The other day I was surfing and I found myself complaining to someone how busy it was. He looked at me and said 'well, it's not as busy as summer', stopping my rant immediately. I laughed and apologised, thanking him for the reality check, which we all need sometimes, especially when our fault response to a situation is complaint, crying that it never used to be like this.
The older we get, the more nostalgia bias is real - thanks to @ericvanwalton for this reminder this week - the surf was less crowded, the house prices were cheaper, and you didn't even have to clean up people's plastic bags of dog shit off the beach because not everyone had a fucking dog.
Despite knowing the truth of nostalgia bias, where we believe the past was better even though it may not have been (even if house prices were cheaper, it was harder to afford a house in the '90's, otherwise I would have had a real estate empire), it's easy to slip into the default rant mode. I hate the crowds. I hate that everyone's a surfer now. I hate that everyone brings their dogs to Bunnings and that every dog is a groodle. What happened to mutts and bitsas, the produce of local inbreeding? What happened to difference, when algorithms promote hobbies and likes that we think we are choosing for ourselves?
But, like my readjustment out in the surf, you have to practice the rethink. Is the reality I'm complaining about the truth, or is there another way of looking at it? Do I want to nurture bitterness and discontent or happiness and gratitude? One's going to make you feel poisoned, the other's going to lift your heart. Both are truths of a sort - yes, it's more crowded, but also, if everyone's having fun, what's the harm? Shared joy is a beautiful thing. You can smile and pat the excited kelpie cross poodle running madly on the beach even if it's not on a lead and just jumped up on your clean trousers. One way of thinking might ruin your day, the other might infuse it with happiness.
It may be winter, and it may be cold, but we get the most tremendous skies at this time of year, and beautiful rainbows. Why dwell on one when you can leap with joy at the other?
Still, I'm always going to want to beat dog shit unpickerupperers with a piece of driftwood. Fuck you and your fur baby.
With Love,
Yeah, I know, no point in moaning, practice gratitude, but still, life was a helluvalot better in the old days:)
yeah it fuckong was
ha. Back when no one picked up their dog shit, you mean? Those little bags were not even a thing, and we all left the crap on the ground as fertilizer. No one cared. Children learned how to not step in it, and to leave their footwear outside if they did. Now we care. Now we pass laws and regulations about shit this and shit that. Can't open a door without breaking some law somewhere. I feel a rant of my own coming on!
Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about, the good old days—when having a different point of view didn't automatically make you a fascist or a Nazi; when people weren't constantly triggered by imagined slights; when disagreements could be argued without anyone raising their voice; and when you didn't need a bloody licence to go fishing or a police clearance certificate to volunteer as a dog walker in your local animal sanctuary.
Back when the onus of proving a person was not a criminal did not fall to the person themself. One trip on an airplane should be enough to stop anyone from taking an airplane ever again, but it doesn't. We put up with a lot of shit, which will someday (possibly very soon) be the very shit they use to confine us to our homes, shooting us up with the lastest experimental drug they'd like to try out on us.
We stopped flying years ago. I swore the only way I'd fly is if I could go on a private jet. And that's not happening.
Crikey, you're worse than I am. At least I'll settle for business class!
My granddaughter had a ticket for a trip, direct flight from NY JFK to Nashville Tn. Her morning flight was cancelled. The afternoon flight, 1118, was no longer direct. She had to connect in Boston. Flt 1118 was delayed for so long that the Boston plane left without her. She was given a ticket, for the next day, at 3 P.M. Ultimately, she was able to fly at 9 O'clock on that day, but as standby. I can't do that. Imagine being somewhere and needing to get home. Impossible. Or sitting on a plane for 5 hours. These are experiences tolerated by the young. For me, it's just not worth the trip.
I also wish I could get on a private jet now and then. I could travel with my dog, and I wouldn't have to feel humiliated and uncomfortable for the two hours I have to be at the airport before being, finally, allowed to do something I had long ago paid dearly for.
Yes, was that the same time people had critical thinking and bots didn't stir outrage?
I don't miss standing in dog shit though haha. I think there's a lot of moral police around ready to pounce. I'm one of them. I hate shit everywhere - you've reminded me of a terrible part of the past haha. I mean I always flicked it into bushes so no one would stand on it... How virtuous of me!!!
😂
We'll just have to accept that this is how the world and things work. It evolves, people come and go and move around. Maybe the indigenous people are also moaning that they used to have a quiet life, then everyone came and lived on their island 🙃
Sometimes you draw the short straw and end up with a bunch of nut heads, but ideally they should be ok😉
Oh yeah man imagine being the first people and a heap of English twats show up.
I was beginning to worry there for a sec. Fucking hate these assholes leaving shit on the street here, but hey, at least it's in a plastic bag. Yiipie. Like seriously, if you're going to go through the gut-turning act of wrapping up shit, why stop at delivering it? Was the trash can the gross part?
I'd love to have a dog someday, but there seems to be a lotta politics involved :))) weird logic you gotta figure out.
But you're right, can't dwell.
I was in the local DIY store - this company is an institution - and this guy was standing in the aisle with a meaty AF dog, some kind of staffy or bull terrier. I had to walk past and the damn thing growled at me. There's this new madness where people have to take their dog into the store. Why the fuck can't they leave their dogs at home when they go pick up DIY stuff? Madness. I stopped want a dog around COVID..
We used to have dogs - they slept outside and if they shit in the street you'd grab a stick and flick it in the bushes. No one around to care and not enough dogs for it to be an issue. Now people get outraged on Facebook if you do much look at your dog funny and god forbid you don't bring doggie bags. Couldn't think of anything worse that having to do that. I loved having a dog but there's enough of them around now
Don't need me adding another to the mix.
I do love dogs though. Very much. Just not the circus of dog ownership these days
Oh God, I agree. Also it's one thing having it in the city and another in the more rural areas. I haven't seen anything more pathetic than those stiff, sensibly dressed a-holes walking around after their poodle master with a baggie. I mean I get the public perspective, but seriously.
And yes, the store thing is weird too. The dog will be fine if you leave it outside for 5 minutes. It's become a thing. A whole identity. Go figure, since people actively identify, as you pointed out, as "cat dads" or "dog moms" or whatever. Bish, how empty are you?
I get once you have a dog it becomes part of the family. But I think humanity started to decline when we started Instagram accounts for them 😂😂
That's part of why I disliked surfing, it was always so crowded that it was hard to even get a decent wave. But it could be summer and much worse. I guess it all a matter of perspective. At least you're healthy enough to be able to go out and enjoy surfing! I'm glad you had a chance to get out there and enjoy some time on the water, I don't get out on the ocean here in California much, it's just too chilly. I prefer warmer, tropical waters!
Oh it definitely was better back in the day 😂 without a shred of a doubt. We were lucky to experience uncrowded breaks. I'd love to see California but yeah I can't fathom the crowds. That's the thing - we aren't as crowded as some places in the world!
Ooh yeah, jeez, I could do with a tropical dip about now!!! Without crocodiles 🐊 or stingers 🪼 🪼 though! Still, cold water wakes you up and energizes you.
Back in the good old days, if I am remembering correctly, no one picked up their dog's shit.
Oh man, I had this little collie cross called Port. If I had to pick up her dog shit (apart from the backyard where I used a shovel) as well as deal with her neurosis - plural - she wouldn't have lasted long 😂😂😂
You've been curated by @plantpoweronhive! Delegations welcome!
I think that's perfectly reasonable. I mind my own business, generally. I don't really care if my neighbor is fastidious about lawn care. I don't care if that neighbor parks the car in front of my house (cardinal sin in the suburbs). But, dog dirt? That is my business. Or rather, their business in my way. It is rude, thoughtless and filthy.
As for painting the past with a benevolent brush. It's my past. My memory. Why can't I have it my way? I certainly didn't have it my way when I was living it :)))
You, my dear, have earned the right to remember it how you like.
I just am cautious about going on about how good we had it, because that's unfair on the young folk. My nephew grimaces at that, and I get it.
Same goes for cigarette butts (you aren't allowed to smoke on the beach here, though I've never seen it enforced) and any kind of rubbish including flytipping.
I don't think I ever go on about how good things were. Anyway, I don't talk to many people :)). My kids know my history, so I let that alone. At this point in my life I leave the bad days in the past and talk about what I enjoyed. However, I don't think anybody's listening anyway. Maybe my husband. We shared not only a long life together, but I also worked with him for three years of his 30-year career. So I know all those people. I'm familiar with his references. He tells me stories about those people (same story sometimes😄), and I get it.
These days we spend a surprising amount of time chuckling at the cat's antics...he's not even our cat. We choose to notice him. It's a nice place to rest the mind.
This just transcends across culture and generation I think 😂😂😂
Absolutely tell the good stories 💕💕💕
That's my girl! Haha. Nah, we got a phantom shitter in the neighborhood. Dog leaves a loaf in our yard ever so often. He ain't a small dog either. Argh!
Grrrr, I'd get a camera out to find who it is!!! Mind you, you don't want to start anything these days ..
If it is a battle worth fighting, don't mind starting it. Dog shit on my yard occasionally just doesn't seem to be worth it though. Does irk the wife though as she mows the yard most times.
better to 'stick' to the rainbows
!MMB
!BBH