Rich - Agreed
Basically nothing scares me I think, I seem to be pretty void of any emotion along those lines, no animals, heights, etc. and I deal with pain pretty well too, so its mostly psychological stuff, but thats more being worried about something than being terrified
Although something DID scare me the other day, I was in the Weymouth sea life centre with my children and we were in a large shedlike building with "claws" written on the side, so I was expecting big crabs or lobsters... What I didn't expect however were the crabs to be 6foot tall Japanese fighting crabs
(They can grow to 12 foot!) The speed those things moved with gave me the feeling that if they ever ventured out of the water (as crabs often do) you REALLY wouldn't want to be near one!
[edit] I have just tried and failed to find a picture of one, but I did find this interesting little true story
My own service as an Air National Guard officer had its moments, but none can compare with the adventure my father had at the end of World War II.
On March 24, 1944, my mother and I dropped Dad off at the induction center. At 32, he was the oldest man in his company to finish advanced infantry school at Camp Blanding, Fla. He shipped out for Europe in time to participate in the Battle of the Bulge. When Germany surrendered, most of his unit was sent to the Philippines on the USS Adm. C.F. Hughes. Then when Japan surrendered, the unit left from Lingayan Bay and was to make the first landing at Wakayama in the Inland Sea.
On the morning of the landing, Dad's platoon clambered down the cargo nets into the landing barges. Much to their surprise, a general, his aide, and two photographers joined them. A rumor swept through that the general was from Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff.
They started for the beach. Someone looked over the edge of the boat and was astonished to see it was the only one inbound. All the other boats were circling in the transport area. This was alarming, as nobody knew what the Japanese home guard reception would be. There were reportedly millions of them armed with bamboo spears and anxious to die for the emperor.
Once the boat grounded, the two photographers got off. While they set up their cameras, the boat backed up, found a sandbar, and dropped the ramp again. The general had his picture taken walking through the surf. The boat then went back to its original landing spot and dropped the ramp once more, and the platoon went ashore. The beach was deserted.
Dad's squad was sent on patrol with Dad and his friend Al as point men. The patrol advanced up the beach. Suddenly Al stepped on a clump of grass, and out leapt a huge spider some four feet across. It scuttled off, but no sooner had Dad and Al recovered from their shock than it came back toward them. They panicked, let out a yell, and ran. The rest of the squad assumed the worst and ran for the boat.
The platoon leader, already nervous with a general from MacArthur's staff present, now saw his military career going down the "flusher" as his command collapsed. When he finally got the patrol stopped, he found that each man had run because he saw the others running. When he got to Dad and Al and asked why they were running, they replied in unison, "We saw a spider this big!"
This was met with an icy stare, and the platoon sergeant growled, "Where the hell did you get anything to drink on a Navy ship?"
To prove their sobriety, Dad and Al had to go get the "spider." When they found it, they emptied their carbines into it, picked up the gooey remains with their bayonets, and brought it back. The spider turned out to be a giant Japanese spider crab.
The giant crab thus defeated, Japan had lost its final hope for holding the island. The rest of the force landed, and the occupation was on without a sight of the home guard. The war was over - and so was Dad's appetite for crab.
Quikly Studio Pro. Soon. Honest.
