One of my 'greadest' fears

GRADERS!!

I have never been fond of these things - they are huge, destructive, and very unpredictable. They spontaneously go forward, sideways, and backwards, and often to do so at high 'productive' speeds. What started out as an understandable unease around these monstrous machines, has now turned into a huge fear of something that is trying to do good. I can hear these puppies miles away with their high pitched diesel motors, loud scraping of ice and snow, and the loud slam! made when the bucket contacts the pavement. My ears perk up and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end.

Last year I was walking on campus after a huge snowfall, the place was deserted as it was a Sunday afternoon over the Christmas break - I was returning a library book. The sidewalks were buried under mounds of snow so I had to walk on the road. Suddenly, out from behind a corner leaps a swiftly moving truck fitted with a shiny, yellow bucket, and he was moving fast! He was coming up on me from behind and moving swiftly, I tried to jump out of his way to the other side of the road, but he figured he's do the same for me, which ended similar to two people trying to get by each other on the side walk, both moving to get around each other in the opposite direction, just to end up face to face in the end. I was horrified. And, since then, my fear has grown out of control. I have nightmares about these things; me, unable to run or scream, and the grader operator unable to see me or unwilling to take a detour around me. I'm even scared of the little bobcat ones that do the sidewalks. To make matters worse, in Montreal we have these graders with ice pick-like things on the inside of the bucket that mulch ice - yikes!!!