Passively Here

The tent is up!

This is a vevor 16.5 ft bell tent (it's gone up in price since I bought it but it's pretty reasonable value for money) painted with latex exterior house paint, the cheapest stuff they had at menards. I used a folding foam mattress on top of the four storage bins my gear was packed in as a cot--quite comfy and practical; I'm going to cut a sheet of plywood as a bin topper and do that again for sure. The guyline shorteners are just sections of 2x2 furring strips, cut and painted. There's documentation on the process for nearly all of this here already.

it’s sooo funny when rude customers encounter employees who can deny them service for the first time.

One summer I was running ferry rides across a lake so people could see the waterfalls without walking 6 miles when a guy snapped my bra strap as he was boarding the boat. So i immediately threw him off, he started yelling for my manager, my boss cheerfully informed him that, yeah, she’s the captain of the boat and she can kick off anyone she wants. He goes to storm off, looks expectantly at his girlfriend, and she just goes, “Well, I’M not walking six miles, Michael! I’ll meet you back at the car!” and sits right back down!!!!

i once had this fucker come up to order a beer. while i pour it he shows me the wanky fucking chemical structure tattoo on his arm and he’s like “hey. you know what this is” i was like “nah sorry” (never cared abt chemistry in school, plus having to look at a some rando’s pretentious tattoo gives me the douche chills). he decides to respond with “heh. you must not read many books”

It's also crazy how much more polite people are when they know they are talking to a government employee. Once a week I staff a state "wildlife support" phone line, and very rarely do I ever have a negative interaction, even though MOST of my job is telling people "no we don't perform that service, and there is no agency that does." "no, we can't help that animal, and neither can you, as that is illegal." I tell people "no" up to 30 times per day and I've only had a prickly customer about 3-4 times, and properly yelled at only once. (And if I get yelled at I am allowed to end the conversation.)