I have climbed those rudimentary ladders to the top of 800 ft high-rises to initial with magic marker the post that the FAA lights are mounted on and never batted an eye. I have stood on the edge of the roof of those same buildings and literally hung out over the side to look straight down at the street.
But I will not, ever clean my own gutters.
A guy could fall from doing that ya know.
Also, anything that looks oversized or bigger than it should in real life. My cousin had a pond in back of his old home, and in the pond were goldfish.
BIG goldfish, i didn’t know they “grew into” their space. Gawd, I had the creeps for days.
In college, in a zoology class, we had lab and I was dissecting crickets (or grasshoppers, one of them). The tub opened and these suckers were Amazonia Mucho Largo Cricketus or some god-awful oversized things the size of my shoes. I about wet myself.
Aside from that, I’m basically fearless.
[hauls out oft-used soapbox]
For those of you who claim to feel that you are wusses because you are afraid of spiders and snakes and other things that are probably health-threateningly and may be life-threateningly venomous: That’s not being a wuss. That’s called having some semblance of survival reflexes. It’s okay to be afraid of something that can hurt you. Wood chippers, for example.
I have not yet encountered whatever it is in the world that would make me shriek like a little girl and flee in fear. I know it’s out there; I just don’t know what it is yet.
Spiders and bugs don’t bother me. In general. Except for a certain species of cricket that always turns up in swarms in Texas in the summer.
Why? Because those crickets have the habit of losing a hind leg or two if you just look at them wrong. And that’s just wrong and sickening as hell.
My stomach is heaving just thinking about it.
I also refuse flat out to watch horror movies. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
I’m a huge wuss about a couple of things:
Electric shocks–I’m paranoid about tasks like changing light switches, though I can do and have done it. But the exposed wires look so thick, heavy-duty, and dangerous.
Heights–I will not climb up a ladder that looks unsafe, and am not happy even on safe-looking ladders. Once, in Germany, we were being given a group tour of the local late-medieval church and tower, and the only way to reach the top of the tower was to climb up a wooden ladder that was propped against a platform at least two stories above where we were standing. Some of the rungs were loose, and the third or fourth one came out under my foot as I started climbing. That was it for me, and I was one of about five who refused to climb, even though about thirty others did no problem.
Oh yeah, about horror films. I don’t mind most of them, but I really don’t like the ones that are basically monster movies. I haven’t seen any of the Alien movies; it’s not so much about being scared as it is the gross-out factor. There is a bit of a gross edge to Poltergeist, on the other hand, yet I really do enjoy that one.
As for Alien vs. Predator: the slogan was “Whoever wins, we lose.” Yeah right, I thought to myelf, especially the audience!