Fear of the Unknown!

Fear is a funny thing. It's rarely rational, and sometimes it's downright funny. Fear of the unknown is the absolute worst for most folks.

For instance, my wife isn't afraid to ride with me. She does it all the time and we've been thousands of miles on a bike. She's actually seen people crash a motorcycle right in front of her and get all bashed up. She knows people die on motorcycles every day, but she'll still get right on that bike and go, because she basically understands what it is.

But electricity is a different thing entirely. I just find it amazing how mysterious and unknowable electricity is to her. She uses it every dayand I'm sure she's never seen anyone get electrocuted. She knows I wouldn't hurt her, but that devil electricity....HIM she does not trust, and particularly in any form that's not totally familiar to her.

I was once trying to explain to my wife why men get shocked more easily than women. (Women, in general, have the higher electrical resistance. Don't ask me why.) I had an Ohm meter with one tiny AAA battery in it. She's seen me use it before on cars and computers and TV's, but she has no idea what it really is. It's an unknown quantity and therefore to be feared even if she trusts the guy wielding it.

"Look at this reading," I said, holding the two probes. "That's my resistance to electricity. Now you hold one probe in each hand and you'll see that yours is much higher."

She took half a step back, and her eyes widened. "NO! I don't want to get shocked!"

"You won't get shocked if I didn't get shocked." I replied. "Men get shocked easier. I just did it and I didn't get shocked, because it only has one tiny little battery in it."

"I don't care! I don't trust you! You're just trying to shock me!"

"No I'm not. Look here. I'll just touch the dog and you'll see she doesn't get shocked."

"YOU GET AWAY FROM MY DOG, YOU MEANIE!"

The way she grabbed that dog, like the world's most protective mother, you'd have thought I was Dr. Frankenstein or something.

Bear in mind that our dogs both wear radio-activated shock collars so they can't get through our fence. The female dog was hardly deterred, so she wore TWO, an now THREE shock collars. Clearly she can take a shock and my wife knows this. Now you certainly couldn't shock a dog with an ordinary 1 1/2 volt Ohm meter, but to my wife it was just this totally mysterious (and therefore dangerous) device with wires on it.

But the strangest part to me: Notice how she said, "I don't trust you!" and yet clearly she does. She'll trust me to take her up some canyon 100 MPH on the back of my motorcycle, but for some reason she just wouldn't trust me enough to touch those two little probes.

[unwind2]

I think I have a new 'fear of the unknown'.....getting tires on my ride. :-/

That's Pneumophobia: The fear of interaction with inflated objects.

[tkd]

Caddman,

Can you really blame her? I mean does the idea of getting "probed" by the Caddman really appeal to anyone?

[cactusjack]

CQ, I think you'll appreciate this story. Back in Salt Lake, I worked in a much smaller IT shop than I do now. There was only 3 or 4 of us, so we did everything: telephony, cabling, networks, UNIX, desktop and laptop support, the whole shebang. I used to use a signal tracer and amplifier set up to trace serial cables we had strung all over the place, back before we had a "modern" network. It wasn't uncommon for me to be walking around the building carrying the amplifier in my hand or pocket. There were fairly low ceilings in the building, and I found that fluorescent lights would give off a nice buzzing sound when you held the amplifier near them, sort of like a "geiger counter" buzz. So, I'd walk through the building with the amplifier in my hand, and have the button pressed, and I'd hold it high near the light fixtures. You envisioning this?

People would hear the buzzing and ask me what I was doing, since we were the mystical, all-knowing IT department and we knew everything. At least that's what people thought. They'd ask us when the power company would have the power back on if it went out suddenly, as if Utah Power and Light consulted with us, but that's another story. So people would hear the buzzing noise and come out of their cubicles and ask what I was doing. I would usually tell them I was performing a "periodic radioactivity analysis" within the building. Then their eyes would get big and they'd go "REALLY?" and I'd kind of wand them with the amplifier like the TSA folks do at the airport and they'd get this worried look on their face. With a poker face, I'd tell them they were receiving the radiation equivalent of 500 chest x-rays. This would make my day! These people would turn pale and I'd tell them (eventually) I was joking. It worked with computer monitors, too.

[audiogooroo]

Originally Posted by unwind2

I think I have a new 'fear of the unknown'.....getting tires on my ride. :-/

Apparently it's getting less and less unknown to you...and a valid phobia! ;)

Originally Posted by tkd

Caddman,

Can you really blame her? I mean does the idea of getting "probed" by the Caddman really appeal to anyone?

Are you kidding? I won't go into the details here, but we'll just say that it's a very popular passtime.

Originally Posted by cactusjack

CQ, I think you'll appreciate this story....I would usually tell them I was performing a "periodic radioactivity analysis"....

Oh, man I should have one of those!

The problem is that our office is too small and these guys are too smart to fall for it.

[unwind2]

Originally Posted by audiogooroo

Apparently it's getting less and less unknown to you...and a valid phobia! ;)

+1

[Yellow Jacket]

There is no understanding the mind of a woman. A few men think that they can, but they are wrong!