Jump to content

What irrational fears do you have?


Square Wheels

Recommended Posts

I'm reasonably cautious of normally dangerous things - like standing along the edge of a cliff with no fence, but my irrational fears tend to be more about running out of things that are easily replaceable - especially food.  I think it's partly due to growing up poor - my BiL did, too, and he hoards stuff like me.

I buy 24 oz. jars of salsa 3 at a time and get nervous if I only have 1 dozen eggs - even though I might not use them up for a few weeks.  Right now, I have five 26 oz. portions of various frozen homemade soups and when that gets down to three it will bother me and I'll have to make more so I can freeze 2-3 more portions.  Etc. Etc.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/6/2015 at 1:52 PM, Square Wheels said:

I'm afraid of open style stairs, like the kind in a fire stairwell in a tall building.  I don't like being able to see through the stairs.

When I first stated working (1977) I was at a coal burring power plant.  I soon found out they don't use floors for most locations.  They use steel grating.  On the upper levels (250+ feet) you can look thru the grating ALL the way down to the grade level.   That's when I found out I didn't like heights. 

The starts were worse...   At least when I was walking on an upper level, I didn't need to look thru the floor to often.  Going down stairs, I looked to be sure I was on the steps.  Seeing 200 feet down thru the steps.... sucked.   (I can feel the adrenaline even now... just remembering)

image.png.5c3fd14fd630388b7aa8c30da5fd3a0e.png

A hot air balloon ride in AZ...     I was OK.   

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bikeguy said:

When I first stated working (1977) I was at a coal burring power plant.  I soon found out they don't use floors for most locations.  They use steel grating.  On the upper levels (250+ feet) you can look thru the grating ALL the way down to the grade level.   That's when I found out I didn't like heights. 

The starts were worse...   At least when I was walking on an upper level, I didn't need to look thru the floor to often.  Going down stairs, I looked to be sure I was on the steps.  Seeing 200 feet down thru the steps.... sucked.   (I can feel the adrenaline even now... just remembering)

image.png.5c3fd14fd630388b7aa8c30da5fd3a0e.png

A hot air balloon ride in AZ...     I was OK.   

 

When I was a kid, Sid and Marty Krofft had an indoor theme park in the Omni hotel. To reach it you had to ascend this huge, glass escalator, suspended over an ice rink and a night club that was headlining Phyllis Diller. That  damned thing was easily in the top three of the most terrifying experiences of my young life. Only to be greeted by Sigmund the Sea Monster and the psychologically jarring world of Sid and Marty Krofft. Fun times. 
 

 

AF8CA8E4-D4F8-47A3-9172-6ABDE4AA0202.jpeg

  • Heart 1
  • Haha 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bikeguy said:

When I first stated working (1977) I was at a coal burring power plant.  I soon found out they don't use floors for most locations.  They use steel grating.  On the upper levels (250+ feet) you can look thru the grating ALL the way down to the grade level.   That's when I found out I didn't like heights. 

The starts were worse...   At least when I was walking on an upper level, I didn't need to look thru the floor to often.  Going down stairs, I looked to be sure I was on the steps.  Seeing 200 feet down thru the steps.... sucked.   (I can feel the adrenaline even now... just remembering)

image.png.5c3fd14fd630388b7aa8c30da5fd3a0e.png

A hot air balloon ride in AZ...     I was OK.   

 

Nope

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/25/2021 at 9:36 AM, AirwickWithCheese said:

rs-2001-rectangle.thumb.jpg.ae26589cef2c945f4ee09851325ca3ad.jpg

I loved Crosby Stills and Nash and I loved Neil Young in the 70's - and earlier when they were in bands like Buffalo Springfield, but Neil Young ruined CS&N when he joined them.  Still, their double-record album 4 Way Street was one of the best recorded-live albums I've ever heard.

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have an irrational fear of feeding people spoiled food.  I have never  actually done this.  I am ultra-careful; obsessed some may say when cooking and storing food.  Still, I cannot help but to wonder what would happen if I poisoned the guests or students at school or whomever.

  • Hugs 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Airehead said:

I have an irrational fear of feeding people spoiled food.  I have never  actually done this.  I am ultra-careful; obsessed some may say when cooking and storing food.  Still, I cannot help but to wonder what would happen if I poisoned the guests or students at school or whomever.

I see you do not fear breaking someone's heart year after year with the failed promise of a grape pie.   :(

  • Haha 1
  • Sad 1
  • Hugs 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

I'm sure there are some I'm not thinking of, half awake Sunday AM.

But I am afraid of things that appear dangerous even when multiple people demonstrate they are not dangerous.

One is gulping down an alcoholic drink that has been lit on fire.

Another happened when I had a goodbye date with a girl named Jane from college before I left for grad school in Chicago.

We were going to a Bluegrass Music Festival and she phoned me and said, "Come 2 hours early.  My brother found out about these crazy guys that slide down the face of a dam so let's check that out first."

So we go to this small dam north of Baltimore that's 50 feet high, has a pool of water about 2 1/2 feet deep at the bottom, and guys (no girls would be so stupid) are sitting at the top of the dam with their feet pointed over the curve at the edge, letting go falling down the face into the water.  And surviving to do it again!

So I decided to show off and said, "I'm going to try that."  So I stripped down to my boxer shorts, walked up a hill and stood on a tower about 40 feet above the water on the deep side of the dam.

It took me a couple minutes to summon up the courage to jump into the deep end - even though I saw several others do it.

Then, as the current pulled me toward the dam, I realized I didn't know how to keep myself from going over the edge.

When I got there, I saw there was ledge to grab onto.  So I sat at the top of the dam, water a couple inches deep running past me and over the dam, and the curve at the top extended out a several feet so I couldn't see the shallow pool, about 20 feet wide, at the bottom.

I could see Jane and her brother and another girl named Shirley sitting on the rocks and waiting for me to slide down.  They waved every couple of minutes, but I couldn't summon the courage to let go of the dam.

Then, a guy swims up and sits alongside of me and says, "You've never done this before, have you?"

I said, "No," and he said, "Let me tell what to do.  First of all, you can't go do barefooted: you'll skin the back of your heels.  So I'll lend you these old tennis shoes I'm wearing and you can give them back to me after you ride down.  Second, as soon as you let go of the ledge, grab your legs just below your knees with each hand to keep your body from stiffening up and scraping your back when you see the bottom and get scared shitless.  Third, just before you hit the water, take your hands off your legs and cup them over your eyes so your eyeballs don't get knocked out."

He then swam away to the tree-lined shore.

I thought, "I've got to do this now.  I don't think I'm a good enough swimmer to get to that shore from here to give the guy his shoes."

So I finally let go and grabbed me legs.  As I went over the curve and saw the bottom I thought I was dead!  Then, my body began to rotate sideways a little.  I cup my hands over my eyes and hit the water. Being a little sideways, I rolled a few times before I came to a stop on the cement bottom.  I sat there on the bottom for several seconds pleased as hell that I was alive.  My back was slightly bruised.

When I didn't surface right away, Jane, her brother, and Shirley came running into the water.  I stood up and said I was fine - except for my back.  They looked at it and said it was a little red but not cut and it felt fine within a few minutes.

Now I had to return the guy's shoes.  I went to the shore were I saw him go and he wasn't there.  I lot out at the dam and there he was!  So I swam out to the dam, thanked him for his help, and started to swim back to the shore.  But I was making very little progress swimming against the current.  I decided to swim under water a little ways, surface and repeated that several times until I got far enough from the edge of the dam I could make decent progress swimming on the surface.  But by the time I got to shore, I was so exhausted I didn't know if I could get out of the water.  There was a sheer drop of the ground for a few feet with tree limbs hanging over the water.  I swam down a few feet below the surface them came to surface and leaped into the air to try to grab a tree limb.  On the third attempt, I did it and pulled myself onto the topside of the branch.  I caught my breath there then shinnied down the branch to the shore.

That was the end of my dam sliding adventure.

We went to the Bluegrass Festival and afterward went off into the woods with a mandolin player from one of the bands to smoke.  We found a campfire and sat there with beer and weed while the mandolin player played for us.  We didn't know the words to his songs, so we made up dirty words and sang songs for a while.

Then someone had to pee, walked off into the brush, came back and said, "We're in the middle of a Boy Scout camp.  They're in tents all around us!"

We called out apologies and walked away.

The following Monday - I still had a chemistry research job at UMBC until I left for grad school - I saw the head of the Physics department and told him about the dam.  We went into his office and he did the calculations and figured I was going about 40 mph when I hit the water.

So that's the story of my irrational fear and last date before I left Maryland for Chicago and IIT.

  • Hugs 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/6/2015 at 2:59 PM, Allen said:

Heights. Oddly I am ok in an airplane. Bridge, tall building, screw that. 

If I can feel the building sway, I have no business being there. 

I all but needed a climbing harness to hold the camera over the rail and take this. That's what hell looks like.  

image.jpg

Einstein is also afraid of heights. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Airehead said:

Einstein is also afraid of heights. 

I dislike heights but proportionately to risk.  Standing in the World Trade towers, no problem.  Standing on a 20 foot extension ladder- problem but then I have fallen off one before.  Walk across the glass floor of the CN Tower- no problem.  Do this-  Not a chance. EdgeWalk-Lakeside-1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...