My Greatest Fear #12

I feel like this photo is missing a third natural disaster, like a tsunami or Lindsay Lohan.

The other day, a friend of mine needed to drop off some beer at my place on his way home. I walked outside as he pulled up in his car, realized that there was a tremendous storm happening, and sprinted the rest of the way until I was safe inside.

Was it the rain that spooked me? The dark? Nope. I am petrified of getting struck by lightning.

Now, I’m sure this isn’t an uncommon fear. If you’re not scared of getting struck by lightning, you’re probably in the minority.

But here’s the thing: I actively avoid lightning. I go out of my way not to touch metal or to ground myself. I dash from my car as if I can outrun it. I’ve even hit the ground when I thought I felt my hair stand on end. I’ve purposely not opened an umbrella to avoid lightning. I’ve scouted out the tallest objects in the area and moved away from them.

Lightning is the number one reason I haven’t taken up golf.

However, I have figured out a little mental trick to help myself with this fear. Whenever I find myself in a situation where I’ll probably get struck by lightning, I tell myself, “Maybe you’ll get superpowers.”

I mean, if anything’s going to give me superpowers, it’s going to be lightning. Why wouldn’t it? It’s scientific.

Are you afraid of lightning? What lengths do you go through to avoid this calamity?

Daily Quickie: I recently changed my iPhone’s ringtone to the original Mario Bros theme. I could not be happier every time my phone rings.

21 thoughts on “My Greatest Fear #12”

  1. For your piece of mind, your car will act like a faraday cage and keep you safe from lightening. You could also build your own faraday cage out of full body chainmail that you could wear all the time.

    Reply
  2. Getting hit by lightning doesn’t sound like something that would be fun, but I woudn’t say that I’m afraid of it. In the same way that getting in a car accident doesn’t sound like fun, but I drive every day. I love the rain. So if I avoided lightning, I’d never enjoy a good powerful storm.

    Reply
  3. Lightning is 3rd on my list of fears. Thanks for reminder! πŸ˜›

    Since its somewhat unavoidable in the midwest I use this trick I learned on the weather channel. Check to see if your hair is standing on end. If it is, move quickly, you are about to be struck by lightning.

    Anytime there is a chance of a thunderstorm now, I start touching the top of my head. People might think its strange. I call it being safe.

    Reply
  4. I’m terrified of rain. I used to love the sound of drops of water falling on the skylight in my room, but now all rain scares me. I don’t know what I’m worried the rain will do to me, but I won’t drive when it is raining, I can’t sleep during thunder storms, and even just quick summer showers creep me out. Maybe I’m the wicked witch of the west.

    Reply
    • Very interesting, Ms. West. I strongly dislike the rain and really don’t like thunderstorms. I may or may not have slept for a while in my walk-in closet with Biddy the other night when there was a really bad storm outside.

      Reply
  5. Jamey –

    I have stumbled upon your blog a couple of times and came back to it again today. I have read a few of your posts today (slow work day) and you are seriously funny. You have me cracking up over here. The Ally McBeal like images of you running from lightening is too funny!

    Reply
      • As a matter of fact, I am terrified of lightning and storms in general. You can guarantee I will have a flashlight and/or candles next to me during one because I am always afraid the power is going to go out!

        I have been procrastinating tonight so I entertained myself by reading more of your posts. You really are so funny! I have been laughing over here all night.

        Reply
        • Well that’s very flattering–thank you for reading! πŸ™‚ Do you keep a blog?

          I’m definitely a wimp when it comes to storms. Loud thunder wakes me up…I really just don’t like it.

          Reply
          • Mmmmmm….I am just venturing into the blogging world. Nothing public yet – getting my feet wet. We’ll see how it turns out. πŸ™‚

            Since I am new, forgive me for not being totally up to date – are you still doing Match? I can’t wait to hear your stories. I did it for a while and definitely kept my friends entertained!

            Reply
            • Yep, still doing Match. It’ll be three weeks as of tomorrow. Have you seen the blog entries about it? I haven’t gotten too personal in them out of respect for the women I’ve been talking to, but I’m happy to talk Match off the record. How was your experience?

              Let me know if you start a blog! πŸ™‚

              Reply
              • That is probably a good thing. Very respectable because it could make for some good posts!! Have just browsed those – there is way too much entertainment on here to get through!

                My experience was interesting to say the least. I had numerous first dates – mostly because of my own pickiness. Not many made it past that first meeting. I always just met for A drink first. I am the type who knows right off the bat if you are interesting to me. Some call it critical, I like to say I have very defined qualities I am looking for and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. πŸ™‚ That was about four, five years ago now. It was fun for a while but got to be work so then I stopped. Figured I’d do it the old fashioned way.

                I have started a blog it is just still in private mode. I will let you know if I ever go live!

              • I like the simplicity of getting a drink for the first date. Like you, I’m quite picky. The trend so far has been that I can make all first dates seem like they’re going well, but really, there have only been a few in which I really enjoyed the conversation. That and chemistry are what I’m looking for on the first date (not anything crazy with the chemistry, just a spark). And now you prefer the old fashioned way? πŸ™‚ Where do you meet people?

                Now you have me curious about the blog. I look forward to reading it.

  6. Sent you an email. Figured this dialogue was getting long on here πŸ™‚

    Get what you mean about the spark – definitely needs to be there. And I have to laugh….I like the funny guy.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to John augheyCancel reply

Discover more from jameystegmaier.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue Reading