Losing patients, less kind?
Is it old age or wisdom?
I was out on a test run loaded to the gills with Camping, fishing, TOOOOOLS etc.
Came up on a group of 4 guys (about mid 30's) that were on the side of the road, (30++ miles from no-where) started taking a FLAT tire off the rim.
I asked if they were all set or did they think they may need anything?
(Including a G-2 gatorade aid I had in a soft cooler pack.)
They responded kind of SNOTTY with, LAUGHING & Eye rolling, No, between us, we have everything we need, but a fire extinguisher, but from the looks it, you pack that also. (1 guy quietly said, "the less you know, the more you need. they all started laughing.)
I sat there a bit longer as one guy was digging alot in his bags, and LOUDLY said, OH SHIT! I forgot to replace the CO'2 canisters from the last time.
That was my Que, I started the KLR and said "Have a great day", and road off.
Last spring a upgraded to a better, FASTER, 12V. ATV air pump, plus in my tire tool (pvc) tube mounted on the "highway bars, is a compact hand pump.
Ya, I noticed in the mirrors they were looking my way, talking as I road off.
I do wonder about the head space of guys like the ones you met, though. Let's set aside the polite social conventions and simply assume that I was one of those guys on the road side and I didn't care a bit about you or whether you were offended. So, what I'm saying is if I were completely self absorbed and didn't care all all excepting for myself, how should I proceed? It would seem that I would be better off to pretend that I did care about you so as to be more likely to get you to help me if I needed it. I would be better off in waiting for you to leave before making fun of you to try to enhance my status in the eyes of my buddies. From my perspective, people like that are simply too stupid for words. When I encounter them, I refuse to do anything to help them, saving not allowing them to die. I just leave because helping them after a reaction like that seems likely to reward that sort of behavior, IMO. My favorites are the friend of a friend on a ride who makes fun of me for carrying extra stuff, then later asks to borrow the same items which they ridiculed me for carrying. My response is always, "No, you can't borrow it. You were right in saying that only a stupid person would carry all that crap but I'm learning. I'm not going to throw it away so let's just pretend it doesn't exist." I stick to that and will not bend. Here's a straw poll for all of you who are over 50: "Are you becoming more patient or less patient as you get older?" For me it is less patient.