Life if full of important things to be concerned about, some very important stuff – health, family, money. There are also little things that annoy us, things we should probably ignore, that are a waste of time worrying about. They nevertheless can stick in your craw.
The following list is the result of reaching 80 with nothing better to do and lots of time to become annoyed.
Sorry if you find yourself on the list.
Here is what annoys me. Yup, it’s pure opinion and a bit weird, but I bet you have your own list.
- People who don’t put shopping carts back where they belong but leave them in parking spaces or next to your car. How hard can it be to return carts? They probably need the exercise anyway
- Have you ever been backing out of a parking space and halfway out a car comes speeding behind you? Unless you are in stealth mode they can see you, but can’t wait.
- Talking about parking, how annoying when you are waiting for a spot and a car flies buy and pulls into the space. That happened to me once. A women pulled in got out of her car and totally ignored me calling to her explaining I was waiting for the spot. Her arrogance made me turn red. Had my family not been in the car, I might have let the air out of her tires.
- Closed when open tells me they don’t know how to run their business. Hey, if you are going to use a sign, use it correctly. I don’t know many nail salons that are “open” at 2:00 am Sunday, but that’s what the flashing sign says.
- Speaking about signs, what about road construction signs still standing when the work was long ago finished. Or even garage sale signs posted all over town, but never taken down.
- Drivers who think turning on their directional single automatically creates amble space to cut in front of you.
- Making a reservation on-line only to find upon arrival they haven’t checked their system and you are not reserved.
- HumbleDollar writers who don’t engage with their readers comments. I think that’s an obligation and writers should be prepared to explain their points of view.
- Not updating a website. This is a relatively new annoyance. You check a restaurants online menu, get your mouth watering for the sauerbraten only to learn they have a new menu.
- Please stop shrinking the size of stuff. My donuts are tiny and ice cream used to be gallons. If donuts get any smaller, there will be no room for the hole.
- How long is the wait for a table? About twenty minutes, but you can wait in the bar – yeah, for an hour. Is it ever the twenty minutes?
- Want to try a new service? Make sure it isn’t automatically renewed – surprise, surprise
- Why don’t speed limits and traffic laws apply to motorcycles?
- My wife has a handicapped placard because of her severe back issues. We can park free of charge – why?
- An item is on sale 3 for $12.00, but one is $4.95. Not fair.
- Prescription drug ads on TV are my favorite entertainment – especially those with obese dancers promoting diabetes medication. Oh yes, love the unreadable warnings at the bottom of the screen too. Next comes the open enrollment ads for Medicare Advantage plans.
- An item you buy has no written assembly instructions so you have to rely on drawings.
- The tellers in several of my local bank branches have disappeared, but there are three people sitting at desks staring at me as I use the ATM.
- People you are out dining with insist on haggling over how much to tip.
- Why can’t ATMs dispense bills all facing the same direction and why can’t they all dispense the same denominations?
- Arms and legs covered in tattoos. I see it as not only ugly, but conforming to non-conformity. I wonder what impact wrinkles will have?
- Posts on social media with no basis in fact. I recently challenged such a post and the person said they had no time to check for facts. Our future may be controlled by these folks.
- When I was a car rally driver you could win a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place trophy, I won a dozen or so, but none for participating. Participation trophy’s are like everyone getting an A, which must not feel so good to those who actually deserve it.
- While reading on the internet an article of interest pops up, click to read and you find you can’t till you subscribe to the newspaper or magazine – never, just based on principle.
- Paying $100 for a pair of Jeans that look like they were worn since invented in 1873.
Phew, I’m exhausted. Complaining is hard work.
I feel your pain, Dick. But why do you still go into a bank?
Only a couple of reasons. To get new bills – Connie insists on for gifts, to get $50 bills and once a year to cash in old savings bonds after 30years.
I get annoyed by people that do nothing but complain about how bad they have it or how they are getting screwed, and then tell me how someone else is getting so many benefits, free stuff etc etc. They really know nothing about anyone’s situation but they can sure bitch about it. It is too exhausting and they are bitter people. I usually interrupt to explain how grateful I am for something simple like a great meal, or a good friend, and then try to move on.
This happens often in our shopping center parking lot. A guy parks in handicapped parking, hangs the tag and runs 50 yds and picks up pizza and returns. Obviously a very fit athlete. Could be a stolen handicapped tag!
With regards to shopping carts, there is a hilarious Youtube channel call “Cart Narcs” which involves some very annoying guys shaming those who don’t return their carts to the cart pens.
“If donuts get any smaller, there will be no room for the hole.”
Instant classic. Perhaps something to put on your tombstone?
Dick, you probably won’t see this (and therefore will fail to engage with me 😉) because I’m reading it several days after its publication, but I got quite a few chuckles. And I feel your pain! Hope today is going better.
I saw it. Thanks for the note. Just looking around everyday provides chuckles and a bit of frustration as well.
I wonder what “the kids” are doing to stand out now that they all have tattoos and piercings.
Ah yes, my favorite subject, tattoos. I can’t pass a person covered in tattoos without the urge to say, “what are you thinking?” And then of course there is the money spent on their artwork.
Will tattoos be out of fashion when they are 65 and their Disney character is long forgotten?
I have multiple tattoos and have yet to regret any of them–I admit I’m only 57 so 65 is a few years away. Most of my tattoos are of my dogs that are no longer with me so regret probably won’t be an issue.
I’m rarely annoyed by things. I guess it’s just because my life is so simplistic.
Not getting annoyed by things is something I think we should all aspire to.
Or if they marry someone with a different name than the tattoo!
I love your list. Lots of good ones.
You download a piece of software you need. Before you can use it, you are required to read many paragraphs of a Terms and Conditions document written in legalese and shoved in your face. Don’t accept these Terms and Conditions? You can’t run the software.
Incorrect use of apostrophes. The plural of trophy is trophies, not trophy’s.
Good catch.
When I go to a website and it asks if I want “cookies” or do I want to waste time choosing which part of my privacy to sacrifice to read an article.
CAPTCHA quizzes. (CAPTCHA stands completely automated public Turing test). I think Turing would roll over in his grave to know that we humans have to pass a test by robots to prove we are not robots. Especially when they deem we are robots!!
Choosing electricity plans. Utilities are a monopoly and it is just a way to infuriate customers and make us waste time trying not to get screwed by high energy bills.
To get around paywalls, try this site. Copy the article address and open this site: https://archive.ph/
Paste the address into the black “I want to search the archive for saved snapshots” bar. If the article you’re trying to bypass isn’t already archived, then put the address into the red “My URL is alive and I want to archive its content” bar.
I occasionally use this, but most articles I’m interested in reading are available on my library’s online access to digital copies of Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.
As a reader, I, too, am initially disappointed when I hit a paywall. But as a retired newspaper journalist married to another one, and knowing that our editor and assistant editor also spent many years in newsrooms, I have to ask: How else should journalists (and writers) should be paid to produce the articles you are so eager to read? Should what the free press produces be free? Someone has to pay, and the internet has killed newspaper advertising and the industry itself. I have online subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and I share gift articles from them with friends, as is allowed. I am a library user/taxpayer and sometimes make use of its print copies of newspapers. Until journalists figure out a business model that works, especially to fund local news — and they have been trying for decades — our country/society will suffer.
As someone who retired from the grocery industry people that use express u scan to checkout with a full buggy. I don’t care if the regular checkout has a long line.also people who park their carts in front of a sample station at Costco. This includes my Mom when she was alive.
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I’m guilty of using self checkout all the time.
People who mindlessly click “reply all”. This happens in military emails all the time. Someone sends an email to hundreds of people about the unit’s hamburger picnic Friday afternoon, and Airman Snuffy replies to all saying he can’t make it.
Wow. Someone created my list! This is great. Don’t forget slow drivers in the fast lane, considering the use of turn signals to be optional, drivers who ignore bikers in the bike lane, and residents who put their trash in the bike lane.
I think we all experience these “1000 cuts” frustrations. There are other more major things that happen that are more painful. I will only offer one. We had a cable outage a week ago and in trying to understand why and how long the outage would last, I discovered that something was missing from my profile with the company. It was the kind of thing that you wouldn’t lose sleep over, but needed to be fixed.
So the next day when the service was back I attempted to contact Comcast to get the issue fixed. This was a 2.5 hour journey of much misery…..
Comcast’s telephone “smart” answering system is designed to prevent anyone from actually speaking to a human. None of the options fit your problem, and no matter which option you choose you cannot get to a person. This is the antithesis of customer service. After a half hour of repeatedly calling trying to find the gap in their defense, somehow I reached a human.
This was a nice fellow with some English. Unfortunately, when he grasped my problem, he revealed that he was not allowed to deal with my issue. He said he would call the right department and wait on the line with me as I could not call these people directly. Together, we listened to music for 10 minutes while we waited at which point he told me to hang up and he would call me back when this department answered.
90 minutes later the issue was fixed. I won’t even try to describe this part of the experience. I would rather hit my thumb with a hammer than to call Comcast.
Apparently customer service demands that you never get to speak to a human no matter how many times you yell REPRESENTATIVE.
Been there, dine that my friend and with the same company.
You are number 1 Dick!
I would add the roundabout challenged, people who block the aisle with their cart, people who pay at the supermarket with a check…. Especially when they write it and then stand there and try to balance the checkbook.
Ah yes, I forgot those. I would add getting all checked out and then looking for the wallet, cash, etc. usually in a pocketbook
Good lord this post is hilarious. Swear to God I avoid the lines with anyone within 10 years of my age…. most of us old farts move like snails in the checkout lanes.
And the folks in a rush behind me just HATE it when I take the time to tell my checkout clerk “Have a nice day,” or even worse, ask them how soon before they get off and that I hope they get to enjoy the rest of this beautiful day. Sorry, but sometimes I just can’t help being friendly.
This should be a regular feature on the forum. 😂 Not sure how often? Chris
I commented on “Man Overboard” and I’ll say it again — you are my all-time favorite curmudgeon.
Thanks for reminding me of this one. I’d comment on how people dress going to church, but I think I’ve said enough. Good thing I live in a neighborhood of old people.
The most annoying thing for me is when the traffic light has turned green at least for a whole second but the driver in front of me is still looking down at his/her phone.
And you’re the guy who instantly honks your horn? 😀
Get off of my lawn!
Especially with your 🐕🦺🦮🐈⬛
People who don’t let you off the elevator before they try to barnstorm on; People who come to a dead stop in the middle of the sidewalk to look at their phone; Phillies games airing on streaming services I don’t have when I already pay a fortune for Comcast. What is the character limit for comments, I have many rants 🙂
We couldn’t get the Phillies game yesterday but enjoyed listening to their great radio team
Good job, you get an expert rating.
Wow, off to a good start for the week. Let’s talk ice cream: I’ve seen the half gallon tub go from 2 quarts to 1.75 to 1.5 over the years. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the big Lancaster County brand has reduced further, to 1.44 quarts. How far can “shrinkflation” go? I guess eventually the vanishing quart size will be back-at a half-gallon price.
PS: Why is an 80 year old guy driving past nail salons at 2 AM Sunday morning?
That PS is what jumped out to me, too!
Since the sign was on at 12:00 am I extrapolated 😎
I’m engaging with an HD writer. Do I gain points for that?
😂😂😂 Chris
Right on Mr Marsh.
Classic Quinn.