Freaking Out

Are there things in the world that kinda freak you out? Make you uncomfortable?

I don’t mean things that make you go running in the opposite direction like spiders or the crud that accumulates behind your refrigerator.

I mean things that kinda give you the heebee jeebees and you’re not sure why. Eerie, strange, everyday things that just kinda make you think twice about them.

I feel that way about the new wind turbines.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are usually these thin, tall, white windmills standing in the middle of fields for miles with their three blades slowly turning in the breeze. Majestic things, really, that help make energy, usually for the electric company. They are usually white and have three arms, or blades.

There are a couple of fields on my way home from my yearly camping trip that are filled with these slow turning beauties. I’ve been told you either love them or hate them: love them for their architecture and purpose, hate them because they are a sore spot in your back yard.

Well, I don’t know what it is, but seeing them in the close distance kinda freaks me out.You have to see them in person to properly feel the freak. There’s something about their 3D-ish nature that can make you uncomfortable.

Here are these thin white towers that tower over you (pun pun), their giant arms spread wide out on either side like arms, looming over the houses and trees, all three dimensional and moving and all.

Yesterday one was not moving with the wind and its arms were wide open like a monster coming to get you. The tall blade on top had some dirt/debris on it and from a ways away it looked like a face. It stood behind a small white house, looming, leering, really showing the contrast in size with its surroundings.

Now, I’ve played “What If” before. I wrote a blog called “Let “What If” Guide Your Story” where you ask yourself (or others) things like…What if you were driving home from work one afternoon and in the distance, over the tops of the trees, you see a giant ant ripping off tops of houses? Or … What if you were relaxing one night, watching TV, and you say something to your dog, and he answers you in English?

These were meant to be taken seriously, as answering these questions helps you be creative in your writing.

Well, I was hit with that “What If” scenario yesterday, and it kinda freaked me out. These tall thin turbines looked like alien sentinels waiting for night to move forward and chop us all to pieces with their white blades. Some arms were moving veerrrryyyy slowly around in a circle, like they were building up energy to pull feet from inside the ground and walk around.

Now, there is nothing wrong with windmills. Or wind turbines. They are just machines like bulldozers.

But sometimes when you least expect it they take a life of their own. You see something out of the corner of your eye and are not sure of what you saw, and the emotion that is leftover is creepy. It doesn’t make sense, nor is it supposed to.

Makes for a good short story thought, don’t you think?

Are there things in the world that kinda freak you out?