Apathy

Europe is in the middle of a heatwave where the afternoon temperatures reach 33°c or higher, but where night time temperatures are just 20°c or even less. Local governments are saying “Avoid strenuous activities in the sun” and “make sure to keep cool”. They also offer going to churches or museums because they’re nice and cool.

On the flip-side music festivals such as Crapibana (intentional spelling) choose to have loud banging music from around 1900 last night right up until 0300 this morning. Now, in the best of times this is a nuisance but during a canicule this should be treated as criminal.

I know, without a doubt that if I ride with one group, especially if there are only 25 people, that it will be hard. It’s because of how hard I know the ride will be that I am not keen to join that group. despite this I still considered going for a bike ride this morning, until noisy neighbours made it impossible for me to have an early night.

There is a bad habit among alcoholics that they need to make noise at night without considering that others may want to sleep. I use the label noot because the people are alcoholics but rather because, in my experience people who behave in a toxic, selfish manner, are usually fuelled by alcohol. They only made noise until midnight but that still scuppered any chance of me going for that ride.

For two years they worked on a motorway bridge. For two years they cut down trees, added tons of soil, and then widened roads for cars. Never during that time did they consider that people might want to walk along the most direct route from A to B.

More recently I have been walking into and out of town and for a while I had to walk on a dirt path. I had to avoid heavy machinery, large puddles, and cross the road on a busy road several times.

When some people are away it feels pleasurable. The reason for which it feels pleasant is that they are loud. They will use the phone and have a full conversation when a three sentence e-mail will be enough. They will posture and show off rather than consider that not everyone in the open plan office needs to hear them pontificate for a quarter of an hour or more.

During the pandemic I noticed that people like to yell on their phones, rather than speak quietly. They speak to be clear, which is commendable, but they speak with such loudness that you hear it next door. You might think “So what? That’s apartment life” but that is precisely the point. If everyone yells on their phones then privacy is dead.

I love to walk and cycle every day. I love to walk from home and not touch the car. This morning I refuelled the car and it cost 90 CHF for 44 litres or so. Every single time I refuel the car I get a shock. Petrol is expensive, and yet people drive every day.

Usually I go for five days per week without touching the car. I walk from home and back. This saves on driving time, parking and petrol. I come up against a clear frustration.

On at least three occasions toots that were written as a cry for empathy, or at least venting, were interacted with by apathetic people. For this simple reason I deleted two Fediverse accounts. I deleted my Mastodon.social account, and my FireFish.social accounts. I have a precise desire, when using social media. That desire is to find a community of likeminded individuals that I have such enjoyable conversations with, that I want to meet them in person.