I visit a couple of expat message boards and yet again today I wonder why people get so heated with each other. None of them know each other face to face, well most of them, as we are spread all over the States. Yet again a couple of threads have just degenerated into the sort of arguments you have as child in a playground. Any pretence of an intelligent discussion gone. Invariably one or more of the parties will start calling someone a name and then 'walks' off in a huff or will be banned by the moderator. I have also notice there is a definite cliche to most of these sites and woe betide anyone who crosses a member of the cliche. It like a feeding frenzy. I really should stop reading these sites but for some reason I am strangely addicted to them. Like at school, I wanted to be one of the cliche but never had the wit or meanness to join in.
Apart from looking at these sites way too much, I have been watching the videos of Katrina. Really was a terrible event but my sympathy has to be tempered somewhat because I don't understand why anyone would want to live by the gulf coast, especially below sea level. Also why are American houses made so poorly. I know our house in the US wouldn't stand up to any of the weather our house endured in Scotland. It is basically made of wood and plasterboard (drywall) unlike the solid brick in Scotland. Every winter we would suffer from storm force winds and we only occasionally needed to replace a roof tile. Once when the wind had been howling at 100 miles a hour for several hours, it damaged the flashing but that was about the extent of the damage. Also why in urban areas are all the power lines above the ground?
Now I must go and make dinner, then pick up Gordon from the van pool. Yet another productive day Not!
just a postscript, re houses, I didn't mean this storm as it was out of the ordinary but the cat 1 storms which occur commonly.
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