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But put me in a really tall building like the Hancock and I have issues ... its the weirdest thing ...
Also, check out this video of El Camino del Rey. Gives me the shakes.
GAH!
This does not make me a happy camper, people.
That would be so so neat for people that like that kind of thing though! I hope you get to do it soon :)
Funnily enough, planes don't bother me either ... I used to pilot a bunch of stuff when I was in my teens (small cessnas, gliders, etc) and I adored them ... still do today with the flying buses I am often on.
So, I'm cool with mountains, cliffs, and planes ... just really really tall buildings give me the willies (have to be REALLY tall mind you).
I dunno which would give me more vertigo, but it's academic since I'm in no position to try either at the moment.
And I wouldn't let my kids out on it either...
I don't even like sitting in balconies, because they feel insubstantial. A glass booth suspended that high up? I'll leave it to brave souls like Liss. Cool link, though.
Last year, I went to the top of Barnegat Lighthouse and couldn't even step out and onto the caged in walk at the top. I stood clutching the doorway and then I very slowly quickly (if that makes sense) white knuckled my way back to the bottom.
Terra firma, baby.
As teenagers, my friends and I used to stand on the sidewalks of metal-grate bridges and stare through the roadway of the bridge at the water deep in the gorge below, then jump. It was a four inch jump, but it did make your heart skip.
It's funny that this kind of thing doesn't bother me, because I think of myself as being terrified of heights. But I guess what I'm really scared of is my own clumsiness, so the top of a ladder or a cliff 10 feet away is scary because I think I'm going to do something worthy of CaitieKat's last QOD!
Now, gather round, children, and let me tell you a story. Imagine a young SeaHag, trooping off to the (otherwise empty) school cafeteria with her eighth grade band class for a photo. She's just barely chubby, but she's always been a tall, big-boned girl and has been made to feel like she's absolutely huge by some classmates. So when the rest of the class piles onto one of the long lunch tables for the picture, she hangs off to the side. She just knows what will happen if she hops up on that table. Slowly, she edges closer. Finally, she rests her hands on a corner of the table and is about to just lean on it when, under the wriggling pile of a couple dozen overexcited adolescents, it collapses. And, as one, they all turn and yell at her as though she caused it.
Logically, I know that I did no more than touch that table, but I guess the experience left an impression because it was the first thing I thought of when I saw that glass floor. And I'm a lot heavier now.
Strangely enough, I LOVE roller coasters. I'm a huge fan of inversions and helix turns, and the drops aren't the bad part -- the bad part is the lift hill!
* About 1907 or so my great grandparents were touring Sequoia with their family and climed up the Rock, a much more ardous climb in those days. The top of the rock is crowned, sloping away to the edges, and there was no rail. It was a misting, wet day, and family legend has it my great aunt (then 8 yo) slipped on wet rocks with muddy shoes. She was sliding towards the edge when some man caught her by her braids and stopped her.
I rather like them, but I can't climb a freestanding ladder -- not even a short little stepstool, beyond the first rung. I have a balance problem, and cannot overcome the absolute certainty that the faintest wobble will increase until the ladder simply ceases to be under me. (I was the same way watching that Caminito del Rey video, during the parts where the camera operator walks along the metal support beam.) Heights in themselves don't bother me at all.
I went skydiving not too long ago, and once the plane hit something along the lines of two thousand feet, they 'turned on the air conditioner'. I was getting a video done, so I was right at the front, next to the open door, and was able to watch as everything got smaller and smaller. Quite the interesting experience, let me tell you. Rather more memorable than the skydiving itself, to tell the truth, but that might just be because all I can really remember about the fall is the adrenaline.
Sarah in Chicago - what's funny is that I have no problems with small planes, even in turbulence. It's the big super-jumbos that mess with me. I think perhaps it's because that small-plane kind of motion is easier for my body to understand, while with the biggies, it's this weird yawing sensation that messes with my inner ear. Bleah.
Agreeing with everyone who's saying it's less about the heights themselves and more about the falling.
I can see how that would happen ... I love flying, all flying. When I was little I am told I used to sleep through take-offs, even in the jumbos. I was actually originally training (going through flight school, etc) to go into the NZRAF, but ended up not because I didn't want to give that many years of my life away (you can be out as gay in the NZ armed forces). I am hoping to get my pilot's licence after I start my career if I have time.
I still adore looking down from whatever plane I am in, watching the land so far below. My utter favourite is up in a glider, banking on a tight turn and there's nothing between you and the ground but the bubble-canopy, and you can hear the wind rush by as there is no engine noise. One time I was up above Omarama in the summer-time, in amongst the Southern Alps, the mountains surrounding us, and we stayed up there seemingly forever.