Truth or Fiction Answers

This was a lot of fun. Thanks for participating. I enjoyed reading your guesses. Only Nancy got it right, although she got it right for the wrong reason. 🙂

Sorry Nancy, there is no prize. At least I haven’t thought of one yet. You never know. I might.

1. I have met Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden, Mike Palmateer and Darryl Sittler, all on the same day. This is True. If you didn’t know, these are all hall of fame Hockey players from the 70’s and meeting any one of them at the time would have been quite something for a hockey fan. (and HELLO, a young Canadian boy?) I was in the hospital in Toronto, around 1976 or so, and Montreal was in town to play the Leafs. Many of the top players came to visit with the kids at the hospital, a pre-Christmas goodwill gesture/photo-op.
2. I’ve slept in every province in Canada except one. This is True. I went East on a road trip after high school and covered all the eastern provinces except Newfoundland. Then about 5 years ago, I drove all the way to the west coast and back in three weeks. We live in such a huge country, You just have to get out there and drive it to appreciate it. Also, did you know your trip odometer rolls over at 10000kms? I found out about 500km from home.
3. When I was seven years old, I broke into an elderly neighbour’s garage and snooped around. This is true. I was bored. I’d like to say my friends talked me into it, but usually I was the one with the stupid ideas. Her garage was stuffed to the rafters with junk. We dreamed up stories that she had bags of money in there. We wanted to go see. We broke off the lock and opened the door, only to find we could barely squeeze in for all the junk. Like I said, we were bored.
4. I reluctantly sang “Woolly Bully” for Karaoke with a group of co-workers at a former employer’s Christmas party.  It turned out to be kind of fun. This is false. I do not sing. Ever. Okay maybe in the shower or alone in my van, but otherwise never ever. My co-workers wanted me to go up on stage with them and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t work up to the courage. Or maybe I hadn’t drunk enough courage. Either way, I regretted it. It looked like they had a lot of fun and I was the only one from our group that wasn’t up there.
5. I once spent over $300 in one night on booze and strippers. This is true. That’s enough about that.
6. I spoke at an international conference to a group of about 60 people at the Palais de Congres in Lyon, France. My presentation was translated into several languages live. This is true. I was invited to an international medical conference 12 years ago, held in Lyon, France.  My specialist in Toronto was allowed to bring one patient (expenses paid). The intent was to add a patient perspective to the conference. The catch was that I had to speak for at least 20 minutes about my experience with my condition as a patient in Canada. There were people from all of the world and listening to the others was truly fascinating. (No offense to my American friends, but  held up against the rest of the developed world in how you deal with your sick, you should be ashamed) As it was an international audience, they were given headsets with dials on them which they could turn to select the language of their choice. I was told to speak slowly, so that translators seated in little booths in the back of the room could keep up with me in real-time.
7. I’ve been to Mount Rushmore and was not overly impressed. This is true. On my road trip out west, I chose to go through the US on my way out, and return via the Canadian Prairies. I spent a night in Keystone South Dakota, and in the morning we visited Mount Rushmore and then spent a few hours driving around in the Black hills before heading up to Great Falls Montana for the night. (yes, I drove 13 hours that day) I didn’t think Mount Rushmore was a big deal. A flag and a pillar for each state as you walk up, meh. I guess I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing. Now the Black Hills, that was something special. Loved the little winding roads and the wildlife. I came within a few feet of a buffalo, from the safety of my van, or course.
8. I ordered a beer at McDonalds in Paris. This is true. After the conference in Lyon I spent several days in Paris. We did all the touristy things. On the last day we were running out of money and gave in to the golden arches. They had beer on the menu. Talk about a happy meal!
9. I once leapt across from one abandoned two-storey building rooftop to another. This is true. I would have been 7 years old, as it was before any of my surgeries. My old neighborhood was peppered with abandoned houses and buildings. Magnets for mischievous little boys. A friend and I had managed to get on the roof of one on the buildings ( yes this involved breaking in) and once there, realized we could probably jump across to the roof of the other.  The gap between the two was about 4 or 5 feet, the drop would have been around 20 feet to the concrete below. We both made it, but the running start resulted in a skinned knee. We chose to shimmy down a drain pipe to a porch roof to a fence and then to the ground, rather than trying to jump back.
10. I have dipped the wheels of my chair into the Pacific Ocean. This is true. Wheelchairs do NOT do sand. At all. Much to my surprise however, the ocean packs the sand so tight that it becomes almost like cement. When we arrived at Long Beach near Tofino on the west side of Vancouver Island, I was able to venture out onto the sand and go all the way to the water. Heaven.
11. I have never tried marijuana. This is true. Although I have been around it plenty of times, and in fact once dated a woman who smoked it daily, I have never tried it. I might never. This is not some sort of moral thing, I just have not had any interest. So far.
12. Anna Kournikova once hit me in the face with her hair. This is true. If you don’t know who she is, she is (was?) a tennis player who was better known for being super hot and dating hockey players than she was for playing tennis. I have Red Wings season tickets and at the time she was dating Sergei Federov. My seat is on the aisle and during one of the games, she ended up standing right next to me while waiting for the action to stop so she could get to her seat, one row down and just across the aisle. While standing there, she was so close to me that when she flung her hair, it hit me in the face. (her hair was almost butt length back then) When I realized who she was, I asked if she would sign my ticket stub. She did, but she was snooty about it.
13. I have a large collection of hockey cards, with many complete mint condition sets from the 70’s. This is true. I have no idea how much it’s worth.
14. I drove a tractor and a small plane, both before I was 8. This is true. I may have blogged about this before. My uncle Marcel lived way up north where I was born, in Abitibi (hence the name of the blog, get it?) and he had ALL the big boy toys. He let me drive his tractor until I got it stuck in the mud, and he also took me up in his Cessna four-seater and let me take the controls. My uncle Marcel, who was my godfather, died of brain cancer a couple years ago. I still have difficulty with this.
15. I chartered a small boat and went fishing in the Atlantic off the coast of Cape Breton. This is true. On my trip out east with my buddies after high school, we stayed in a cottage on Cape Breton Island. We found a local, or so we thought, who took us out on his fishing boat into the Atlantic to fish for Cod and Herring and I don’t remember what all else. After being out there for a couple of hours we discovered he was actually a lawyer from Toronto. He spent a month or so every summer running this boat charter thing in his hometown just to de-stress. That’s the way to live.

If you’d like me elaborate on any of these, feel free to ask. I’d love suggestions on what to write about.