Venting Some Pet Peeves

Okay I am jumping up on my soap box this morning and venting a bit about a few things that just drive me bonkers.  All of these have been pet peeves for some time but are fresh in my head this morning because I’ve encountered them all in the past 12 hours.

Let us start with shopping carts left in parking spaces.  Every retail store I’ve ever shopped has multiple cart corrals, places throughout the parking lot for placing your shopping cart when you finish unloading your purchases into your car.  This prevents run away carts crashing into other people’s cars, or filling up otherwise available parking spaces.   Shoppers who can walk the entire mega store  yet cannot walk an extra 30 feet to put their carts in the appropriate place.   Seriously many of them could use a few of those 30 foot walks, they have an exceedingly large amount of junk in the trunk and that little stroll to the cart corral, while it certainly has no real health benefits on its own, if they did it more often it might help!

Next is  sun delays on the highway.  Every morning from early spring until late fall, people on the highways driving into the rising sun cause traffic nightmares when they are unable to see.  The reason they cannot see is the sun is shining right in their field of vision.  These same people drive this same route every single work day and never does it cross their minds to purchase a pair of sunglasses.  They have one hand holding their $8 latte and the other alternating between steering and blocking the sun from their eyes.  The car drifts around their lane, and into other lanes, they hit their brakes because they cannot see and without fail there are near misses and some days rear end collisions all because these people are too cheap to go out and purchase a pair of sunglasses.  There are some that are wearing fashion accessories that resemble sunglasses but are useless beyond making them look impressive.  Well maybe not so, as there is nothing impressive about driving along resembling someone that is heavily intoxicated because you cannot see.  I fail to understand how this can happen to the same people every single weekday and yet they never purchase sunglasses.  They blow countless dollars on over priced coffee every day and cannot splurge for a $15 or $20 pair of dark, effective shades for their eyes.  ARGH!!!!

Right up there with the highway sun warriors is the elite group that THINK they can handle driving while talking on their cell phones, or worse yet texting while driving.  And before you puff up your chests boys, the vast majority of crap drivers while talking on the phone is MEN.  Not that the multi-tasking experts, women, are any better at controlling their vehicles while gabbing on the phone, but the majority of offenders I see every day on the highway are men.  I cannot tell you how many change lanes without looking, drift over the marker lines for their lanes and back, speed up then slow way down, all the while holding the phone to their ear with one hand and gesturing with the other.  Really you not only do not look important as you drive along talking but you are a danger to everyone around you.  Get a damn blue tooth if there is really something SO important it cannot wait until you are off the road or arrive at your destination.  I get that sometimes we all have some reason to be on the phone while in the car (though that is up for debate as we got by just fine without cell phones for a long time), but get a hands free device.  The kicker is the people that are sipping their latte, without sunglasses and talking on the phone! Then trying to read a newspaper or sales report at the same time while driving 65mph in the 55mph zone, oblivious to anything but themselves!

That brings me to another driving disaster…women applying their makeup while driving.  REALLY???? You couldn’t get out of bed 10 minutes earlier so you could doll up before you get in the car?  You sit at red lights then through half of the green light while applying mascara or eyeliner, nearly rear end others putting on your lipstick all because  you are so self absorbed in your appearance in the mirror and not watching the road.  You are driving a car, for crying out loud woman DRIVE THE CAR! Put your face on in the bathroom at home, or in the parking lot at work, NOT while operating a motor vehicle.  And yes, I’ve seen them with the latte in one hand, cell phone tucked under their chin, putting on their eye shadow, driving and shielding their unprotected eyes all with the other hand ON THE DAMN HIGHWAY!

If you are behind the wheel, DRIVE THE CAR.  If you need to arrange for dinner reservations, call when you are in the parking lot or at your desk.  Skip a few lattes and splurge on a pair of sunglasses and a blue tooth. And when you are finished shopping put the flipping cart in the appropriate place!

Ok all done venting, have a swell day!