I'm afraid you're going to have to leave.

Your grate and manhole-cover fears are not entirely unjustified. When she was younger, my mother stepped on a manhole cover that was not properly secured, and she slipped down halfway into it, breaking her leg. True story.

Did she say "That's just *****?"

We had a rash of exploding manhole covers not too long ago in this area. Never did hear the official explanation. But the covers would shoot up into the air like an anvil shoot and come crashing down randomly on cars and stuff. Weird. They use slotted ones more and more now so the pressure won't build up.

In some cities there have been problems with the grates becoming electrified and shocking people and animals that have touched them.

And when you walk on a grate, just remember that that's the only thing between you and the hot hard center of the Earth.

Maybe your wife and glatts are secretly afraid of doing a 'Marylin'?

I am irrationally afraid of being in the shower or worse, a bathtub full of water and falling through the floor with it. I am worried that the floor/subfloor underneath has been so rotted from water, that it will eventually give way with my weight and the weight of water and I will go with it through the floor. This fear is so great that I refuse to take showers with my husband, because I don't want to add to the odds of it happening by being too heavy with both he and I.

When I was a kid I was afraid I would get killed in the shower. I took baths until I was at least 12 or so, so I could always see and hear what was going on. I think I watched Psycho at too young an age.

Oh, and I am also afraid of mold...if I find it on a piece of bread I freak out and drop it. I can't stand to get near it at all. Gross! Ew!

There's an add on telly here at the moment about home insurance that has exactly that scenario case. It's ok though. The guy survives and gets a nice new bathroom too if he's properly insured. ;)

Nooooo! Don't tell me that actually happens. My husband tries to tell me "Don't worry, floors are reinforced and they are designed to withstand the weight, etc. blah blah" but it doesn't really help.

Well if it's any consolation, I think you'd have to be hella unlucky for anything like that to happen, and I reckon you're a pretty lucky person case. :) And besides, if your husband says that's how it is, then he must be right. ;)

It seems that I am fairly lucky, but if I am so lucky in so many other ways, that could be my one unlucky moment. Or something. Yeah, I better just believe hubby.

I have an irrational fear of slipping on ice and falling over. I don't want to look a twat, and I don't like pain but these are not sufficient for the magnitude of my fear ... Anyway, I end up looking like a twat taking teeny-tiny pigeon steps on any icy surface ...

You should move here limey. Then you wouldn't have to worry about icey footpaths and stuff. ;)

On the other hand, you would have to worry about snakes and sharks and other nasty stuff. lol

::raising hand:: I also walk around the grates. They disturb me deeply for some reason (ha! I doubt reason has much to do with it) and I walk around them. The idea that terra firma is shot full of holes freaks me out. My brother once sent me a story about a physicist who spent his life studying atomic structures, and became so concerned about all the space between the components of atoms that make up matter, and particularly floors, that he'd wear oversized shoes so to not fall through to the level below. It makes sense to me. Unfortunately. :o

I also have a fear of accidentally eating maggots or bugs. I've had this fear since I was a kid...I think I found some sort of worms in my breakfast cereal once when I was really little.

This past summer my house got infested with flour moths and it took me nearly three months to eradicate them as they had eventually infested about $250 worth of food in my pantry. I am far from wealthy and have been indoctrinated from childhood not to throw out perfectly good food, so I would only throw food out once I knew it was infested. Finally one day I went through the entire pantry and threw just about everything out. It was disgusting. There were moths and maggots everywhere.

About a week or so ago my friend made rice for dinner. I looked down in my bowl and one grain of rice had a semi-segmented look to it. I had to throw out my dinner and could hardly force myself to eat ANYTHING the next day.