On this week’s FridayFix we’re lucky to have our good friends Evo Terra and Sheila Dee join us. They came to San Diego for a visit, and sat down to talk irrational fears.
Why, you ask? This was recorded last weekend, and yesterday I had a tonsillectomy. It went well, straightforward with no complications, but back on Saturday night, I didn’t know all of that. I just knew I was scared with some reasonable fears, and some … less so.
So listen first, then cheer me up by telling me about your irrational fears in the comments section! I promise to check in obsessively in the few hours a day I’m not sleeping a drug fueled sleep after fighting to swallow as little as possible and still stay hydrated.
Also, we discuss chugging mouthwash, puberty, George Burns impressions, Angry Trivial Pursuit™, DEATHRACE 2000 (not 3000), your constitutional right to go topless, anti-boobie laws, giant fucking spiders, and the worst nightmare Scott has ever had.
Don’t see a “play” button above? Click here to download.
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I know I am late to this thread, but I was catching up on the IF and had to comment on Scott’s spider fear. This short video will be perfect for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=G0eWwWzNcNI
In the spirit of the thread, I do have a fear to share. I live 20 minutes from a major airport, but not in the regular flight path. Occasionally a big jet will fly over very low. This sounds incredibly loud in my house, and for a second I expect it to crash through my roof.
P. S. Captain my Captain
@kkassing: I’ve seen that before, and it kind of angered me: what if someone panicked and kicked that poor dog?
Yep, “Death by 747” is a pretty common fear.
I worked on several large deployments of cellular equipment in major cities. For about 2 years I was routinely on top of building from 1 to about 45 stories. Shortly after getting comfortable with working on top of our 6 story HQ building I started having something like day dreams.
I’d think very vivid thoughts about running at top speed right off the edge of the building. It was enticing. A little like being high I suppose. And it was always a running start. I never just wanted to jump. I actually don’t like being anywhere near the edge. I didn’t want to commit suicide, but part of me wanted to learn to fly. Luckily, the dominant part of me understood I’d go splat if I tried.
I learned years later that at least some of my coworkers had the same sorts of day dreams. We’d be up on the roof, and at some point one of us would look out toward the edge and wonder what it would be like to run full tilt over the edge.
Let me repeat. I’m boring. I have no death wish. But part of me wants to learn how to fly and this scares the shit out of me. If I go back to wireless work I’ll be on rooftops again. I’ll probably have the same day dreams. But I will never ever get near the edge unless I absolutely have to.
I used to have an irrational fear of spiders. But not so much anymore. 😉
I, too, share @BigJohn‘s fear of bridges and also large street/sidewalk grates. I’m always afraid one will give way and I’ll fall to my death if I walk on it. Another irrational fear I have is of heights. Can’t even stand on a step stool to change a light bulb without getting woozy, and don’t even get me started on escalators and glass elevators! 🙁
I have a fear that isn’t so much a fear while awake but when I sleep. I have a repeating dream where something happens to my teeth, bite down on something, they get hit, or grinding them, etc. When that happens my teeth all crumb and start falling out in pieces. I then wake up realizing it was just a dream, I check my teeth and find out something did happen in my sleep and they are crumbling. Then I really wake up and can’t get back to sleep. It sounds like a cheesy movie plot but this has happen about a dozen times.
Clowns, heights, spiders, and rats… not necessarily in that order.
Spider clowns standing on a ladder juggling rats would basically make my friggin heart freeze.
I had to stop listening to the FF because of the slurping of the drink. The first time it was funny. Now it is too annoying specially since you can’t hear the people talking because of the noise.
My irrational fear is of jellyfish. I only go into the ocean up to my waist in case the jellies are there. I’m more scared of them than of sharks.
Really? Huh. Interesting.
I wonder how much more trouble jellyfish are (if they are) than sharks.
Thanks for sharing!
Here’s a twofer:
My irrational fear is bridges. I know they’re solid, well-constructed, but I still get all heebie-jeebies when i drive over one. Can’t wait to get to the other side. Watching the Bay Bridge shelf fall during the 1989 earthquake didn’t help much, especially since I know someone who was on the lower level when it came down and helped pull out the injured. It seems to be more about driving over, moreso than walking, but I can’t recall a time when I’ve walked over one. I guess I’ll let you know when me and the Mrs. trek across the Golden Gate.
The second irrational fear is actually Mrs. BigJohn’s: she has anxiety and constant fear that when she is driving up one of the many steep hills of San Francisco that her car will flip over backward. She’s had nightmares about it, and becomes pretty crazy dangerous when driving in the city as a result of it.
You may be wondering why I didn’t mention the fear everyone knows about me: Spiders. But clearly, that is a RATIONAL fear. So therefore I don’t mention it.
Hope your recovery is coming along well! If your voice changes, you will just have to blame it on Julie Andrews, like Scøtt does.
John! I share the heebie-jeebies about bridges, but not so far as irrational fear.
And I always wonder if there might be something that could get the fear more grounded, so it might dissipate. Like for the cars tipping over, if there is some kind of engineering reason that unlikely, would it change anything? I kind of think not.
And spiders … Sigler is right there with you. The movie I spoiled, in case you ever get fooled into watching (don’t) is Enemy.
Recovery has been going slowly, but well.
A Kovacs: I hope all of your fears around the surgery were unrealized and misplaced even though they come from an honest place.
My first irrational fear is around infestations of homes. I am not just a hand model (haaa just joking) but in my real life I am a professional building insprector. So I go into homes and things all the time. My irrational fear is that I’m going to go into someone’s home and I’ll be infested by roaches, fleas, or worse. So I guess technically it’s posdib thatI could happen. But realistically it couldn’t. Bugs don’t work like that. I hope….
My second irrational fear is roller coasters that go upside down. I have a fear of moving too quickly anyhow. But the very idea of moving too quickly AND upside down?! I know that engineers work really hard and amusement parks insurers work even harder to be sure no one is EVER killed in a roller coaster. But that aside, I still get panicky and sweaty at the very idea of going upside down in a box holding into me by a thin piece of metal or strapping placed on me by a bored teenager. >shudder<
Great. Now I have a fear of infestations. Thanks Chris. (just kidding)
And I don’t even do roller coasters any more, mostly because people ARE sometimes killed by roller coasters.
I don’t think you’re very irrational at all, sir. I am with you!
A,
Hope the surgery went well. My irrational fear was that something would assault my neck while I am asleep unless the sheet covered it. I’m talking guillotine, vampire, lion. Whatever. The sheet would protect me from gruesome death by bloody neck.
So awesome. Like somehow there was a hidden guillotine above your bed.
I love the human brain. Seriously.
I’M glad to hear you’re do well and wish you a speedy recovery and my irrational fear is to wake up one day and can’t move talk or even blink i know that will most likely never happen but it in back of mind for time to time before i go to sleep
That’s a perfect example: if it happened, that would be terrible. But just to happen out of the blue seems unlikely. Still …
Thanks for sharing!
Glad all went well, A. Noticed any change in your vocal range?
So, on to my irrational fears in no particular order.
1.) I hate being in the backseat of a two door car. Growing up right on the Columbia River, there were many times I was in the back of a car heading down the highway, fearing that a wrong move would plunge me into the water and end the fun times.
2.) An empty house/apartment. I have no idea what it is, but an empty house/apartment with no furniture scares the shit out of me. The hair rises on the back of my neck and I can’t wait to leave, (this only seems to come up when I’m the only one there, but I can’t recall the last time I was in a bare domicile with someone else,).
3.) Receiving a phone call in the middle of the night only to pick it up and hear someone scream on the other end. Have had that fear for a long time and nearly shat myself when I finally saw Black Christmas last month in my 31 Horror Movies in October binge, (list available upon request,).
My voice is pretty jacked up at the moment due to the swelling in my throat. I sound a lot like Patty & Selma from the Simpsons. But I think that’s all just temporary.
Your fears are epic! A shame they’re all (okay, at least the first two) things you might well find yourself doing many times in your life.
How interesting.
I bet you can karaoke some Janis Joplin like a MUTHAHfuckah.
Indeed. They’re odd as shit. Of course, I left off my fear of heights, but that’s so mundane I didn’t think it was really worth mentioning.
I have been a fan of Scott Sigler since the first non-YA version of the rookie and have thoroughly enjoyed all his books and podcasts. I always make sure I preorder his books and support him as I’m able to. That being said, when I hear him slurping his fucking drink in my ears as I listen to his podcast on headphones it makes me want to drive from Florida to California and beat him unmercifully. For the love of God, STOP SLURPING YOUR FUCKING DRINKS ON THIS FUCKING PODCAST!!!!!!!! It’s not cute, it’s really fucking annoying.