was marked as having been hit in the penis for my stupidity until I was able to change my t-shirt. Oh, and as a bonus fact, I’m an Eagle Scout.
• 2. Another good one… The very first time I went through a Mormon temple endowment ceremony (which, for those who don’t know, is a series of rituals including handshakes, gestures, acting, and odd clothing – you can see a transcript of the ceremony here), I was flabbergasted. That, in itself, isn’t the fact. The fact is, I was riding home with my Mom, who was there with me, when I turned to her and said, “Mom, do we belong to a cult?” She had a response that appeased me at the time (it was patently false, but a good rationalization for a believing Mormon), but who knew that I really did belong to a cult (a.k.a. New Religious Movement with a charismatic leader).
• 3. Another compound fact… I love cooking. Really, I enjoy it a great deal. But here’s the fact: I’m not sure I know if people really like the food I make. I mean, I know Debi likes it – why the hell would she keep pretending after 7 1/2 years? But I often wonder if the other people who try the food I make really like it or are just being nice. If you’re reading this and have ever tried anything I’ve made, you can comment and tell me the truth (even commenting anonymously will work; I’d just like to know).
• 4. I like compound facts… I literally learned to drive a tractor when I was 8. Now, among many circles, I’m sure that wouldn’t be a big deal. But given my circle of friends, it probably is. The second part this fact is another story. I learned to drive a tractor at my Aunt and Uncle’s cherry orchard in North Ogden in Utah. I started working at their cherry orchard at 6 and worked two summers before they put me on a tractor. All of my older brothers worked there with me – we made up about half the cherry harvesting crew. My oldest brother, Troy, who was a rebel against the norms of Mormonism from a young age, taught me to drive the tractors. In doing so, he did a lot of crazy things (like randomly driving through the rows of trees just for the hell of it). But he also told me one thing that saved my life… The orchard was planted on a relatively steep hill and was in the shape of a diamond. There was a road that encircled the orchard and one that ran right down the middle of the orchard. The one that ran down the middle was the steepest way down, but also the fastest. And, for some reason, about 3/4 of the way down the road there was a 20 to 30 foot drop off where the middle road made a sharp turn. If you didn’t make the turn, you’d go off the drop off and, well… The first time I was entrusted with driving a tanker full of cherries down to the skimming area was shortly after I learned to drive a tractor. A tanker is a large trailer that hooks to the back of the tractor and is filled with about a ton of water and another couple tons of cherries. It’s used to transport the cherries to the plant where they are processed. I’d seen other people drive these up and down the orchard hundreds of times, so I knew it was possible to drive it down the middle of the orchard. But what I didn’t realize is that, because of the loose soil of the orchard, you couldn’t use the brakes of the tractor alone to slow your descent on the middle road. If you tried, the weight of a full tanker would actually push the tractor down the mountain. As I made my first trip down the middle road with a full tanker, I started going to fast and did what I always did when trying to stop – hit the brakes. I slowed at first, but then my wheels locked up and I began to slide. Then I started going faster and the tanker began to jack knife with the tractor. I was about 50 feet from the drop off and gaining speed. I was also freaking out – I was going to die. Then something my oldest brother said in passing popped into my mind – use the first gear on the tractor when going downhill and let the tractor’s engine do the work of slowing your descent. In a panic, I jammed the transmission into first gear and popped the clutch… Wouldn’t you know it, it worked! Immediately the tractor regained its traction and slowed my descent. I inched my way around the bend above the drop off, stopped at the bottom, and nearly passed out from an adrenaline high. Quite literally, an off-handed comment from my rebellious older brother saved my life.
• 5. Here’s a disturbing one… While a Mormon missionary in Costa Rica I saw a woman bludgeoned repeatedly with a large chunk of concrete. I was told by an immediate supervisor not to intervene and, ever obedient to authority (at the time), I didn’t. Amazingly, the woman survived (I still don’t know how), but the scene still haunts me when I think about it.
• 6. Another disturbing one from my Mormon mission in Costa Rica… My first companion and I had just finished hitting up a security guard in a housing complex about reading the Book of Mormon. The reason we spoke with him was because he wouldn’t let us into the complex otherwise. He still didn’t let us in to bother the people who lived there, but we left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon anyway (standard operating procedure during my mission). We started walking away when we heard a commotion behind us. We turned and watched a guy running towards a car shoot the security guard, then jump in the car. His driver then hit the gas and swerved towards us. We jumped off the road as he passed us, then ran back to the security guard. He was shot in the hip. We waited until someone had called an ambulance then left at the behest of the others who came to his aid. Smartly, they pointed out that we were foreigners and, since there were about 3 other witnesses, they thought it would be in our best interest not to get involved. (Costa Rica’s a beautiful country, mind you, it just has a lot of crime… At least, in the areas I frequented.)
• 7. A boring fact… I build my own desktop computers. I’ve built two now and am going to be building a third in a couple of days. I could probably find better things to do with my time, but I get a strange sense of pleasure fidgeting around with computers.
• 8. Finally, I went to graduate school believing I would find evidence to support my religious beliefs. That didn’t work out quite as I planned, but boy am I glad I went.

I don’t have eight people to tag for this. Most of the people who read this blog don’t have blogs of their own. So, unfortunately, this is going to die with me :(