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I grew up in Cleveland where people are accustomed to driving in blizzards, but when after my sojourn throughout the nation I eventually settled in southwest and central Ohio, I found that drivers here seem to react to seeing a fleck of snow hit the ground by spontaneously forgetting how to operate their vehicles, and panicking instead. I'm guessing this probably happens in southeast Ohio too, basically anywhere south of about 42˚ latitude.

So Shan, you can at least hide in the crowd, but I doubt hardly anyone else can justify their behavior by citing a truly traumatic childhood incident.

That bridge collapse you linked reminds me of the Mothman movie with Richard Gere. I think it was set in SE Ohio too. Pretty good movie.
 
@Flyover yes the Mothman! That actually happen in Mason County Wva @Point Pleasant, across from Gallipolis, Ohio. My mom is from Mason County. I also grew up hearing those stories, although I have never been able to recount them effectively. I will say though, from the stories I heard to the movie, there really wasn't much similarities. Most sightings happened in the TNT area of Mclintic wildlife management area. There were munitions bunkers on the property somewhere and those were thought to have been the mothmans "caves". It is actually a nice area, there are some ponds you can fish. I havent been there in about a decade, there isnt much there. However, the Mason County fair is held yearly a couple of miles from where this is.
More folklore about the area:
There is a state park, it is called Tu Endie Wei, that means "the point between two waters" the Battle of Point Pleasant was fought there and some say it started the revolutionary war. I always did horribly in History class so IDK. There are alot of artifacts there and rooms set up with authentic furniture and a kitchen set up exactly as it would have been in the 1770s. (I *believe* the log home at the state park is original). The Shawnee Chief Cornstalk is who led the efforts. It has been said that that area will never prosper until it becomes a dry area (alcohol), supposedly as a curse.
You would think that because is has 2 different rivers surrounding the western and southern (I'm directionally challenged) sides of the small town of Point Pleasant, that it would have become more prosperous in the 1800s and 1900s.
I have always been told I was related to Chief Cornstalk but idk about that. I am of British, European, Scottish and Irish decent per Ancestry DNA. I dont think the British and Shawnee were that "friendly" with one another, but I could be wrong.

Another childhood weirdness:
My mom played with a Ouija board when she was a teen/young adult, I used to love listening to her stories when I was little but when I became an older teenager I started getting creeped out by the story she told where the Ouija board they used always said its name was Nancy 😳.
So.... what I am saying is that I heard creepy stories about different things my entire childhood lol
 
So.... what I am saying is that I heard creepy stories about different things my entire childhood lol
And now you can look at those stories thru an adult's eyes.

What we didn't do today is take the rapid antigen tests. That's fine with me, the omicron case graph is rounding off & will soon fall,
 
I think my Mom mentioned using a Ouija board once as a kid. Someone moved the board with their knees and they all freaked out. She never did it again. She used to do Tarot card readings and apparently was pretty accurate, but then someone told her it was evil so she stopped. She also played some game with her friends and sisters where they would hang a pendulum and it would swing toward numbers, letters etc. According to the pendulum she was told she would have 3 kids-- two girls and one boy.

I woke up drenched in sweat and feeling like absolute garbage. Yesterday I started having some trouble breathing. I couldn't pick up a damn ladder because I felt weaker than usual and couldn't breathe when I tried to lift it. Today I feel worse. I can feel that the mucus has migrated lower. My nose stuffed up last night (despite taking medicine) and I had trouble sleeping because the sound of my own nose whistling was driving me crazy. I tried blowing my nose into tissues and so forth but that didn't help. When I sat up I was wheezing. I called my doctor's office & they said to come in and get checked out. Probably bronchitis or the flu.
 
Yes! And that is the best part (and most freeing)
With the bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failuresyou could view each person who successfully crosses the bridge each day as a lab animal who spins a roulette wheel & wins.
After thousands of people-crossings I'd say the bridge is safer than just about any other daily activity.
Even if it does disintegrate, what is the likelihood you'll be on it at the same time?

For the people who build bridges, the saying is "Every bridge takes a life."
 
Caught our mortgage company now declaring our new mortgage payment to be higher than if we'd paid the escrow in one lump sum & I know they cashed that escrow check on Jan 6.

They do this every year. If this were an honest error, half the time it would be in our favor.

Escrow is made up of Mathilliterates. They are the people that didn't get past 2+2. Every year, they either take too much and send me a refund check or take too less and send me a bill saying to pay X or they will raise my mortgage amount.

I don't need Escrow because I can drive down to the County building and pay the taxes myself, and I have an insurance agent for the car. If they insist on holding my hand, at least they could use some of that cash to buy a few brain cells.
 
My mortgage co. seems to give orders to the USPS.

And, we didn't use our home equity line of credit so they sent us packages saying "Urgent Mortgage Notification".
After a while I started sending them back unopened. They they called me about this so I started talking about a valve I couldn't find & I read 107v on the plate but not on the grid & what did this mean? She got embarrassed & hung up.

Then they threatened not to release the lien even tho I never used the line of credit. After 6 mos some guy wrote me to say he was releasing the lien so I went to the courthouse to confirm. He was actually telling the truth.
 
Yes! And that is the best part (and most freeing)
There was a bartender in Park City, UT.
Death took her brother @ age 21 so she does acrobatic stunts on skis at great speed, jumps off of things I would never jump off of, she trusts in physics, momentum, “moments of inertia”, etc. etc..
So I figured she was giving the finger to Death.

If you want to give the finger to Death, spend a whole day driving slowly over the most rickety & highest bridges you can find. Then do it again.
 
With the bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failuresyou could view each person who successfully crosses the bridge each day as a lab animal who spins a roulette wheel & wins.
After thousands of people-crossings I'd say the bridge is safer than just about any other daily activity.
Even if it does disintegrate, what is the likelihood you'll be on it at the same time?

For the people who build bridges, the saying is "Every bridge takes a life."
You've zeroed in on the "irrational" part of "irrational fear/dislike" that makes a phobia a phobia. "Rational" as in, able to be expressed as a ratio. If no ratio of "safe bridge crossings" to "bridge collapses" can make a person not feel too scared to cross the bridge, then that is a legit phobia.
 
I one sought to purchase some used climbing rope for yard use. Apparently climbers are snowflakes as none would sell to me. Their fear seemed to be that I would use the rope for climbing and sue them if it failed. Which reminds me; a good climbing rope will last _____ years, a bad one will last a lifetime.
 
Shortly after reading stuff about bridge collapses and icy bridges, one of my cousins posted a pic of a truck that went off an icy bridge recently. Landed on an underpass, rather than water, but still ugly.

I woke up feeling awful. Got an appointment with the NP, went in and got tested for Covid & flu. Negative for both, but I have bronchitis- which is what I suspected. Now I wait for the understaffed pharmacy to fill my prescriptions. She was going to give me a sample inhaler but they were out. She said she'd call me when they come in. Since I don't have insurance the nebulizer medicine would be too expensive. I still need to get replacement parts for my brother's nebulizer. He may actually be able to get parts covered by Medicaid though.
 
A heavy truck or bus moving fast can do a lot more damage to guard rails than a passenger vehicle. And box trucks are not too stable with crosswinds.
 
There are 3 bridges I can cross from Ohio into Wva. I usually use the same one. It's a suspension bridge. They actually said a few years ago it had a defect and needed some major work. However, that kind of disappeared as a lot of news does. The bridge doesn't bother me at all under any other conditions. I drive over it a minimum of 6 times a week. When I drive it in suboptimal conditions of my liking, I rationalize why I will make it completely across it every time. Still makes me a nervous wreck.
I actually remember before this bridge was built. I use to live across the street from where the foot of it is currently. The house I lived in is now an ATM machine. Lol
 
The Tacoma Narrows bridge taught them about resonance. One car & one dog was lost, IIRC.

Computer design can probably make perfect bridges but there is always the "iron" project triangle of quality, schedule & cost.
Nobody can do any two at the same time & certainly not all three.
 
Yeah, I spent most of my childhood in the Tacoma area. "Galloping Gertie" was her name, and it wasn't fun going across the replacement because I already had a fear of heights instilled in me by my older Brothers.

Add in a bridge that acts like a Bull and doesn't want you on it?

No Thanks.

 

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