RIP Steve. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

He gave us many many laughs and shocks, but anyone could tell you loved life to the fullest. Thank you.


pgardn,

My husband is now saying I can no longer ride after I took a flying leap off of Buck yesterday. Is that going to stop me? NO WAY! I will be back tomorrow weather permitting. :)

Honestly, Steve's friend said it best, "He died doing what he loved".

Yes he did. And again I hate to judge. But once he took off that condom and his wife had a cookie in the oven... You have to think a little further than doing what YOU love when others rely on you.

Just me. I could be all wrong on this. But responsibilities change once you have little ones... again imo.
DTS. Of course kids have a hard time even with their parents sometimes. But... well I have seen the effects. The biggest fear of kids is the loss of a parent. By the time they get a little older... then you are allowed to die on them.

Watch me get killed tomorrow slipping on a wet floor.

I hope not! Stand on the bath mat!
You've been warned.

Bite your tongue, pgardn. The world would be a poorer place without you. :)

Having grown up without a mom after age 10, I can testify that yes, it sucks, but you get past it. But I don't think a parent can spend his or her life avoiding any sort of risk because of fear of dying on the kids. I would fear you'd wind up with grown-up children afraid of taking risks themselves. And this was his job and he made an awful lot of money doing it. And he loved doing it. It's more than a lot of people get in their entire lives.

My two cents, anyway.

You come down here and visit your son, go east to San Antonio, and I swear to God I will take you fishing in the flats. Then we both can die happy.

GR. DTS. There is an interesting tidbit of genetic information about finding a risk taking gene. They think they have located an area that make some people much more likely to take on stuff I would not... I guess Im lacking that gene. Or maybe I have it and it will switch on after my daughter is older.

Its not like I sit behind my desk and cower. Hell, I pulled (with pliers) the barb off a sting ray a fellow teacher caught just last week. And then we (the ray and I) played together, kind of wrestled around once I knew he was harmless.
We took him back iced down to show the kids in this teacher's aquatic biology class. He showed them all the different parts, the removed barb, the kids loved it. I can imagine the conversations tomorrow. All those kids in that class love animals and such and you just know they watched the show.

I've read about the risk-taking gene, and I think there is something to that-- I think some people are adreneline junkies, too. I've wondered if people like Chris Antley were-- they could handle life when they were doing something to get them their adreneline fix, but regular day-to-day life they couldn't handle.
I don't consider myself a big risk-taker, but I wish I were. My riding teacher says people are either "goers" or "whoa-ers" and sadly, I'm more a "whoa-er."

That's cool about de-stinging the stingray. I've petted de-stingered ones. I like handling the snakes at the zoo, but they're all constrictors, not venomous ones, so it's not like there's a whole lot of risk there.

How do you spell "adrenleline?" I'm also a bad speller...

Pgardn,
I really love Texas. Alas, my son isn't living there anymore. He's in Indianapolis. But someday soon I'd love to go fishing with you. If I don't watch out for the crabs, at least I'll have tried. Are we taking bets on which one of us catches the bigger red?
And please, Pat, make yourself available next summer for a trip to Toga and some trout and bass with me. I want to show you just as good a time.
That's all I was trying to say. Life is what we make it, and I'd like it to be filled with good or die trying to make it so.
I just might have the genetic predispostion for risk taking...but I think it might be environmental.
My dad always said, "Without risk, there is no gain."
I say, gain is good. In fact, I live for it.
If I didn't, why would I keep breathing?

Adrenaline I think. And I dont need that rush either. And at least you will get on a horse. I got taken off on one and he tried to brush me off on a fence and trees and that was it. Things that happen like this when one is young leave an impression. So DTS, if I do come, dont try and get me on a horse. And I do plan on coming. Just got to get my daughter away from a basketball in the summer.

Oh yea. I sleep with a snake. He stays in my boxers at night. A big Python. Species undetermined.

You know I would never have said that in public. I really did not want to type it. And Its not true. He is not a big python. But I had to go and do that. I could not let it go. What does that say about me. Im worthless and weak. Damn it to hell.

I humbly apologize to the board, Im weak.

I don't know anthing about stingrays. How big are they? I have gotten conflicting information. One person told me that they weigh about 50 pounds but another said they weigh about 250 pounds.

They probably come in different sizes, the ones we swam with in the Grand Cayman were probably about 2-3 feet wide...They did say they had stingers, but made them sound harmless, if I would have known about this, I doubt I would have swam with them. They took us out to a sand bar and the Sting Rays came swarming in, there was probably over a 1000 of them, we fed them squid and I held one, some people were actually kissing them.

The first time I ever came across him was just channel surfing. Irwin had enough charisma to break through my 10-nanosecond channel-surfing attention span. I was immediately amused and hooked.

My son was particularly fond of him. Irwin was the main reason my son wanted us to take a vacation to Australia some time. When my son heard the news yesterday, he sent an email to everyone on his contact list saying he was devastated. He's never done that before.

I think Irwin touched a lot of people that way. The world could use more people like Steve and his wife.

--Dunbar

Hee hee hee. It made me laugh. As long as no one tries to turn it into a purse or pair of boots...

Many different species with barbs all different sizes shapes, colors. The report Im getting now says he got hit underneath the rib cage, so that had to be a heck of a long barb to reach his heart, 8 inches by my reckoning. No way I swim with rays.

He must have put his shadow over the ray and it reacted as if he was a big shark. People wear ray protectors on their shins down here while wadefishing. I dont cause the hurt like hell to have on all day, and I spend a lot of time standing in my yak. These protective devices are basically souped up snake bite preventers. Go up your shins from the ankle. NOt comfortable.

GR. OUch. and shiver.

Yours truly with a similar ray this summer....I'm no Steve Irwin though as this ray was dead.

never mind....file too big.:o

That is like me, I am a svelt 180lbs on the internet but in real life I am pushing 500lbs.

You can pet stingrays at Sea World along with dolphins, not sure how much they weigh but now they can get real big, and GPK has a picture with one in his hands so they can only weigh about 4lbs, maybe 5lbs

My husband heard that they (the stingrays) were like 10-12 feet long or wide that Steve was swimming with. I was just talking to a friend at lunch about Steve, who said that she read the ray felt trapped because Steve was floating on top of it while the camera man was in front of it.

They do grow huge. We saw three of them out boating one time that were AT LEAST five feet wide. They were swimming around the boat. Needless to say, I did not get out of the boat.

Most of the rays that people swim with have their stingers cut off. Heard that at the news yesterday.

Does anybody remember the old NY horse named "Corma Ray". I believe he was an allowance or claimer who raced in the late 80's - early 90's. If anybody has any information regarding his whereabouts I would greatly appreicate it.

I was wrong, Corma Ray was more a mid 90's horse and it actually won at least a couple notable races:

1994 & 1995 runnings of the Hudson Handicap
1995 running of the Gen Douglas Mcarthur

Timmy Hills trained him and Choppy rode him most of the time.

What a hard knocking animal.