Things That Touch My Feet In The Lake

“I discovered I scream the same way whether I’m about to be devoured by a Great White or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.”Axl Rose (Guns’n'Roses)

This quote by Axl Rose cracks me up. I am the same way. When I am swimming and something touches my foot, I react to a huge danger before I know what hits me. I do the same when I see a snake. See a snake? Scream. Immediately regret the scream. Look around to see if I was observed screaming. I've never been bitten by a snake. Once, when I was a child, a cousin put a snake down my back under my shirt as I was sitting in the field. I reflexively stood up and the snake tumbled to the ground. I wasn't too happy with this cousin especially when I saw him running away and laughing at me. I was more upset by his laughing than the snake. Several cousins were there and they watched him do it so they were all laughing. I have no reason to scream at snakes. I just can't help it. I found a snake in the dishwasher once. I freaked. I was ready to hire an exterminator. Offspring #2 picks up the snake and kisses it, brings it outside and puts it down on the ground right next to the house. She couldn't carry it to the other side of the yard? I fear mice too. See a mouse? Scream. Even when I know to expect it, I still scream. I have mice living in my outdoor shed. I know when I pry open that shed door, I will be seeing mice. I still scream. Everybody has their fears. I know one retired maintenance man at work who would not take a walk outside in the fall. This guy was a smoker and a tattooed biker. His fear? A lusty buck might attack him. I understand deer do have their rutting season and they have been know to aggress against humans, but really, what are the chances? I worry more about the deer hunters than the deer. Another brave friend of mine, able to deal with aggressive or unhappy personalities, has a fear of wasps with dangly legs. I don't especially like dangly legged wasps but I don't especially fear them. As I child I would often swim in the lake. Close to shore the constant swimming of children disturbed the lake bottom and the weeds were at a minimum. Out in deeper water, the weeds were thick. Out farther than that the weeds didn't grow to the top of the water. To get to that deep open water, we had to swim through the weedy patch. Weeds would touch my feet and legs. Sometimes a weedy tendril would wrap around my leg or ankle. I didn't like that feeling and would swim as horizontally as possible to avoid it. The weeds wrapping around my legs would scare me. I feared getting tangled and trapped underwater. But I didn't let the fear keep me from swimming in the deeper water. Often snapping turtles or painted turtles would swim with us. I'd be treading water and a turtle would poke it's head up next to me. Maybe me swimming in the lake scared the turtle like a snake in the house scared me because that turtle would take one look at me, widen it's little turtle eyes, and submerge only to pop again 25 feet away.