We All Have Things That Irritate Us. It’s Just Part of the Human Condition.
by Kelly R. Smith; © 2022 
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This post was updated on 04/04/22.
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Pet peeves — we’ve all got them. Sometimes called pet aversion, or pet hate, these are things that others may find inconsequential but that drive us mad bat-crap. For example, I drive my wife a bit wacky (really?) when I keep telling her trivia facts and tales. Can’t help it; I find it fascinating but it just annoys her. Bless her heart.
One conventional line of thought is that having pet peeves actually helps us cope by channeling irritation from bigger “real” problems like the consequences of COVID-19 lockdown. I was thinking about this the other day and decided to post on the topic; I believe there is some truth to the theory. Since I have insomnia, I have plenty of time to contemplate such deep subjects. Anyway, I’m going to list some things that really get under my skin. Let’s hear about yours in the poll on the right sidebar. Don’t be shy. Dish.
Some of My Pet Peeves; In No Particular Order
Because there’s no rhyme nor reason to this bordering-on neurotic stuff, yeah?
- Grocery store employee shoppers that monopolize the aisles. This is a trend that really took off during the COVID-19 lockdown. Having grocery store employees shop for pick-up customers is really handy for a lot of people, like harried moms with kids and execs that work late and are trying to shave a few minutes off their schedule. But here’s the thing — in my experience — these employee shoppers navigate these huge carts with which they block the aisles, cut us off (like drivers on the road), and then refuse to give any consideration to us “normal” shoppers. OK, I get it; you are on a schedule and likely have a quota to meet. But remember (take note, store management) daily shoppers like me and my readers are the profit and the employee surrogate shoppers are the overhead.
- Drivers at stores that just stop at the entrance, blocking traffic, so they can wait for their passengers to finish shopping. Not only are you being inconsiderate and blocking traffic, you’re parked in a FIRE LANE. I’m once again thinking of the Kroger where I grocery shop. Hey, there’s about 300 empty parking slots and no muggers. Why are you so dang lazy?
- Walkers that walk two, three, or four abreast on hike/bike trails or at running races that obliviously impede other participants. This is annoying because they force others to go off-trail and break their pace. I don’t do many running races anymore, but when I did, this was a major annoyance. I don’t pretend that I was ever going to win anything, but I had trained hard and was trying to reach a goal. On the hike/bike trails I often see familes on bikes (with little kids) have to go off-trail because walking groups are too involved in their conversations to yeild a wee bit of space.
- Phone call solicitors that don’t obey the “no-call-list.” I’m signed up for both the national and the Texas no-call lists. Has it helped? No. Why not? Because the law isn’t enforced. Sure, the government has the money to fund critical race theory programs, but when it comes to funding someone to police citizens from being preyed on by scam artists? Not so much. Even when you report an infraction, the response is a luke-warm, “we’ll make a note of that.”
- Drivers that block the crosswalk. I run and walk a lot on and along the roads (for some reason there are no sidewalks in my subdivision and kids have to walk to school because the school district won’t provide busses because we are just shy of 1 mile from the institutions of learning). My tax dollars? Inconsequential, it seems. Altogether too often, when drivers are approaching a crosswalk, either for a stop sign or a red light, will pull up so far as to completely block the crosswalk, even when there are pedestrians already crossing! Every runner, walker, and cyclist should have a RoadID that lists their name, contacts, and any medical conditions in case they are hit by a car. Or even a 10-year old driving a golf cart on the road around here. Don’t laugh; around here golf carts are considered mass transit.
- People who promote Critical Race Theory and other forms of control and racial superiority. Folks on the left are pushing hard to force Critical Race Theory on society. Schools are buying it; corporations are buying it; even the military is buying it. Sure, it’s a catchy phrase, but they don’t really tell you what it is. It’s Marxism with a facelift. Do you really want that? I don’t, but these people and their ideas are being coddled by almost every institution that we have to interact with.
- Cancel culture. These folks think they are superior enough to mandate who gets to exist. Or they’re pushing an agenda. Or they’re demented. Or all of the above. A GOD complex gone haywire, and assuaged by the mainstream media.
- Insomnia. Whew, this is a bad one. I suffer from the sleep disorder insomnia quite often. There are many reasons for it but not nearly enough solutions.
- People that share their unhappiness with others. It’s true that we all experience some degree of unhappiness now and then. The problem is when we take it out on others. We all know someone at work that does this. Just like the fact that cheerfulness is contagious, chronic destructive unhappiness spreads its tendrils through society like the common cold. Find someone to confide in if you find the need to vent but try to put on a happy face otherwise. It really is therapeudic!
- The large amount of damaged goods at Walmart. I haven’t seen any other store, even Mom and Pop stores, that have so many dented cans and corner-squashed cardboard boxes. Are they buying damaged goods to save money? Are the stockers just careless? If it is the stockers, why don’t they get some training, like, stop throwing the merch around? I always bypass the bad stuff, but still, other stores put this shlock in a discount bin.
- Zip-Lock type bags that don’t. If you buy frozen vegetables or smoothie fruits, cheese, or other goodies, it is likely that the package is called “re-sealable” and sports a zip-lock type closure. The damn things rarely work. I find myself squeezing and cursing for a few minutes and then going to the drawer that contains the clothes pins.
- Pull-strings on dog food bags. Even though I make homemade dog food, sometimes I find myself between batches and have to resort to bagged kibble. Those string closures sewn onto the top of the bag never pull off correctly. Why is this so hard, Purina People? If you can make a product that has a shelf life of 10 years, you brainiacs out to be able to figure out a container that actually works.
- Trash cans are shaped wrong. I might as well jump right in and p*ss a bunch of product engineers off. The issue is that they are wide at the top but narrow at the bottom. This means that if one is full and a breeze comes up, or like me, you have to put it out on the uneven ground because there are no sidewalks, over she goes. I reckon they are shaped that way to fascilitate feeding the gaping maw, but practical? Meh.
- Every time I hear the phrase “white privilege.” Bing tells me that it boils down to, “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.” Nope, I don’t have any of those, last time I checked.
- Click bait. I get a lot of these devious and deceptive messages and emails. I subscribe to many email lists just because I am a news junkie (trying to sort the true from the ubiquitous fake news) and because I’m always up for a new blog/article topic. Many of these look interesting and say something like, “See video here!” Common click bait scenarios include no video being there, it being an infomercial that goes on forrrevvver with no volume control, and not a real “video.” For example, The Western Journal has some informative articles but the purported “video” is just a slideshow with subtitles of the exact same verbiage that is in the article. Not only is there no value added, but do they not realize that we can just read the article without the slow-loading distraction?
This is my compilation of pet peeves that come immediately to mind. I’m sure there are more. Do you share any of these?
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Kelly R. Smith is an Air Force veteran and was a commercial carpenter for 20 years before returning to night school at the University of Houston where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. After working at NASA for a few years, he went on to develop software for the transportation, financial, and energy-trading industries. He has been writing, in one capacity or another, since he could hold a pencil. As a freelance writer now, he specializes in producing articles and blog content for a variety of clients. His personal blog is at 
