Heavy Breather

Yesterday I killed a spider on the wall for a man that I work with. Although I don't particularly enjoy handling spiders, I'm not afraid to approach them. (Except for the jumping wolf spiders - those are huge and super fast!) As a kid, I was the girl in the neighborhood who kissed a frog on the lips as a dare. He didn't turn into a prince - must have been a she. I once tried to make a garter snake into a necklace. Couldn't get the snake to stay still, though. I may come across as being a little prissy - a girly girl, but at heart, I'm just as tough as the big boys. (And in the case of the spider in the office - I'm tougher.) If you mentioned this to my in-laws, however, they'd swear you're crazy. They think I can't even swat a mosquito. If they only knew...

Anyway, I'm pretty tough, but not macho to the core. Even as a grown-up, there are a couple things that give me the heebie jeebies. Live fish and mud puppies, when it comes to animals. But breathing toilets are the worst. Blechssckk!

I recently noticed that the toilets in our office breathe. That heavy, slow, deep breathing that sends the water level up and down a couple inches. I can't bring myself to use them when they're breathing. I've even cut down my liquid consumption until the hour before lunch, and then I leave the office and find some place to go. Even though my logic swears up and down that the toilet won't suck me it nor will it produce some big slimy sea creature, my imagination can't simmer enough to get me to go.

Years ago when I was living all alone in my new house, I had a toilet that breathed for about a day. I called the plumber to come see what was wrong. When he arrived, he asked what the problem was. so I told him about the breathing. He chuckled and asked what the problem was. I told him it creeped me out. When he realized that there was no functional problem, he laughed harder. He basically said, "Toughen up. That's city water for you." I asked him why it started out of the blue, and he said that it happens because of something with the city water setup. It's more common in the winter, but doesn't hurt anything. He got such a kick out of my "issue" that he didn't charge me for the visit to my house. Thankfully, the breathing stopped the next day and I was able to "go" in my own house again.

So, now I've come out. How about you, dear readers? Does anything give you the willies?