Every year at our lake, someone will take a heavy truck out on the ice way too early in the season or way too late, or in the case of this winter- even at all.
“The ice was a little bit thin, but we’ve walked on thin ice before. And then everybody started screaming and yelling behind us, and we looked and the ice had all opened up behind us. It was really, really windy.”
It has been one of three of the warmest winters on record. What part surprised you?
If I told you this picture was taken on the second busiest travel day of the year in an airport in a major hub would you ever believe me?
yes that is us sitting calmly in rocking chairs, sipping lattes and watching the planes take off on the runway with no crowds or any people around us at all. Bizarre. Civilized.Lovely.
“With all due respect ” is one of those phrases which always announces the opposite.
Whenever anyone starts a sentence with this you should interrupt with “please pass the salt” because it is not going anywhere good. Then comment on how great they look and how well their lives seem to be going.
This tactic can work but often doesn’t because someone trying to hit you with a one two insult punch has long recited it and is licking their lips at the prospect.
Inevitably they will have something really horrible to say to you about your haircolour, your politics, the way that you are raising your people or the way you handled something. Or worse, something you did not know that you should have long ago.
If you have not successfully changed the subject, you could try breathing deeply or picturing them as the opposite gender to who they are, or naked, rendering them human and as vulnerable as you are in that very moment. If you might find them attractive naked better to not resort to this as it will only further disarm you.
Other clear introductions to insult or injury include, with a condescending tilt to the head , a frown or scowl and a squint to the eyes “I have been meaning to tell you” “it is time you and I had a chat” “what could you have possibly been thinking?” or “I heard some gossip about you the other day”.