Rhythm Thief
Veteran
Then swim out of the canal you've ridden into ...
I saw someone do that once when I lived on my boat. He was concentrating on something other than where he was going and rode straight into the canal. Absolutely hilarious.
Then swim out of the canal you've ridden into ...
GregCollins said:Don't demand that others modify their behaviour, and the behaviour of their livestock , to fit in with the demands of one's own ego.
al78 said:So if your neighbour decided to hold loud parties till the small hours preventing you from getting a good nights sleep then you would just tolerate it and not do anything on the basis of "not demanding others modify their behaviour"?
GregCollins said:The situation you describe has happened many times. It just doesn't bother me that much though it used to drive my Aged P nuts when he lived with us. Each time it soon passed without a word from me to them. Oddly they don't complain when we make noise either. Which we do. Tolerance is a funny thing and, as a result we get on fabulously with our neighbours.
GregCollins said:A ridiculous change of context, imo, this is a debate about shared road spaces and how to behave when using them,. but since you raise the point...
The situation you describe has happened many times. It just doesn't bother me that much though it used to drive my Aged P nuts when he lived with us. Each time it soon passed without a word from me to them. Oddly they don't complain when we make noise either. Which we do. Tolerance is a funny thing and, as a result we get on fabulously with our neighbours.
I prefer live and let live to dog eat dog. ymmv.
gouldina said:This is nothing to do with tolerance. It's about even-handedness. They're different things.
Rhythm Thief said:The situation in the OP is analagous to cars on the road, I think. I don't particularly like having to pay to get my car through an MOT and buy a tax disc (yeah, yeah, I know) every year, but I don't bang on and on and on about the iniquity of having to do these things when cyclists don't. BW have decided that cyclists need telling about the dangers they can pose to other towpath users. This is fair enough, as regardless of how many encounters you've had with inconsiderate pedestrians, it's you as a cyclist that brings the danger element to the towpath. If there are people ahead walking dogs, stop and wait until they've gone. If there's a low bridge you can't see through, get off the bike and push it. It's got nothing to do with "fairness" - and as someone else said, for all you know BW spend all the rest of their time wagging their fingers at dog walkers - it's just that you're the one using a vehicle on the towpath.
gouldina said:I don't know why but you seemed to have twisted all the arguments on this thread into a "Greg is tolerant" vs "everyone who disagrees with Greg isn't" standpoint. This is nothing to do with tolerance. It's about even-handedness. They're different things.*
*Ymmv seems to be the disclaimer of choice here so what the hell - ymmv.
GregCollins said:ymmv is not a disclaimer; it is shorthand, when used by me at any rate, for "I beleive I understand, as far as I can, your pov. Based as it is, on your own special, unique, life experience I respect both your holding of it and your expressing of it. My life experience, which is of only equal worth to yours, not more than yours, not less than yours, and my judgments based on the facts you've put before me, has led me to a different conclusion." But sod typing that all the time so ymmv will have to do.
GregCollins said:I am simply arguing that tolerance in the face of life's little unfairnesses, struggles, and vicissitudes, especially those of petty fogging public bureacracies, of our neighbours, and of those we closely share space on Mother Earth with is a valid, and, imo worthwhile, alternative to raging against the machine. Give me a bigger cause, a greater injustice, a grander windmill, and I will raise lance and tilt away...
I cannot know, unless you tell me, what you were hoping to achieve when you posted your email to BW on here. Your OP doesn't ask for advice but it does, by it's very prescence, invite comment. Comment you got. In spades and not all of it in support of your stance. Such is that nature, indeed for some, the attraction, of CC and other forums. Within the kitchen there is a certain degree of warmth but other rooms are available.
ymmv is not a disclaimer; it is shorthand, when used by me at any rate, for "I beleive I understand, as far as I can, your pov. Based as it is, on your own special, unique, life experience I respect both your holding of it and your expressing of it. My life experience, which is of only equal worth to yours, not more than yours, not less than yours, and my judgments based on the facts you've put before me, has led me to a different conclusion." But sod typing that all the time so ymmv will have to do.
So let's agree to differ as I'm sure, were we to discuss it over a beer or two a very enjoyable and entertaining time would be had, not least by any bystanders. Who knows maybe the next time I'm in town I'll buy you a pint or similar. OK?