Dad, Tell Me About the Time (71)

 Thursday, September 18, 2025

Share something you are afraid of and why?

I am not afraid of anything. Nothing really bothers me and I really try to live by my creed, “If I have a problem and something can be done about it, then do it; if nothing can be done about it, then don’t worry about it. I’m pretty good at doing that.

When I was a child, I was kind of scared of the dark. Not just the dark but the unknown dark. The light in our basement could only be turned on from in the basement, on a wall opposite the stairs. That would mean I would have to go down the stairs, walk across the room and then find the light switch in the dark and turn it on. There were no windows in that room, so it was always very dark.

While I was afraid, I forced myself to do it and eventually it didn’t scare me anymore.

While it may not scare me too much, the scariest thing for me as an adult is probably the prospect of losing my job. Perhaps I should reword that; the scariest thing for me as an adult is the prospect that I won’t be able to care for my family. That did happen in 2019 when I was laid off from Kyocera, but since I went straight to Hi-Z it wasn’t really a problem. It did play a huge part in my reluctance to leave Hi-Z when they started declining and I took several pay cuts before I worked up the guts to just leave them and start my own company.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

I think I may have told this story already, but I will tell it again. When I was in first grade we still lived on the farm, and I had to take the bus to school. The kids on the bus mostly ignored me, but a few of them loved to give me a hard time. It wasn’t a mean teasing, but a fun teasing but it wasn’t fun for me.

One day on our way home from school, I had to defecate. It got worse until I finally pooped my pants. No one said a word about the smell or anything, but to my horror, when our stop came and I stood up to get off the bus, I saw a piece of poop fall out of my pantleg onto the floor of the bus. I surreptitiously nudged it under the seat and quickly exited the bus. I never heard a word about it.