Pet Peeves

The first is the way people drive. Watching people drive makes me wonder why there are not more accidents. They do not use turn signals. They do not stop at stop signs. They tailgate. What the purpose of tailgating is, I have no idea. On a road with traffic lights, I see no reason to swerve in and out of traffic. I see this all the time. A car moving fast and changing lanes trying to get ahead, and then three traffic lights later, there they are right in front of you. Better yet, they are in a lane that is backed up, and you get about 3 to 4 cars ahead of them in the other lane that is waiting for the light to change. When the light changes, you get to see all the maneuvering again. When trying to make a right or left turn, the person veers out the opposite way they are going to turn. The other one that is really good is the driver that is trying to direct traffic while they are driving. Listen, I understand if traffic is at a standstill and you let somebody out of a parking lot or side street. This will be when traffic is moving, and the car stops to let someone out. They may try and let someone make a left turn in front of them, and maybe someone is walking at that street’s crosswalk. Pulling out in front of oncoming traffic or when coming out of a driveway, it’s like let the world wait; I am not waiting. There are other driving issues, but you get the picture.

The next thing is grocery stores. There are two pet peeves with them: one they could control and one they should control. Why do they move things around? You will go to an area where a particular food item has been for months or even years, and bingo, it is not there anymore. It’s not even in the vicinity. You go ask, and it’s like 3 aisles over and usually in an aisle that you have already been down. They will move things in the produce department. The damn area is not that big to begin with, and they will switch things around. How does any of that make any difference in running the store? The other thing that should be banned is family shopping. Look, I do not expect anybody to have to get a babysitter to go grocery shopping. When I see a mother or a father with 2 or 3 kids in the grocery store, I have no problem with that. However, when I see both parents and the 3 kids cluttering up the store, that’s when I shake my head. What is that? Do they feel that grocery shopping is such torture that they have to have the spouse suffer it along with them? My point is, have one go grocery shopping and the other one stay home and watch the damn kids. Usually, both parents are not paying attention to the kids anyway, and they are handling all the food, screaming and yelling at each other and making the experience just as bad for everyone else as the parents are perceiving it for them. Grocery stores should have a guard at the door, and when they see the family coming, only allow one parent in the store. The kids and the other parent can go back home and pick up the other parent when they are done. No more family grocery shopping. Life would be so much better for everyone concerned, including grocery store employees.

Lastly, is punting in the NFL. There are 32 punters in the NFL. That is all they do. They take two or three steps and kick the football. They may have some other duties like hold for the placekicker on field goals and extra points but that is it. Seven days a week that is all they have to do is kick a football. I am surprised that NFL teams do not hold worldwide tryouts to punt the football. There has to be 32 people in the entire world that can kick a ball at least 70 yards. This has to be the smallest specialty in the world, 32 people. Why is it that they do such a lousy job. Week after week you see NFL punters shank punts, not be able to place the ball within a 10 yard area, hit low line drive punts that are returned for big gains and punted balls that do not go 30 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Remember that is all they do. They kick the ball. They could do this for 5 to 8 hours a day for 7 days a week. They appear to be trying to disprove the saying that practice makes perfect. With new techniques to strengthen muscles and unlimited practice time there should not be a punter in the NFL that does not kick the ball at least 65 to 70 yards for every kick. Just think if these guys were surgeons, they would be killing people routinely.