You know what grinds my gears? Drivers who slow the fuck down when there's only a couple of inches of snow on the road. And by slow, I mean instead of doing the normal 60km or something, they'll slow to 20km as if we are in a parking lot. PEOPLE! IT SNOWS EVERY FUCKING YEAR, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DRIVE IN THE DAMN STUFF. Put the car in a lower gear if you can and GET SOME SNOW TIRES.

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...esk%20flip.jpg

Only Canadians would get pissed off at someone slowing down in snow.

:laughing: I almost died when they got out of their cars and started pushing. I was sure they were just gonna do an on foot chase. But no. They're Canadian.

:laughing:

Possibly the best YT vid of '13.

:laughing: That's brilliant.

That's a good response, seriously.

When I get to know someone, that type of small talk is alright, especially if that person has some connection to my life (work, friends, family), and maybe I might think about posing some kind of serious conversation about it if I have the time, but when I don't know the person it seriously nags me in a "please, seriously go away" kind of way - it's even worse when I see someone who's seriously well to do talking to someone who has to work in the weather as it looks like mocking to me. A simple "Hi!" or a wave is good enough or at least a small but still non-connecting "How is it going?" will do fine. I understand that sometimes it's in good empathetic humor, and I usually pick up that tone, which is the reason for my being polite, but it does turn into a tiring cliche.

I think that's just part of how anti-social we are as a society today. I went through a period where i was attempting to be more social and I would chat up random strangers that I didn't know. I would use the weather ice breakers or something relative to where we are just to get them talking and strike up a random conversation. I usually just had to break the ice and they would go off on a tangent because they usually have something on their mind they wanted to talk about.

Yeah I agree. The single simplest ice breaker is "hot/cold/rainy (esp in Ireland!) isn't it?" along with "bus due?" or "waiting long?" They're all just little off-the-cuff, noncommittal phrases we use, either to start a conversation or just to not look cold and aloof. Two people standing at a bus stop, certainly in this country, you'll usually get something like "****ing CIE!" (our bus company) or "Bloody buses" or "Three have gone that way, not one this" or maybe, you know, "Waiting long?" Occasionally a bus number will be floated --- "43 been yet?" I have no problem with any of that.

Similarly, walking past someone and they say/I say "not bad weather" or "bloody rain" or "colder today" does not bother me in the least. I don't get why it does upset anyone. It's better than saying something personal if they don't know you. The weather is about as catchall and impersonal as you can get, and can often lead to longer, more detailed and maybe meaningful conversations.

DJ, I have the perfect website for you: meetups.com

It's a non sexual site where you can join into different hobbies and also supportive groups for mental heath issues.