You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

[AndyC]

Not being a fan myself, I just shake my head at people who can get up from their chair out on the deck, where they were drinking a beer in shorts and a tshirt, abandoning a beautiful warm evening to go inside and watch hockey. It's just wrong. The season itself is not so bad, ending in the middle of April. It's the two months of playoffs that get excessive, and that's when people get most obsessed with hockey. When it's almost summer.

That's when investing in a radio is a good idea. Sure, you can't see the action, but you can easily take it outside and enjoy both the game and the nice weather. The weather's not going to be nice for much longer, after all.

I'm talking about the playoffs in May and June. I can understand being enthusiastic in September and October, but I don't need to drag part of the previous winter along into a brand-new summer. I wouldn't care so much if people weren't so fanatical about it. I get tired of one person after another trying to talk about the playoffs with me, and having to explain each time "Gee, I don't know. I don't follow hockey." They're obsessed with a winter sport on a warm day in May, and I'm the odd one.

[JaseSF]

I occasionally watch hockey, usually only when my favourite team the New York Rangers are playing....honestly it's the only real sport I actually watch these days....used to watch boxing and I love pro wrestling (but that's certainly not a sport anymore if it ever was)...

With regards to Christmas decorations, I noticed a few were up already around here. I hate seeing it up this early. When I was a kid, the tree didn't even go up until Christmas Eve night....

[ulthar]

It really grinds my gears when someone shows up late to a meeting and the leader repeats everything said up that point just for that late person.  So, we ALL get to have the meeting last longer because one inconsiderate, disrespectful person did not show up on time.

It would be better if someone got that person up to speed later, after the meeting is over, rather than making the rest of us sit through the blamed meeting twice.

On a related note, habitual lateness is a peeve.  My son's swim coach routinely starts his practice over 15 minutes late, and runs 15 minutes over at the end...then, sometimes she holds little parents' meetings and takes FOREVER to say about 2 minutes worth of information.  He's supposed to be done by 17:30, and we often don't leave until 18:00 which really puts the squeeze on getting dinner before my wife and daughter have to be somewhere are 18:45.

She has no regard for our time whatsoever.  She treats us as if we really have nowhere else to be (which we do, as do almost all the families with more than one child).

[Mr. DS]

Christmas cards.  Its a silly, silly tradition to send someone a folded piece of paper while somewhere a tree dies for it.  To me its add clutter to my already stuffed house.  I insist most people I know not to send me one. 

[diamondwaspvenom]

A pet peeve of mine:

Whenever I'm traveling by public transportation and in a hurry, it happens almost all the time where some person (in the bus) stops somewhere, but rather than get out, they ask the driver hundreds of questions like: "Does this bus stop here?", "Does this take me to the Metro?" (FYI, for you americans, this is our name for the subway station), etc., etc.,etc. Thus making me late for appointments.  

Godammnit! What are these people doing on the city bus IF THEY CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE GOES WHERE?!?  

(P.S. Sorry 'bout the caps lock, this just really annoys me.)

[The Gravekeeper]

A pet peeve of mine:

Whenever I'm traveling by public transportation and in a hurry, it happens almost all the time where some person (in the bus) stops somewhere, but rather than get out, they ask the driver hundreds of questions like: "Does this bus stop here?", "Does this take me to the Metro?" (FYI, for you americans, this is our name for the subway station), etc., etc.,etc. Thus making me late for appointments.  

Godammnit! What are these people doing on the city bus IF THEY CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE GOES WHERE?!?  

(P.S. Sorry 'bout the caps lock, this just really annoys me.)

That's why I try to get an idea of what buses to take and if I'm confused, I ask a bus driver while they're still parked at a major depot. They're just hanging around until it's time to head off on the route again, after all.

[Mr. DS]

The term stores use today like "It's Like Getting It For Free".   Hmmmm...so I'm still dropping money on an item in order to get a coupon for my next purchase if I in fact decide to go to that store again for something.  Its not really like getting it for free if I'm still dropping money. 

[venomx]

Something upsets me. The younger generation's slogans! I've noticed as of lately...

"Ninjas < Chuck Norris" "Chuck Norris FTW". "Chuck Norris is GOD."

HEY GUYS! What about Bruce Lee?! He accomplished way more then Chuck Norris ever did. Don't get me wrong I like Chuck Norris, my Mother loves Chuck Norris... but damn it should be "BRUCE LEE FTW!" "Chuck Norris < Bruce Lee".

[El Misfit]

Something upsets me. The younger generation's slogans! I've noticed as of lately...

"Ninjas < Chuck Norris" "Chuck Norris FTW". "Chuck Norris is GOD."

HEY GUYS! What about Bruce Lee?! He accomplished way more then Chuck Norris ever did. Don't get me wrong I like Chuck Norris, my Mother loves Chuck Norris... but damn it should be "BRUCE LEE FTW!" "Chuck Norris < Bruce Lee".

Dude, Bruce Lee will kick Chuck Norris's ASS!

[The Gravekeeper]

Something upsets me. The younger generation's slogans! I've noticed as of lately...

"Ninjas < Chuck Norris" "Chuck Norris FTW". "Chuck Norris is GOD."

HEY GUYS! What about Bruce Lee?! He accomplished way more then Chuck Norris ever did. Don't get me wrong I like Chuck Norris, my Mother loves Chuck Norris... but damn it should be "BRUCE LEE FTW!" "Chuck Norris < Bruce Lee".

Ask yourself this: do we REALLY want Bruce Lee to become a walking punchline?

[Paquita]

We occasionally take our daughter (she’s 2) to the McDonald’s Playplace for some fun time.  We found a really nice one that’s set-up for smaller kids, like under 5 yrs old, it looks like a giant hamster maze with a bunch of tubes and slides to play in and she always has a ball and meets some other kid her age to play with.  It has all the rules posted like you see in most play areas, but the 2 huge rules that are plastered everywhere are you must be under 4 feet and wearing socks.  Whenever we go there on the weekend, the place is littered with unsupervised children, a couple bigger than me, and several kids without socks.  There’s always a few kids in there holding a mcnugget or a handful of fries, which makes me cringe because I know they’re probably dropping bits of food in the tubes, but I can get over that.. a kid’s world is often a filthy place.  It just drives me up the wall how inconsiderate and lazy these parents are to let their giant children run amok in these things and endanger a bunch of happy little toddlers.  There was one girl there today, she looked about 7, and she was getting food from her table, chewing it up, walking over to the play area and opening her mouth to show everyone.. this escalated into her spitting her food out into her hand and then eating it again, even picking up what plopped onto the floor and putting it back in her mouth – at that point I grabbed my daughter and said that little girl was being way too gross for us to stay.  I think her father heard me because then he got up and scolded her, but I know he saw her doing it way before I said anything. 

I just can’t stand some of these parents.. I’m going to need to take some boxing classes or something because I know one of these days I’m going to say something to the wrong person and I want to be able to defend myself when that day comes.   

[Mr. DS]

We occasionally take our daughter (she’s 2) to the McDonald’s Playplace for some fun time.  We found a really nice one that’s set-up for smaller kids, like under 5 yrs old, it looks like a giant hamster maze with a bunch of tubes and slides to play in and she always has a ball and meets some other kid her age to play with.  It has all the rules posted like you see in most play areas, but the 2 huge rules that are plastered everywhere are you must be under 4 feet and wearing socks.  Whenever we go there on the weekend, the place is littered with unsupervised children, a couple bigger than me, and several kids without socks.  There’s always a few kids in there holding a mcnugget or a handful of fries, which makes me cringe because I know they’re probably dropping bits of food in the tubes, but I can get over that.. a kid’s world is often a filthy place.  It just drives me up the wall how inconsiderate and lazy these parents are to let their giant children run amok in these things and endanger a bunch of happy little toddlers.  There was one girl there today, she looked about 7, and she was getting food from her table, chewing it up, walking over to the play area and opening her mouth to show everyone.. this escalated into her spitting her food out into her hand and then eating it again, even picking up what plopped onto the floor and putting it back in her mouth – at that point I grabbed my daughter and said that little girl was being way too gross for us to stay.  I think her father heard me because then he got up and scolded her, but I know he saw her doing it way before I said anything. 

I just can’t stand some of these parents.. I’m going to need to take some boxing classes or something because I know one of these days I’m going to say something to the wrong person and I want to be able to defend myself when that day comes.   

God thats gross.  Kind of makes you want to throw something at the parents.  The problem with that is ,on top of the obvious, is other kids pick up ANYTHING edible (and often inedible) and eat it.  I mean kids will be kids but I know I'm brining up mine the best I can not to do anything that repulsive. 

[El Misfit]

Something upsets me. The younger generation's slogans! I've noticed as of lately...

"Ninjas < Chuck Norris" "Chuck Norris FTW". "Chuck Norris is GOD."

HEY GUYS! What about Bruce Lee?! He accomplished way more then Chuck Norris ever did. Don't get me wrong I like Chuck Norris, my Mother loves Chuck Norris... but damn it should be "BRUCE LEE FTW!" "Chuck Norris < Bruce Lee".

Ask yourself this: do we REALLY want Bruce Lee to become a walking punchline?

True! But the younger generation Still needs to know that there is a person better than Chuck Norris, but we can still not have him being a walking punch line.

[ulthar]

I just can’t stand some of these parents.. I’m going to need to take some boxing classes or something because I know one of these days I’m going to say something to the wrong person and I want to be able to defend myself when that day comes.   

Haha, welcome to the club.

There's one family that lets their children run around acting wild at church (not in the the sanctuary itself, but the halls and the fellowship hall, etc)...yelling, grabbing chairs, running.  We have stacks of chairs around the outside of the fellowship hall, and they climb on them to play games.  Every adult in the room will be telling them to get down...EXCEPT THE PARENTS.  Grrr.

We, too, see it all the time.  At playgrounds, eateries, etc.  Parents sitting there watching their children break the rules and not saying anything.  I think many Americans think the rules don't apply to them anyway.

At 2, your daughter is still seen as "cute" by others, but that will change.  It's very easy to be on both sides of this.  We try very hard to have our children behave properly and with respect for others, but there are those that won't see that no matter what is really going on.

I've had to 'defend' them on at least two occasions - when they are misbehaving, *I* tell them, but on the other hand, I don't let other crabby adults bully them around, either.  One time was at church, and my daughter was wearing loud shoes.  During the service, she dropped something and went to get it, and a lady sitting behind us very rudely "sssshhhed" her.  This was WHILE I was in the process of telling her to sit down and be quiet.

I happened to run into her outside and BLASTED her.  I told her she was not my daughter's parent and to leave it to me...it's MY job.  She started to say something to the effect of I wasn't doing my job, which only got my Irish up a bit more.  After that, she never said another word to my daughter, or me, again.

HELPING me would have been appreciated; acting high and mighty like she was some sort of perfect specimen of human parenting absolutely was not helpful.

On another occasion, I got so mad a the guy who sniped at my daughter that I came very close to throwing his laptop through a window.  We have a common area here at the marina that we call "The Clubhouse."  There's a TV, the showers and bathrooms, a small fridge, etc.  Some folks gather there to socialize, and some use their laptops there because they cannot get a good enough wifi signal on their boat.  We mostly only go there to use the showers, but occasionally stop by to hang out if we have a few minutes to kill.

One such dude was there every day for two weeks, and he always had his dog there with him.  Each time we were there, my daughter petted and played with his dog, and he always encouraged it.  Then, all of a sudden, one day while my daughter was petting his dog, he jumped up and started SCREAMING at me to PLEASE CONTROL MY DAUGHTER.  It really came out of nowhere.

I told her to come sit by me (I was chatting with a friend about whatever).  Over the next few minutes, my blood started to boil and finally I lost it.  I walked over to him, resisting physical violence (which would have gotten us kicked out), laid into him verbally.  I pointed out some things about his personality and manners.

The really funny part is that a few days later, I tried to apologize to him.  I did feel genuinely bad about what I said and that the whole thing happened.  He very gruffly told me he had nothing to say to me and did not want to hear anything I said to him.

So after that, every time I saw him, I smiled and said, "Hi, Smiley.  How are you today?"  Interestingly, he never answered.

[AndyC]

We occasionally take our daughter (she’s 2) to the McDonald’s Playplace for some fun time.  We found a really nice one that’s set-up for smaller kids, like under 5 yrs old, it looks like a giant hamster maze with a bunch of tubes and slides to play in and she always has a ball and meets some other kid her age to play with.  It has all the rules posted like you see in most play areas, but the 2 huge rules that are plastered everywhere are you must be under 4 feet and wearing socks.  Whenever we go there on the weekend, the place is littered with unsupervised children, a couple bigger than me, and several kids without socks.  There’s always a few kids in there holding a mcnugget or a handful of fries, which makes me cringe because I know they’re probably dropping bits of food in the tubes, but I can get over that.. a kid’s world is often a filthy place.  It just drives me up the wall how inconsiderate and lazy these parents are to let their giant children run amok in these things and endanger a bunch of happy little toddlers.  There was one girl there today, she looked about 7, and she was getting food from her table, chewing it up, walking over to the play area and opening her mouth to show everyone.. this escalated into her spitting her food out into her hand and then eating it again, even picking up what plopped onto the floor and putting it back in her mouth – at that point I grabbed my daughter and said that little girl was being way too gross for us to stay.  I think her father heard me because then he got up and scolded her, but I know he saw her doing it way before I said anything. 

I just can’t stand some of these parents.. I’m going to need to take some boxing classes or something because I know one of these days I’m going to say something to the wrong person and I want to be able to defend myself when that day comes.   

God thats gross.  Kind of makes you want to throw something at the parents.  The problem with that is ,on top of the obvious, is other kids pick up ANYTHING edible (and often inedible) and eat it.  I mean kids will be kids but I know I'm brining up mine the best I can not to do anything that repulsive. 

I don't know what it is about these parents that they aren't the least bit embarrassed by the conduct of their kids. Rule 1 in our family when out in public is other people have as much right to a good time as we do, and our enjoyment should not come at the expense of theirs. Keep it contained to our table. And as far as playing in the same space as smaller kids, at the park or at someone's house, my daughter knows that being bigger and more alert to what's going on, she has a responsibility to be careful. I can't say the same for the bigger kids who used to tear all over the playground equipment when she was smaller.

Here's one that I usually think of on Sundays. Not really a major peeve, but something that jumps out at me whenever I hear it. The hymns at church are full of really bad rhyming. Rhyming "lord" and "word" immediately springs to mind, but there are others. Sometimes, being the smartass that I am, and drowned out by everyone else, I will sing it so it rhymes. Besides the rhyming, there are little things like trying to make words like "heaven" and "given" into one syllable by sticking in an apostrophe, so they can fit on one note. You can't pronounce them as one syllable. All the apostrophe does is make them sound wierd as people awkwardly try to pronounce them as one syllable. This is especially true when you have to sing "heav'n" as one syllable for more than a beat. Just try singing a two-syllable word as one syllable while holding the note for four beats.