Grasshopper is like Macgyver. He has the craziest ideas, and he makes them work. He knows how things work.
Sometimes, Grasshopper will make a very insightful comment that inspires me to pursue new directions of thought.
Grasshopper has saved me from drowning twice. Once when we were kayaking I got hit in the head by an uprooted tree that blocked part of the river. I was knocked out. I was told that the kayak flipped upside down and got trapped in the roots of the tree, with me underneath it. No one noticed. When I came to, I freaked out because it was dark and I didn't know what was going on. The kayak was sinking into the water. I tried to get out, but I couldn't move the kayak, and my life vest was caught on something. It kept my head above water, but as the kayak sank, that helped less and less. There was a small pocket of air left, and I was stretching my neck to keep my nose and mouth above water. Around that time, Grasshopper noticed that I was gone. He started looking for me and calling my name. He finally saw the kayak. He paddled over to the tree and freed the kayak, hefting it over. I took a big gasping breath, and he tried to pull me out of the water. Since I was still caught on something, I fell back and almost brought him in with me. He unhooked the branch that had snagged my life vest and hauled me into his kayak. The other time was when we were at a swimming hole in rural Vermont. The locals were jumping off of this 40' cliff. They d-double-dared me, so I jumped too (succumbing to peer pressure at 28). Problem was when I tried to swim back to shore, and it was further away than my stamina allowed. I yelled for help, and Grasshopper came and got me.
Grasshopper practices a martial art, and it is beautiful to see.
When he was a child, his cat had her kittens on his stomach as he was sleeping. This was verified by his mother, and some grody pictures of him in bed, with blood and kittens on his chest. That's so bizarre that it was cool.
Comments