Pet Peeves

Pet Peeve Week, the second week of October, inspired us to write this. Even if people who do these pet peeves disappear, the peeve might be picked up by someone else. Some of these peeves could fall under more than one topic.

Non-Neighborly Neighbors

Neighbors who:

• don’t put lids on their trash cans.
• don’t put their trash cans back for days after they are emptied.
• throw their trash on the street rather than walk half a block to a trash can.
• don’t leash their pets or pick up after them.
• play their music so loud you can hear it a block away. My watch tells me the volume is dangerously loud. 
• make a lot of noise and are insensitive.
• smoke in public places/second-hand smoke (you’re spreading Covid and cancer).
• are out at night, such as walking dogs, exercising, walking with strollers at night or riding bikes in the street without wearing anything reflective.
• don’t shovel their sidewalks when it snows.
• overstep their property line. For example, they call the county about your yard, maybe with frivolous or erroneous complaints.

Driving/Parking Lot Peeves

Drivers who:

• park in spaces reserved for disabled persons.
• take up two spaces. I may love my car as much as you do. Everyone needs a place to park. People over things?
• park their cars on the wrong side of the road and if they’re coming down the street and pull over on the wrong side of the road, are very dangerous. When you are parked the wrong way, your reflective lights are not visible.
• don’t use turn signals. 
• don’t pull over for emergency vehicles.

Shopping

• How is the best way to shop? Going to the store is a schlep and often more expensive, but buying online is a project. True, no crowds or bad weather, though not immediate, and you can go down a rabbit hole. The choices online can choke you, and then the process is daunting.
• Ending up having to buy the large box of a product when I only wanted the small one.
• Calling the manufacturer and getting nowhere. Do they have a phone number? Very often, no. How about a human answering the phone? Either road you take to reach them requires a verification code, and then you have to fight to get a “REPRESENTATIVE, REPRESENTATIVE!”
• Spray bottles that don’t spray.
• People talking loudly on their phones when grocery shopping. I don’t need to hear your conversation with your spouse or children.

Ungrateful/Inconsiderate/Impolite People

People who:

• don’t write thank-you notes, i.e., the younger generation. (Or don’t acknowledge the gift through email, text or a phone call)
• continue to invite you to their bridal showers, weddings, college graduation parties and baby showers.
• have forgotten to be polite with strangers or even their friends.
• use 11 of 12 ice cubes and put the nearly empty tray back in the freezer. Refill it!
• finish the roll of toilet paper and don’t replace it. Refill it!
• speak in their “outside voice” in a waiting room.
• use foul language indiscriminately.
• act like they’re better than everyone else.
• are know-it-alls
• borrow a book, money, lawn equipment, etc., and never return it or return it broken. 
• invite themselves over and/or overstay their welcome. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”
• wear too much perfume

Annoying Things

• Not being able to open a package, bottles, cans or jars.
• DVR settings are messed up when on-air programs go over their time limit (usually for sports).
• Children are no longer taught geography, spelling, penmanship or grammar in school. Some of these end up working in the communications field, i.e., as journalists, and don’t know how to use English properly. (Examples: There, they’re, their, verse vs versus, not using the comma in large numbers, to, two, too)
• When you want to find out who won the baseball game and must read three paragraphs in the newspaper article to find out.
• Speaking over loud music. 
• Shopping for an item “on sale” and learning the store is “out of it,” or that the price went up.
• I opened the mail today and there was a paper with a perforated piece to tear off. When I went to tear it off, of course it ripped in the middle of the page and not where the perforation was. I even moved the paper back and forth in the perforated line before tearing it off!
• People who stand too close.
• Requests to donate money… I get at least six of these every single day! Often more. If the envelope has its own stamp, I put everything in that envelope and tell them to take me off their list!
• When you sign up for a magazine, they remind you to renew months ahead of time.
• Bad directions or bad signage.

Bad Phone Etiquette

People who:

• are addicted to their phones, keep them on and constantly check for items.
• use their cell phones at the dinner table.
• take photos of everything all the time.
• are glued to their phones during conversations.
• use their phones at all times! No matter when or why.
• speak loudly on their phones in a public place. (I think they are talking to me.)
• use their phones and not paying attention while crossing streets, pushing strollers, etc.
• text while driving.
• call without leaving a message, especially if they come up as “wireless caller” or “unknown.”
• don’t listen to their phone messages at all and therefore don’t return important calls.

Miscellaneous

• Pop-up ads or ads on top of text on articles.
• Practical jokes – they are not practical or funny.
• People talking loudly at the movies. This is not your home theater!
• Television commercials for pharmaceuticals that are either not available or not indicated for the disease.
• Tissues that end up in the washing machine (i.e., not emptying pockets before clothes go in the hamper).
• People who speak in acronyms or text speak. Not everybody belongs to the same club.
• When you clean up your kitchen before going to bed, and in the morning you find dirty dishes in the sink. Who are those gremlins?
• Having to make a doctor’s appointment a year in advance.

Read more group projects.