KA-BAR Chat thread - Come on in the house

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The unknown and things I have no control over.

Needless to say I worry about stuff that's pointless to worry about all the time.
 
I don't have claustrophobia as such - I have no trouble with scuba diving, SCBAs, or small rooms, but I absolutely hate tight-shouldered spaces - I don't do well crawling through tight tunnels. Probably has to do with the width of my shoulders and the perception of being unable to back out of a tight spot.

Then there is my ophidiphobia - fear of snakes. I don't really fear them, but when you try to google for "hatred of snakes" all you get is "ophidiphobobia - fear of snakes".

I guess what I really have would be classified as "Crotalidiphobia", which is not a real word anywhere but in my head - the "hatred of Crotalids" or rattlesnakes/copperheads. Both are in the Family "Crotalidae". If I find a copperhead or rattler on the place, it's dead. I don't mind, chicken snakes, rat snakes, bull snakes, king snakes, grass snakes, garter snakes, etc.... Hell, I don't even mind water moccasins As long as they stay down by the creek and not up at the house. But rattlers and copperheads - nope.
 
That don't count hoss! Everybody has an irrational fear, what's yours? Even "running out of ammo" will work!
 
I swear this is true, my irrational fear is that I'll be somehow attacked if I'm reading a newspaper . Not with the paper laying flat, but more like the paper completely opened and obstructing my view. I feel like I'll be shot or something. Maybe I was a mobster in my former life or maybe just a freak in my current life.
 
That works. "Man shot while reading a newspaper, bullet whizzed right through New York Times into his body, film at 11"...
I can see that. I like being able to be aware of my surroundings too. I'm actually kind of a stickler about it.
 
Those are some pretty cool side jobs while you were in school ZZ!


My fear is ladders. Its not the hight that bugs me... its the equipment I'm using. I'll repel in a harness or do other crazy things while in safety gear. Remove that and tell me to climb a non secured ladder... well lets just say last time I had to go up to my roof it took me about 25min to come down haha. I need to get a huge blow up landing bag and I'll just skip the ladder and jump.
 
TBL said:
My fear is ladders. Its not the hight that bugs me... its the equipment I'm using. I'll repel in a harness or do other crazy things while in safety gear. Remove that and tell me to climb a non secured ladder... well lets just say last time I had to go up to my roof it took me about 25min to come down haha. I need to get a huge blow up landing bag and I'll just skip the ladder and jump.
Click to expand...

Damn man, just rappel off your house. Easy peasy.
 
Noswad0208 said:
Why rappel when you can skydive?
Click to expand...
Not enough room for the chute to open unless he lives in a high rise.

Real solutions for real problems. ;)

I share Z's hatred. But might be closer to fear. Definitely used to be irrational fear. It's a bit better. I was able to walk by a display with a huge (6 ft plus) timber rattler yesterday several times and didn't run out of the building - which is progress over when I was a kid. I did wish I had a gun though.

Note to self : if you get the CHL, don't carry at wildlife museums and displays.



Z - You keep making my summer jobs sound lame.
 
During the summer of 74, between my fish and pisshead years, my parents were building a new house up on Lake Travis. Building materials were in short supply due to what ever hurricane had already hit somewhere and thieves would raid building sites at night. I was working with the construction crew (where I learned carpentry/building construction skills). I was being paid pretty good too.. my parents were paying me $3.75, about half what the construction crew was getting aid, but still better than the minimum wage of $2.00 / hr.

Back to the story - I was also serving as night construction site security - my parents paid me an extra $10 per night to "camp out" in the old part of the house (the roof had been removed and they were having a 2nd story added on.) One night, I woke to the sound of what sounded like a couple of guys walking around up stairs in jump boots. (due to the slope of the site, both the downstairs and the upstairs were ground level - so you could just walk right out onto the upstairs floor from the ground). I aimed my flood lights at the stairs, and with my shot gun (an old 2 in the clip and one in the chamber Mossberg from the early 50s), ducked behind the sofa and waited for them to come down the 6 wide stairs we had put in. As they started down the stairs, I swore it sounded like a half dozen or more clomping.

When it sounded like they were about half way down, I hit the floods and screamed "FREEZE M-F'rs OR DIE!!!"

(forgot to mention that a church had put in a drug rehab half-way house about 3/4 mile away on their "retreat property" and these crazed looking hippie dudes jonesing for a fix were always wandering around wearing combat boots - hence my association of clomping with drugged out hippies).

The response I got was a long low "MOOOOOOOO". Yep, I had 3 full grown heifers and a couple of calves on the stairs. Scared the bejeesus out of me.

A couple of weeks later, I woke to the sound of chittering and claws scraping. Knowing it wasn't thieves, I just point the flash light over the back of the sofa at the stairway. Parading right along as if they owned the place was a momma skunk and 4 half grown kits. They stopped and stared at me for a bit and then proceeded straight out the opening that would eventually be the back porch sliding door.

Just 2 of the many stories from that summer job.
 
Murphnuge said:
I swear this is true, my irrational fear is that I'll be somehow attacked if I'm reading a newspaper . Not with the paper laying flat, but more like the paper completely opened and obstructing my view. I feel like I'll be shot or something. Maybe I was a mobster in my former life or maybe just a freak in my current life.
Click to expand...

maybe?
ya think?
;)
 
Maybe the best college summer job story I've got happened after my sophomore year. I "interned" for Arco Oil & Gas out of their Venice, LA shore base. The Mississippi River was super flooded that year and I couldn't even drive my little Toyota truck out there because all the roads were flooded over with a couple of feet of water. They told me to stop at the grocery store at the end of town and call and they'd come get me. When I did, they showed up in a 4 wheel drive Suburban and loaded my truck onto a flatbed trailer they had in tow. About two miles later they pulled into the parking lot of the shore base which fortunately had been built up a few feet and unload me. My landlocked, Texas eyes were a bit wide at that point. I think it may have been the first island I had ever been on - such as it was.

Anyway, among the many things they let me so was ride out in the airboat one day when they went to maintain one of the pipelines which mainly meant getting to one of the small platforms out in the marsh and watching the guy who knew what he was doing take a few measurements and then lube a few things.

All was good until we got to one that was surrounded by water hyacinths as far as the eye could see. We slid in just fine, but when it came time to leave, the hyacinths kept the boat from being able to get going. The boat pilot revved the engine, rocked back and forth, and we went no where. After a few minutes I started to get concerned, but no where near as concerned as when he said, "Get out and clear those hyacinths and make me a path. I'll take care off down it, whip around and you can dive back in as I come by."

I thought, "this dude must be kidding. There are alligators and water moccasins out there and no telling how deep that water is, and these steel toe boots are gonna sink in the mud even if there is a bottom."

But when the tech jumped out and the boat pilot just glared at me, I slid my big old butt over the side as gently as I could, found some footing and got to work.

Looking back the biggest danger was probably me talking myself into a panic. I imagine those old boys knew that water and knew there wasn't anything to worry about. But you couldn't have convinced me of that for anything in the world at that point.

If anyone had mentioned shark, or gator, or snake, I'd have likely had a heart attack and not lived to tell the tale whether there was one or not.
 
Truth, no paperwork. Just bacon.

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