Snow

It snowed today.

One thing I've noticed about the weather is what it brings out in people.

When its sunny, people generally are happier about things. When its raining, people are moody.

When its snowing though, people take a further step - they acquire an instinct of self preservation at any cost. I've seen motorists cut up traffic solely to get an extra minutes movement. I've seen buses clog up traffic solely to stop the motorists from gaining that extra minute, even though it'll add to the congestion nightmare.

And people are the worst of the lot. For some reason, they begin to act shamelessly.

Take the incident at the bus stop today, for example.

Susan and I were queuing for a bus. So were lots of other people. We waited patiently. The Countdown system counted down and eventually it read due.

A woman in a red coat walked up to the bus stop, paused to look at the Countdown display (noticed it read "due") and pushed in front of the queue to get onto the bus.

Now, normally, I wouldn't be annoyed. But today it was cold AND snowing. Today, I was in a mood. Why should I stand in the cold, patiently waiting my turn in the queue to have Ms. Red Coat push in? But I was with Susan so I didn't want to cause embarrasment. I silently hid my annoyance though if looks were like daggers...

However, another man behind us in the queue did say something. When the bus finally pulled over at the bus stop, he reached out and grasped her arm.

"Young lady, can you not see there is a queue for the bus?" he said.

She replied, "Oh sorry, I didn't realise."

It was a crap excuse and everyone in the queue took silent pleasure that someone had stood up for their benefit. People got on to the bus whilst this altercation went on.

However, Ms. Red Coat's embarrasment at being questioned soon turned into indignation.

"Let go, cheeky sod!" she exclaimed.

Indignation quickly turned into self-righteousness.

"Don't touch my arm, you arsehole!"

Inevitably, Ms. Red Coat pulled herself up against the older gentleman and forced her way onto the bus, which eventually drove off.

Now, if I could turn back the clock, I would give the older gentleman a round of applause for not only being right but actually standing up to the woman in a world where being chivalrous is taken for granted by women who, quite frankly, don't deserve it.

On other news, I've finally managed to get Crucifer to level 22 in World of Warcraft (the same level that I got to with Ladonna in the Beta).

The game continues to occupy most of my spare time but I'm also spending a fair amount roleplaying again, which is always good news. I've also managed some writing up of a rpg session and also of what the notion of "epic" means to me. I'll post the session-write up later.