Does Rain Wash Away Testosterone?
I've lived here for almost four years, God help me. Just about everything about this place sucks. The schools, the drivers, the weather, and above all else the people. The men are the worst. Every time I meet a guy that seems normal, it turns out he's from someplace other than WA. Most of the men I run into here in the "Great" NW are worse than middle school girls. I know because my daughter is thirteen. She and her friends - she lives on the East Coast where a rigorous education and common sense still matter - have more intelligence, common sense, far better social skills, and more balls than the average 30 year old NW male. An example: last winter in the ensuing madness that accompanies the first few runs on a powder day - when there are no such things as friends - I and another skier almost ran into one another. I turned left, he turned right, and we almost crashed. Shit happens when the snow is deep and sure to get tracked out quickly. He went down, and I didn't. I did however have the decency to pull up at the bottom of the bowl and shout up to him. saying "sorry about that," even though there was no fault to be had by either party. I was sorry he fell. This asshole replies "you'd better be." Holy shit! This from a grown man. What's next? I'm telling the teacher? I apologized for apologizing and rephrased along the lines of go fuck yourself. This sort of thing is rampant here. The NW male, which I refer to as the NW puke, will flip you off in traffic - usually because you've tapped the brakes as a way of suggesting that he increase the distance between the back of your vehicle and the front of his beyond six inches - and then refuse to look you in the eye when you pull up next to him at the next light. Does he think he's now invisible or that I forgot he just flipped me off? I have a few long-running experiments involving common courtesy. If I almost bump into someone, say in the store, I always say excuse me. Rarely is that courtesy acknowledged w/ even a simple smile or a nod, let alone returned. They are more likely to ignore me or even worse, to look at me as if to say damn right, don't let it happen again. Never before have I encountered such a sense of entitlement I let people in in traffic. Rarely do I even get a wave of thanks. But look; I'm on to a whole different subject re: which I'll vent my spleen another day. For now, as always, I hate this place.