Fearful Experiences

I have done a few very exciting things in my life. The ones I remember best though are the frightening ones which include taking acid (once only thankyou very much), crossing the Rhine at Cologne in a glass bottomed (sided, backed fronted and topped) cable car, walking arial walkways through the Amazon Rain forest (the tops of the forest that is) and taking violin exams. Oh and there was a fair ground ride quite recently but that could never have been anything but scary. Common sense dictated terror; the thing was dangerous.
I'm not at all good with heights but unfortunately fear doesn't seem to affect my critical faculties...I notice things like the wear on joints and rust and odd bits of string or wire. I work out how the thing is put together and where the likely failure points are. I observed all this as we crossed the Rhine (100 feet or so above it with our small son in a pushchair between us). I noticed the tininess of Cologne Cathedral and the fountain where we had dabbled our fingers the day before. I think the view was very nice, certainly it was very small and far below and there was lots of it. I spent a bit of time trying to work out which bits of the cable car would be good for hanging on to in case only some of it fell off the wire. (unlikely as this might be...well impossible actually, if it went, it would all go and I couldn't see any way to get hold of the actual wire). I also noticed the massing thunderclouds above us so I wasn't at all surprised when the last ten minutes of the half hour trip were accompanied by a really good thunderstorm, you know one of those spectacular ones. Plenty of good forked lightning flashes. They're even more spectacular I can tell you, if you're 100 feet or so nearer than you would normally be and the buffeting from gusts of wind adds a bit of dynamic tension. At least it's still dry, I thought at one point, thinking (as one does) of lightning and water and paths of least resistance. The next gust threw several buckets full of water at the cable car, some of which dribbled enthusiastically down the central connecting bit into the car and puddled underneath the push chair.
Ammazingly, ours was the last trip of the day due to unsuitable weather.
Arial walkways in the Amazon Rain forest was a piece of cake by comparison. You just climb a wooden stair up an enormous tree on top of a large hill. Then you set out along a walkway constructed of rope, wire cable and wooden slats to the next tree....on the next hill!!! Just a bit higher than present hill. I hesitate to call them mountains because the next hill top eyrie was only oh, somewhere between 150 feet and 100 miles away. Naturally the walkway swayed a bit and bounced up and down when the next person joined the merry dance. Not too close to each other the guide suggested, not to put too much strain on the walkway. Ooh no. wouldn't want to strain anything. Hands maybe, clinging white knuckled and all that.
Only three hills to go and each one was only a bit higher than the last. There was an optional side track that we couldn't take because it was in need of maintenance. Uurgh!
Well the view was spectacular and terror added a certain piquancy to the experience. and far below, the green welcoming forest. Very very beautiful. I even got up enough courage to let go of everything and take a picture or two. Only the swaying and bouncing interfered with focussing so they weren't up to much. (This was in our predigital days so no pics here).
Violin exams now. They should have been fun and exciting only I have an adrenalin problem...I get too much of it and then I get the shakes, all over. I took the thing up at age 35 and did grades 1 to 8 over the next ten years. I would get all excited about the pieces and couldn't believe it would happen again until the last week or two and then I'd go all to pieces. A week before grade 8 I wrote myself a note (still in the computer somewhere) which said, " try and remember, you really don't want to do this again".
Oh and Acid, that's what started me off on this whole thing. I tried it once with an experienced friend (it was her second try). I was so scared that it might turn out to be a 'bad trip' that I wouldn't leave the flat for quite a long time and it got a bit boring. Eventually we did go out for a walk in the park and saw some quite impressive colours and things. Walking was quite interesting too. And there seemed to be lots of everything. I'll never know if I'd have got more out of it if I hadn't been so intent on keeping it under control. I'm afraid it didn't open any doors or change my life in any noticeable way. Or perhaps I'm glad it didn't. And perhaps that was what I was scared of.
And what reminded me of my one experiment with dangerous drugs was what you can do to pictures with a computer :)