Every person has their own set of fears or paranoias - perhaps even ones that may seem far-fetched or odd. One of mine has always been to avoid any sort of grate or metal covering found in city sidewalks. I've always thought that all it takes is a rusty hinge or an employee who's in too much of a hurry to lock the door properly - and down I go. In San Francisco, you really only find these downtown, so it wasn't a hard thing to do to avoid them, but here in New York, they are everywhere. Most restaurants and stores keep their supplies and stock underneath the actual place of business, so during work hours they can be open a lot and less of a hazard. Obviously, I'm not going to intentionally walk into a giant hole in the ground. However, when it's early morning or late at night and they're closed, I avoid them at all costs. The worst is when the sidewalk is so crowded that there is no way to avoid them and I just suck it up and walk over it. One time, I even tried to test Adrian's reflexes and pretended that one was loose and I made a noise like I was falling. He didn't even notice. He said I should have told him what I was trying to do, but
hello that's the point. A loose grate isn't going to announce itself. Anyways, the whole point is that when I tell most people about this fear, I get the mocking laugh or the eyeroll, and then the pronouncement about what a lame fear it is. But not today, people. Today, on the news, there was a dramatic rescue story about a woman who
fell through a grate on a Manhattan sidewalk. A
dramatic rescue story. Not just a simple, "Oh, you fell, let's pick you back up" story. This woman was in a neck brace, she was covered in muck, and there were at least twenty rescue workers in the vicinity. She was rushed off to the hospital in an ambulance. I couldn't even bear to hear how far she fell. And while I'm glad to see my fear is not completely unwarranted, I feel for her and her probable new fear of my old fear.
