Fraying
I was sadly unsurprised to read accounts of people completely losing it on various AT&T employees during yesterday's wireless outage. Apparently it was particularly unpleasant at various AT&T stores, but I'm sure it was also difficult for the telephone help desks, for people who had access to landline phones or other carriers' cellphones.
I've noticed in a lot of areas of life that people seem to be on edge, their tempers fraying from the strain. People just seem to be driving angry, and I see a lot of very dangerous aggressive driving. We had a rather close call this afternoon when someone passed us on the right and forced their way in from a lane that was ending. If either of us misjudged, it could've ended very badly.
It's felt like an approaching storm for some time. That electric tension in the air, the heaviness and uneasy stillness as the dark clouds gather on the horizon -- I remember it all too well from growing up on a farm, where we could see for miles in all directions, especially if we were upstairs.
And I'm feeling it in our social interactions now. Something's in the air, but unlike the literal storm coming across the fields of the neighbors to the west of us when I was a child, there's no way to see how fast it's coming, or even what form it will take.
I've noticed in a lot of areas of life that people seem to be on edge, their tempers fraying from the strain. People just seem to be driving angry, and I see a lot of very dangerous aggressive driving. We had a rather close call this afternoon when someone passed us on the right and forced their way in from a lane that was ending. If either of us misjudged, it could've ended very badly.
It's felt like an approaching storm for some time. That electric tension in the air, the heaviness and uneasy stillness as the dark clouds gather on the horizon -- I remember it all too well from growing up on a farm, where we could see for miles in all directions, especially if we were upstairs.
And I'm feeling it in our social interactions now. Something's in the air, but unlike the literal storm coming across the fields of the neighbors to the west of us when I was a child, there's no way to see how fast it's coming, or even what form it will take.