The first fear is one that lingers from childhood: going all the way up and around on the swings. (If you are a Mythbusters fan, you know that this fear/myth has already been debunked...the only way that they could get a dummy on a swing to go all the way around was to strap it to a rocket. This dummy, nevertheless, remains petrified at the prospect.)
The second fear is a more recent yet similarly unjustified one: my sister's insanely steep driveway. To see it from the bottom, you would think you were looking up at Mt. Everest. The air looks thinner, the winds look stronger, and it appears impossibly cold at the top. (As evidenced in this photograph of a picturesque Southern California day...but don't let it fool you.) Thank goodness for the excellent foresight on my sister's part to have oxygen tanks hidden in the bushes down at the bottom. And the Sherpas really come in handy, too.
There is one great thing about this driveway: it is so long and so steep that the house seems about a mile away from noise and civilization. The not so great thing is that driving up it scares the living daylights out of me. Honestly, every time I begin the 45 degree ascent and approach the seemingly impossible-to-reach summit, an intolerable fear creeps into my mind that the car is going to flip over backwards and tumble me back down the driveway to my untimely death. By the time I am approaching the top, I can actually no longer see the ground in front of me, which generally causes me to take my foot off the accelerator (the worst thing you can do) and then my sister has to kindly yell at me to "keep going!" at which point I gun the engine and leave yet another unsightly skid mark on the once unblemished driveway. How nice that I still get invited, huh?Maybe someday I will conquer these fears and maybe someday I won't. For now, admitting that I have a problem will just have to be the first step in the long road to recovery.
I only hope that that road does not end in a driveway.
Sorry to laugh at your anxiety, but I'm laughing right now:-) You are too funny, and it is good to know that I am not the only one out here that has similar anxieties:-))
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! My brothers driveway is just like that and I hate it! My mom and I always park at the bottom and lug our stuff up in because we're too chicken to park the car all the way up there. So, you're not alone ;) And thanks SOOO much for dinner-you're so so sweet!
ReplyDeleteWow, that was kind of them to put in stairs so that you can actually access the house from the road on foot (if you had to - what a work out)!
ReplyDeleteThe picture from the bottom really doesn't look that bad. But when I scrolled down to see the picture from the top - ho boy! Scary!
ReplyDeleteGuess that means you should start staying at mom & dad's. Nice flat round driveway. :)
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