Aunty Acid by Ged Backland for January 04, 2022

Walk away from an explosion?

I know people like that, with a very high startle reaction. My next door neighbour and a nephew for two examples. But guess what? It is possible to train yourself out of it- I used to be the same way, but it takes a lot of practice, learning to short-circuit the startle reaction in the first millisecond.

Lifelong fear of bread in three, two, one.

As long as you DO walk away, it’s all good.

The family cat sneaking along the counter when the toaster pops. A most fun thing to watch.

There is a thing called a jumper. If someone sneaks up behind them and startles them, they jump. I heard of such a guy that was standing near the edge of a drydock at a submarine yard and somebody did this to him. He jumped into the drydock. Luckily, it was filled with water.

I bet she has a fun time when the fireworks go off.

I can startle easily, IF I’m having a nervous day. A lot of times my Mr. goes out the front door, and, IMO, sneaks into the back door! I HATE that when he does it, but it only happens in summer.

I used to work in a wire harness factory and would be concentrating so hard on running the wire, that if my back was to someone coming up to me and just saying my name, would make me holler out!

Try conditioning yourself with Pop Tarts. Practice practice practice.

Somebody needs to give Auntie one of those T-Shirts that read:

“Bomb Disposal Tech. If you see me Running, try to keep up.”

“A toast pops out of the toaster”? If the words, “Here’s to you!” suddenly come out of my toaster, I’m going to jump too.