So basically I have these nightmares in the morning -- perhaps anxiety attacks, perhaps "challenges" from my subconscious. They have me pitted against the mythical "insufferable jerk". This jerk will do something rotten. Things like:
- When we arrive to set up camp, their camp has moved the ropes delineating camps, leaving us with a 3'x10' space and claiming that it's perfectly adequate size. We butt heads arguing that that space is too small for us.
- The neighboring camp decides to place their loud, smelly generator in our back yard. I have no adequate diplomatic solution, offering that they either place it in the middle of their camp ("but it's so noisy and smelly!") or I menace that I'll ensure it's quiet while holding a hammer.
- An anonymous jerk slashes one of our tires. We get the spare and get to Bruno's but they only sell used tires in bad condition.
- Some jerk steals our license plates just before exodus. He taunts us from his poorly-loaded truck. On the way out, after making paper replacements, we find he's crashed but okay. He offers the plates back and I refuse to help him on grounds that it's for karma to resolve.
I realize the statistics are in my favor -- people are generally amenable to finding middle ground and are generally not jerks. It's just that the possibility of encountering such a mythical jerk is not out of the question ... perhaps having to camp next to the worst yahoos on the Playa. Plus, in person I tend to come up with more options whereas in dreams, I'm unable to choose things like just moving camp elsewhere.
