Making My Point

I bitch about many things.  Many, many, many things.  I readily acknowledge this.  I'm a bitcher and a fault-finder and pretty much of a pain in the ass in all phases of my game.  If there's something that I bitch about more than cold weather or chilly weather or cool weather or cool, chilly, wet weather at night I'd like to know what it is.  This is a not a new bitch, either - it's an ancient, well-established topic with me.  I would rather be locked in a sauna all day than be a little bit cold.  

I'm sure people get tired of me complaining about the weather, even though I firmly believe that it's a right ensconced in the Constitution somewhere, or maybe it's one of the major amendments.  I've complained about the winter in each of the seven cities where I've lived; I have no expectation whatever that I won't continue to complain about The Cold, by which I mean anything under like maybe 60 degrees - I might be persuaded to tolerate and occasional dip down to 55 but that's pushing it.  The New City has a fairly mild climate - damper than I'm used to but also a lot warmer.  It's the mildest place I've ever lived but it's still crappy in the winter.  One of my buddies in The New City reacts quickly, strongly when I complain about the weather.  I'm sure I do  it too much but I can't help wondering: "What does he care what I think about the weather here?"  He takes it very personally, quick to pounce on the vaguest of weather references.  I'm careful to avoid the subject when I'm around him but he still manages to get pissed at me.  It's as if he has his finger on the trigger, waiting for the topic to arise or forcing the issue when it doesn't.

Yesterday a somewhat stressful series of experiences with some People concluded with a brief discussion of the common practice of fluoride being added to public drinking supplies.  I know that some people don't like this - they believe it's some kind of vast conspiracy by Communists over the last 80 years to control our minds by poisoning our water with nuclear weapons by-products or something like that, despite the assurances of the World Health Association, the Centers for Disease Control, and the American Dental Association.  If I ever get hired as a Communist consultant I'm going to suggest that they try something that works a little more quickly and causes some slightly more serious side effects beyond healthy teeth.  Whatever.  I didn't bring the topic up and I had tolerated just about enough with these folks when the topic came up - I was 2 for 4 in the H.A.L.T. acronym - Hungry Angry Lonely Tired.  I argued with the topic introducer even though there wasn't a snow ball's chance in hell that I was going to change her mind, which I didn't care about anyway.  I started to bring up the conditions in plastics manufacturing plants - where my work took my hundreds of times - where molten plastic laced with proprietary chemicals is used to make the plastic bottles that she drinks distilled water out of.  THAT'S something to worry about

"Why did you argue?" SuperK said in the car.  "What do you care what you she thinks?"

D'oh!