The thing that struck me while visiting/doing business in Portland is that you can’t hail a cab. You must call a cab company and arrange for them to pick you up. Very odd to me.
Everyone was unfailingly polite, I must say.
Here in Minnesota, Passive-Aggressive isn’t just a way of life, it is actually written into the state constitution.
OK, maybe I made that last part up, but it sure feels like it.
People living here can’t be buried in the local cemetery, either.
A friend of mine moved from Dallas to Seattle and described a phenomenon. He said that when he’s speeding in the left lane of the highway there are traffic vigilantes that will change lanes to be in front of him and make sure that he doesn’t break the speed limit. Not only has this happened to him but he’s seen it happen to other people. Is there anything to his story or is he just crazy?
Well, I’m presently going through the agony of trying to buy a new motorhome locally. Fuckin’ hell, what a place to try to do business. They don’t return phonecalls, which seems to be the norm for Portland. I couldn’t even get the finance guy to give me the bank routing information so I could send them the cash balance. I finally called the salesman and told him that if I didn’t have what I needed by noon that day, I was cancelling the goddamned deal. What kind of finance person doesn’t have that sort of information at his fingertips? I’m now on page three of a very irate letter to the owner of the company, outlining the failures of his staff on several fronts. I can hardly wait to see what kind of clusterfuck I’ll have to go through to get the new vehicle prepped to my satisfaction. It’s promised for Thursday, but I just know that ain’t going to happen. . .:smack:
I think this is just normal for contractors. The type of work just seems attract to people who are lazy or shiftless - maybe it’s that they figure that if they’re good at doing the work, they don’t have to be good at like…being a business, I don’t know. It took me six ‘interviews’ (contractors coming out to the house and looking at the work to be done and promising to send me a quote) and heaven knows how many phone calls to find a contractor who could even be bothered to give me a quote on replacing some skylights, and pretty much everyone I know who has had to find a contractor (rather than just knowing one from somewhere) has had similar experiences.
Your friend isn’t crazy.
Ask you friend if they have experienced this: when attempting to merge onto a four-lane divided highway (or similar), and with the merge lane quickly coming to the end, drivers in the right lane will not let you merge in. They won’t slow down (but often speed up), nor move over one lane (which is almost ways clear for them to do so).
[ul]
[li]Corollary #1 - Drivers in the Pacific Northwest have never heard of a zipper merge.[/li][li]Corollary #2 - Drivers in the Pacific Northwest, who are born and raised there, don’t know how to drive during inclement weather conditions.[/li][/ul]
I’ve never had a problem with merging here, and the drivers don’t seem any more ignorant than anyplace else. When the first substantive snowfall hit in Anchorage every year, there were always upwards of 100 accidents and countless near misses, so I think it’s just human nature.
Priorities seem to be pretty skewed here, though. We have a bridge that is rated at a “3” by bridge safety standards. It’s very heavily travelled and needs replacement, but the mayor would rather build bike boulevards. The guy is a real piece of work, with even liberals having a difficult time justifying his actions.
After returning from a conference in Portland, a group of co-workers and I were commenting on how “nice” everyone out there was. A co-worker who grew up in NJ but went to school/worked in Oregon for close to a decade once described the difference he perceived between those states: While people in NJ tend to be aggressive, caustic, not overtly friendly to strangers, at least you’ll know if they think you’re an idiot/asshole, and when the sh*t hits the fan (his words: “when the towers start to fall…”) the person from NJ/NYC probably has your back - they look after their own at least. He saw the opposite in people from the NW - super friendly when you bump into them, but slow to tell you how they really feel about you, often flakey, etc. and more likely to refuse you with a smile during your time of need. Obviously a sweeping generalization, but there seems to be a kernel of truth in it.
Seriously? You are all imports from outside of the state, so the default is to blame the new place, instead of yourself, or human nature in general. As someone who has lived in quite a few new places, I realize this is an easy trap to fall in to.
Otherwise? Everyone probably just thinks you’re a Californian, and we don’t like your kind here. 
Ah, so it’s my fault that people don’t return phone calls, don’t show up for appointments, don’t return emails and generally just don’t give a fuck?
I haven’t noticed this in Oregon the one time I was there, but I did notice it in all other states west of Texas, so maybe it is noticable in Oregon as well.
In Texas and all states East, drivers, especially truckers, will hang out in the left hand lane without feeling any particular need to pass and get out of the way. For miles and miles, blocking traffic. (This, even though as recently as five years ago drivers in the Lone Star State took the motto “Drive Friendly - the Texas Way” seriously, but that’s changed, now.)
In the West, drivers will pass promptly, even truckers. But they will cut you off at the last possible moment when you are trying to pass a group of them, even when you are the only three cars on the road. So instead of easing off on the gas pedal slowly, you are forced to brake in order to not hit the truck which pulled out in front of you, wasting gas and your brakes.
It sure feels like they’re playing “traffic vigilante” to me, as they could have moved over at a reasonable time. It’s not like I snuck up on them since I was only doing 5 or so mph over the limit (but a 15 mph difference between them and I, since their limit is lower in Western states. Maybe they’re bitter that they can’t go fast, but it’s no reason to cause me more inconvenience than necessary, even if they won’t let me pass them first.)
My California mother will cruise in the left lane at the speed limit for hours while cars zoom up behind her, flash their lights, and pass her on the right, arguing that “it’s perfectly legal.” I didn’t learn how rude this was until I went back East and my boyfriend taught me to drive properly. YMMV.
You might want to inform her that it is definitely NOT lawful to do so. The left lane is for passing. Playing vigilante is arrogant and dangerous, and she would be found liable if she causes an accident by squatting.
When I become a billionaire, my public service will be to pay for billboards everywhere that say;
If you are being passed on the RIGHT,
You are in the WRONG.