On an otherwise fine paddle around a little reservoir, I had my first local encounter with a pair of ignorant trashnecks. While crossing a shoreline indent that is too shallow to consider a cove, I saw a vehicle that had been driven all the way down to the waterline, with two adults and two kids near it. I didn’t think much about it, except to wonder if that access had been illegal since I have never seen anyone drive there at all.
Then the woman called out to me, warning me that they were going to put hooks in the water and “it would be a bad idea for me to be there.” She must have been really dense not to see that I was passing through and, anyway, I didn’t see any lines to the water. I said I could be 150 feet away, by state law. I guess her failed attempt to intimidate me didn’t sit well. She yelled, “You must not be local,” a nonsequitur if ever there was one. Although I was still paddling away, I had to turn around for that one and yell back, “Actually, I AM a local, and I know what the laws are.”
The man next threw out, “You sound like a lesbian!” An even finer example of nonsequiturism!
Of course, it wasn’t good enough for them that I had kept paddlng away the whole time, because I heard myself called FA, along with other impotent curses, plus something that began with “I hope you”. My guess is the missing word was drown, or something along those lines. I said, “Have a niiiiiiiice dayyyyy!”
I will be calling the managing jurisdiction to ask if vehicular access along that side is allowed. Wish I could have seen the license plate. Oh, and perhaps these fine examples of the family tree with too few branches lacked fishing licenses?
I’m sorry that happened to you. Unfortunately, they are everywhere. You can tell they have been there by the empty beer boxes and cans and the dirty diapers.
And they breed.
Yeah, they breed on those too-few limbs, and the fruit is rotten.
BTW, the standard insult where we lived in WA for a few years was also, “You must not be a local,” which was hilarious because the natives didn’t say it—the people who said it were transplants themselves, but they had moved at some point years ago that they determined was the cutoff point for being “local.” Heck, most of the town was transplants.
In that town, calling someone a lesbian would have been very unPC. Instead, their choice of insult was to call someone a Republican. Or a Californian.
You guys would not have been abused badly to start with. Smaller females are a lot more likeable target for a-etcs like that. They would likely have left a guy go by w/o comment. Certainly not accusations about your sexual preference.
I’m Ellen DeGeneres’ unrequited lover.
I’m chasin’ you Alien two along with Danny Glover!
We thought you both might be Gary Busey’s spawn,
'cept he’d never leave his stillbirth out on display on this lawn.
I’m the California Republic’s favorite Republican.
That’s right I’m go’n Dutch with a Hollywood spin.
You’re gonna be Hunter’S Thompson bullet-riddled gonzo,
washed up fetid fish kill in bedtime nightmare for Bonzo!
“BobbyMac! That dudette musta left a rap sheet a mile long in her wake!”
You have the ACLU to thank (full disclosure: I still support them with a monthly donation) for getting the old Michigan “swearing in front of women and children” profanity law rescinded. I was living in MI when the infamous Rifle River cussing canoeist affair erupted in 1999, which prompted that legislative roll back.
My memorable encounter with a neanderthal: he aimed his powerboat at me then turned and stopped before he ran me over. Then he looked at his wake to see if it would knock me over. I said “How you doin’?” He mumbled something and sped away… I’m sure he was disappointed that he didn’t capsize me.
What’s so bad about being a lesbian? I don’t know personally, but I can’t see anything bad about it except having to endure insults from morons such as that guy.
He was really scraping the barrel for insults if that was all he could come up with. Like I said, morons.
Rex, one week earlier when my husband and I were paddling at another reservoir, a powerboat loaded with a zillion passengers suddenly veered toward me, I immediately yelled HEY! and they just as suddenly veered away, then waved.
I think that one was just inattentiveness. In the incident featured in another recent thread, the boater kept coming despite shouted and signaled warnings from the kayakers. That guy should be fined a huge amount and jailed. Take his boat away, too.
I’m Ellen DeGeneres’ unrequited lover.
I’m chasin’ you Alien two along with Danny Glover!
We thought you both might be Gary Busey’s spawn,
'cept he’d never leave his stillbirth out on display on this lawn.
I’m the California Republic’s favorite Republican.
That’s right I’m go’n Dutch with a Hollywood spin.
You’re gonna be Hunter’S Thompson bullet-riddled gonzo,
washed up fetid fish kill in bedtime nightmare for Bonzo!
“BobbyMac! That dudette musta left a rap sheet a mile long in her wake!”
The guy that plowed over the 83 year old kayaker at Lake George was in a rented power boat – so far has received a fine for reckless boating (slap on the wrist) but a new item on it said they are investigating further so maybe more charges would be pending (maybe blood tests for driver impairment?). Celia (who lives nearby and would be exposed to more news on the incident than most of us) pointed out that the kayaking group was heading to an island while towing a raft with a case of beer on it, so they were doing something stoopid as well. Not saying that they deserved to be run over but towing a load with a kayak on that busy lake is just not a smart move.
These days the best thing to do is try very hard to ignore crazy people. Some of them are dangerous and are just itching for someone to go nuts on. I am licensed to carry concealed, but I purposely don’t. While paddling, I can’t remember a time when I felt like it would be good to be armed, but riding my bicycle is a whole nuther matter. A couple of times I’ve had people actually try to run me down and another occasion when a guy tried to grab my billfold out of my pocket from a moving vehicle. I’m pretty sure that guy broke something–like his arm, or shoulder by the screams he produced. The time when one guy took four passes at me–coming clear off the road made me vow that I would never carry while riding my bike, because if I had been that time, the guy would have lost his windshield at the very least.
I’ve had a few discussions with law enforcement and they say don’t hesitate to call 911 and let them handle it. Good advice made so very easy with phones that take such good pictures and videos.
