Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[PRgal]

6 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

You should have 2 cords/chargers just in case! I have 2 devices and go through cords like crazy. 

Oh, I already have several.  I keep them in different rooms since I use my laptop in several parts of our unit, but don’t normally move them.   

[EtheltoTillie]

Misplaced my eyeglasses again.  Fortunately, I have a spare.  They will likely turn up. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[PRgal]

Most recent peeve:  commenters being uber-cruel to dieticians and chefs, telling them that XYZ is so unhealthy that it shouldn’t even be suggested.  Usually, it isn’t or the science on it is on the sketchy side/been disproven by legit sources.  Or that something shouldn’t even be on there due to carbon footprint or other environmental-related issues.  It get really mean.  

[EtheltoTillie]

The glasses have been found, and as usual, they are stuck under something in a corner where they land after they fall off the top of my head. 

This one is particularly funny, so I am sharing the photos.

 

I don't want to have to wear the string around my neck, because I use the glasses for very limited purposes.  TV watching and driving.  They are prescription glasses, post cataract surgery, and they are not needed at all for reading. 

[Quof]

I'm sure there's a cat to blame, right? 

[EtheltoTillie]

11 minutes ago, Quof said:

I'm sure there's a cat to blame, right? 

No, I have no cat!  The dog didn't do it either. 

[Sweedish Fish]

One forgotten banana.  Fruitflies.  Everywhere.  I tried all of the methods that you read about.  Nope.  I think I've gotten almost all of them - but now I have little corpses on the walls from squirting them with cleaner.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Sweedish Fish said:

One forgotten banana.  Fruitflies.  Everywhere. 

I went through that recently with a plum that rolled behind a canister, so I empathize with your frustration.

[BlueSkies]

I dont like when someone goes up to me before making their point and going

 

"You probably dont know about him or her or you've probably never heard of this"

 

Feels like there's passive aggressive undertones to a statement like that 

[RealHousewife]

Hearing the same story/joke over and over and over and over. I don't know if it's because I have a good memory, but it can get annoying after awhile, especially if it's something I never found funny/even found offensive. 

[millennium]

"More cowbell."

I've always liked the song "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult.  You probably know it.   I was a teenager when it came out so I have a lot of great associations. 

Not so much anymore.   Thanks to Will Fucking Ferrell and his Saturday Night Live sketch, every time the song has been played in the past 23 years, whether on the radio or in a bar or wherever, the DJ or some other asshole exclaims "More cowbell!" which  superimposes Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken over all my original memories.

Ferrell basically ruined the song.

That's it.

 

[annzeepark914]

Hmmm... sorry 'bout this, but just thinking about Will's big belly appearing, as his purposely too small sweater crept up as he played the cowbell, has put a big grin on my face this morning. I got a fever and the only cure is more cowbell 😁.

[millennium]

31 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

Hmmm... sorry 'bout this, but just thinking about Will's big belly appearing, as his purposely too small sweater crept up as he played the cowbell, has put a big grin on my face this morning. I got a fever and the only cure is more cowbell 😁.

I have never found Will Ferrell funny, which only compounds the problem.

[Bastet]

Since I don't watch SNL, "More cowbell" is one of those things I've picked up via cultural osmosis, but only that it was an SNL sketch, not what it was about.  I'm sure I looked it up once, but it doesn't stick in my mind.

Even though I already liked it, "Don't Fear the Reaper" now always makes me think of Scream, which I love.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 8/1/2023 at 7:33 PM, theredhead77 said:

Or they could be drowning in debt supporting their late son's biking and those looming hospital bills (even with "good" insurance could be a small fortune) are coming.

If they were drowning in debt to support the biking, you'd think they'd mention that in the gofundme appeal.  But as it is now, all anybody knows is it's for "support."  But don't all people who lose loved ones need support? The pretty ones and the ugly ones?

Edited August 4, 2023 by StatisticalOutlier
delete random g hanging out for no reason

[Browncoat]

Spiders.  Especially tiny spiders like the ones that are apparently living in/on my sofa.  Every time I sit down, I find a spider crawling on my arm.  I've lost track of how many I've killed.  But I also wonder where the mother spider is and how big it is, and whether or not I need to take my sofa out and just burn it.

[Laura Holt]

@Browncoat my first thought was the chair of death from Big Bang Theory!

 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Laura Holt

[Ohiopirate02]

9 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Spiders.  Especially tiny spiders like the ones that are apparently living in/on my sofa.  Every time I sit down, I find a spider crawling on my arm.  I've lost track of how many I've killed.  But I also wonder where the mother spider is and how big it is, and whether or not I need to take my sofa out and just burn it.

I can live with spiders to an extent.  That extent is my bathroom.  They can live on my bathroom ceiling and feast on the other bugs that make their way into the room. I live in the South and it's summer, bugs are a part of life.  Any other room, and they get the broom.

I believe your only recourse is burn the sofa and get another one.  

[peacheslatour]

I love spiders. I always have. They are our friends. I would never kill one. 

[Mondrianyone]

29 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I love spiders.

I like them, too. That may be at least in part because we don't have any of the scary kind where I live, but I've never been afraid of them or inclined to kill them.

When I first was going around with the guy I eventually married, we were lying in the grass in a park one day and a spider crawled onto my arm. He later told me he was very charmed to see that it didn't faze me at all. So I have a lot to blame that spider for.

[Browncoat]

I appreciate spiders, but I don't want them crawling on me.  I have a lovely orb weaver that sets up shop outside my back door every night, and as it's outside, minding its own business, I leave it be.  But tiny sofa spiders?  Sorry!  They have to go.  Most of the ones I've killed I've slapped before I realized even what they were.

[SuprSuprElevated]

8 hours ago, millennium said:

I have never found Will Ferrell funny, which only compounds the problem.

100%

[millennium]

5 hours ago, Bastet said:

Even though I already liked it, "Don't Fear the Reaper" now always makes me think of Scream, which I love.

If I had to call out a favorite use of the song in popular culture, it would be in the 1994 TV miniseries of Stephen King's "The Stand."   It played in one of the first scenes, similar to how it was quoted in the novel itself.

[theredhead77]

5 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

If they were drowning in debt to support the biking, you'd think they'd mention that in the gofundme appeal.  But as it is now, all anybody knows is it's for "support."  But don't all people who lose loved ones need support? The pretty ones and the ugly ones?

Who knows. Maybe the people setting it up didn't feel the need to air the family's business. The nice thing about crowd-sourcing is that no one is required to donate to strangers (or people they know).

4 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Spiders.  Especially tiny spiders like the ones that are apparently living in/on my sofa.  Every time I sit down, I find a spider crawling on my arm.  I've lost track of how many I've killed.  But I also wonder where the mother spider is and how big it is, and whether or not I need to take my sofa out and just burn it.

[millennium]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I appreciate spiders, but I don't want them crawling on me.  I have a lovely orb weaver that sets up shop outside my back door every night, and as it's outside, minding its own business, I leave it be.  But tiny sofa spiders?  Sorry!  They have to go.  Most of the ones I've killed I've slapped before I realized even what they were.

I have nursery web spiders.   At full size, they are just slightly smaller than my hand.   They're fast, too.   When they get inside,  I capture them under a drinking glass, then slide a piece of paper beneath it and bring them back outside.

 

[SoMuchTV]

12 minutes ago, millennium said:

I have nursery web spiders.   At full size, they are just slightly smaller than my hand.   They're fast, too.   When they get inside,  I capture them under a drinking glass, then slide a piece of paper beneath it and bring them back outside.

I’m sorry, did you say they’re “just slightly smaller than my hand.”?? And you’re a normal human being with normal sized hands? Yikes! I’m all for leaving spiders be if they’re not bothering me, but that’s approaching house pet size! 

[Annber03]

23 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

 

Haha, relatable :D. 

I actually did see a spider in our bathtub about a week or so ago - it was up in the corner, so I was going to try and get at it after my shower, but then I looked again and didn't see it there and then I saw it crawling on the wall, so...yeah. Time to grab some toilet paper :p. It was one of those long-legged spiders, too, which...ick. 

Also saw a much tinier one hanging from the little shelf over our sink this week. 

I do not like spiders. They creep me out. I respect the role they play in our ecosystem, I know they're an important species to have around, all that, that's fine. I just wish they'd do all that stuff...not in my house :p. 

As for the "Don't Fear the Reaper" talk, that song was also played in a scene in the original Halloween. It's on the car radio when Laurie and Annie are riding around town before their ill-fated babysitting gigs that night. 

But yeah. Good song, that one. 

[BooksRule]

41 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

58 minutes ago, millennium said:

I have nursery web spiders.   At full size, they are just slightly smaller than my hand.   They're fast, too.   When they get inside,  I capture them under a drinking glass, then slide a piece of paper beneath it and bring them back outside.

I’m sorry, did you say they’re “just slightly smaller than my hand.”?? And you’re a normal human being with normal sized hands? Yikes! I’m all for leaving spiders be if they’re not bothering me, but that’s approaching house pet size! 

I had one of those get into my house years ago.  I was in the bathroom, doing what one does in a bathroom, and casually looked down to see a huge Cujo spider right next to the toilet.  I screamed, got out of the room as soon as I decently could manage and ran to find a shoe.  Before I could swat it dead, it ran up the side of the wicker wastebasket (I could hear it skittering) and went in.  And of course the basket was full of tissues and such.  I quickly dumped the basket out on the floor and used to the shoe to basically pulverize everything that fell out.  I got that sucker good.  When I got my two cats, I wondered what would have happened if it had gotten in when they were around?  One cat ignores bugs, but the other would sometimes kill it or bring it to me.  I then had a vision of her bringing me the giant spider and dropping it in the bed with me.  

Luckily, I've never seen one like that in my house since.  I think it got in between the edge of the screen and the windowsill, because I know I had the windows open earlier. 

[Mondrianyone]

What part of the country do these hand-size spiders live in?

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, millennium said:

If I had to call out a favorite use of the song in popular culture, it would be in the 1994 TV miniseries of Stephen King's "The Stand."   It played in one of the first scenes, similar to how it was quoted in the novel itself.

Don't Fear the Reaper came out at the same time I was reading Interview With The Vampire, so it's always reminded me of that.

[millennium]

27 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

What part of the country do these hand-size spiders live in?

Quote

Nursery web spiders are distributed across Eastern North America, ranging from Ontario and Quebec, extending southward to central Florida and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. They also extend westward to Minnesota, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Mine look a lot like the fella above.  The legs can go about three inches across.

[Laura Holt]

I live in Ontario and up to now would have said I am not afraid of spiders.  Should I ever come across one that looks like the above that is going to change.  Fast!

[emma675]

I'm fine with spiders, ants, and any kind of bugs. As long as they stay outside. If you're not contributing to the mortgage, ya can't stay in my house.

[millennium]

The spiders are large enough that I claim them as dependents at tax time.

[PRgal]

8 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

I live in Ontario and up to now would have said I am not afraid of spiders.  Should I ever come across one that looks like the above that is going to change.  Fast!

I live in the city and don’t see spiders much (modern condo) anymore, but growing up in a Toronto suburb meant that I saw a few at times.  And loads of ants.  And worms that appeared on the driveway after a rain storm. 

[BooksRule]

9 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

What part of the country do these hand-size spiders live in?

I live in Mississippi, so I know we have them here. 

[Quof]

I went to a "hip" cafe yesterday.  This is only a portion of their menu.   I don't have the time or energy to decipher this shiz, just tell me what the hell you offer. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Quof

[Mondrianyone]

11 hours ago, millennium said:

Nursery web spiders are distributed across Eastern North America, ranging from Ontario and Quebec, extending southward to central Florida

I'm in this range. But I've never seen anything that size here that wasn't a lobster. Yikes.

[PRgal]

2 hours ago, Quof said:

I went to a "hip" cafe yesterday.  This is only a portion of their menu.   I don't have the time or energy to decipher this shiz, just tell me what the hell you offer. 

Picture is really blurry but I can see focaccia and 7 grain bread (which I'll eat...).  And Italian sodas.  "Hip/weird/trying too hard cafe" to me is more like places that offer more than three different gluten-free options in addition to a keto one or two.  

[peacheslatour]

[Browncoat]

Argh!  My lawnmower is broken and it could be weeks before the lawnmower shop can fix it because they're backed up.  It has rained a LOT, so my yard is more like a jungle -- it's been about three weeks to a month since I last mowed.  I was able to borrow a neighbor's mower, but it is an enormous pain.  Literally.  I have a blister on the heel of my left hand from wrestling with it.  It doesn't cut as wide a swath as mine, it doesn't get as good gas mileage (I get about 30 minutes from this one as opposed to about 1.5 hours from mine), it's not a mulching mower (so it clogs often from my too-tall grass), and if it doesn't start straight away, I have to do this little manipulation with a screwdriver.  Which I have only managed to do correctly once.  The mower's sitting out in my yard now because I couldn't get it started again.  Not to mention the new gas can I got, which has a terribly complicated spout system.  I've spilled probably $1.50 worth of gas refilling this stupid mower.  I decided to take a break for lunch.

If I can't get it started again after I finish eating, and after I find something to protect my hand so the blister doesn't get worse, I'm just going to call it a day.  I did get the front yard 99% finished, but the part of the back I really wanted to do is maybe 50%.  And I just don't care anymore.

So, my peeve for the day is yard care in general.  And stupid lawnmowers.  Oh, and blisters.

 

ETA: I went back out after lunch, and the mower started immediately.  I got about 20 minutes in before it got clogged with grass and choked out.  I still had a bit left to do, but I just gave up.  I didn't even try to start it again.  It's hot, and the worst of the grass is done, and so am I!  I can't wait until my own mower is fixed!

Edited August 5, 2023 by Browncoat

[millennium]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Argh!  My lawnmower is broken and it could be weeks before the lawnmower shop can fix it because they're backed up.  It has rained a LOT, so my yard is more like a jungle -- it's been about three weeks to a month since I last mowed.  I was able to borrow a neighbor's mower, but it is an enormous pain.  Literally.  I have a blister on the heel of my left hand from wrestling with it.  It doesn't cut as wide a swath as mine, it doesn't get as good gas mileage (I get about 30 minutes from this one as opposed to about 1.5 hours from mine), it's not a mulching mower (so it clogs often from my too-tall grass), and if it doesn't start straight away, I have to do this little manipulation with a screwdriver.  Which I have only managed to do correctly once.  The mower's sitting out in my yard now because I couldn't get it started again.  Not to mention the new gas can I got, which has a terribly complicated spout system.  I've spilled probably $1.50 worth of gas refilling this stupid mower.  I decided to take a break for lunch.

If I can't get it started again after I finish eating, and after I find something to protect my hand so the blister doesn't get worse, I'm just going to call it a day.  I did get the front yard 99% finished, but the part of the back I really wanted to do is maybe 50%.  And I just don't care anymore.

So, my peeve for the day is yard care in general.  And stupid lawnmowers.  Oh, and blisters.

It's nearly impossible to get a mower serviced in a timely manner after Memorial Day.   And the cost of service is often a good argument for biting the bullet and just buying a new one (mine needs some maintenance -- oil change, new spark plug, blade sharpened -- and that alone will probably cost about $100).  

I hear you about the gas cans.   They all come equipped with anti-spill and anti-vapor release caps now, so when you tip the can to pour you also have to push in a poorly-placed button at the same time.   Not only that, the rate of flow is controlled so that the gas can't just glug-glug into the tank.  Instead it's released slower than an old man with prostate problems.   So you have to stand there like an idiot tipping the can, pushing the button, and hoping the strength in your upper body isn't sapped before the tank is full.   The smaller 1-gallon cans are easier but I use five-gallon cans to fill my generator.  When full, they weigh a lot.  Big fun trying to hold one of those up at about waist-height for the full five minutes they take to drain while you're standing there in the storm.   Most times I unscrew the anti-spill thing, put a big funnel on the gas tank and just pour, spatter be damned.   They're pretty pricey, too.  Last time I went to buy a five-gallon gas can, they were $25 just for the can -- the caps are sold separately, for $10-15.

[Browncoat]

36 minutes ago, millennium said:

They all come equipped with anti-spill and anti-vapor release caps now

And yet I spilled more with the anti-spill cap in one day than I did with the old gas can in 30 years. 

[Mondrianyone]

Fortunately, filling the generator with gas isn't my chore. But he whose chore it is curses those gas cans to high heaven.

@Browncoat, can't you give yourself a break, at least till you can get the mower fixed, and hire somebody to finish the grass this time? High-school kids still do that, don't they?

[Browncoat]

I am going to give myself a break now, and just let it grow.  My neighborhood skews older, so no teenagers here.  I honestly wouldn't know where to find a high school kid if I had to.

Hopefully the grass won't get too unbearable before I get my mower back.  I've told the repair place that they need to offer a loaner/rental service -- they'd make a fortune!

[PRgal]

26 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

Fortunately, filling the generator with gas isn't my chore. But he whose chore it is curses those gas cans to high heaven.

@Browncoat, can't you give yourself a break, at least till you can get the mower fixed, and hire somebody to finish the grass this time? High-school kids still do that, don't they?

I was going to say that.  We had a contractor in our unit to fix the balcony (actually, the entire building is being done) and one of his assistants made a mistake and the team had to come in to my unit early to remove some items.  I asked him if the assistants are apprenticing, since those people should know what they're doing.  He said no, and that they're whoever he and his company can get.  I don't think the kids are in high school per se, but yeah, not fully licensed tradespeople.

 

[oliviabenson]

9 hours ago, Quof said:

I went to a "hip" cafe yesterday.  This is only a portion of their menu.   I don't have the time or energy to decipher this shiz, just tell me what the hell you offer. 

I’d walk out because no way I’m going to decipher that, my brain hurts lol.

[PRgal]

Peeve:  when people go in about how certain lifestyles/upbringings are “real” as if others are not.  This is why we have class issues and refuse to discuss it as a society.  Depending on how I read the room or an individual, I probably won’t even bring up where I grew up, even if other people talk about how they did.  And I’m usually open about it, including how my so-called “immigrant upbringing” doesn’t fit the “narrative” so to speak (I’ve talked about this on my on my blog and podcast numerous times).  Like, am I not real?  Do I not live in “real life?” 

[Browncoat]

New peeve of the day:  I bought a different kind of pizza from the grocery store today -- a take-and-bake instead of frozen.  It was on sale, and I had a coupon.  Anyway, the serving size is 1/5 of a pizza.  How am I supposed to cut a pizza into five pieces?

[SoMuchTV]

29 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

New peeve of the day:  I bought a different kind of pizza from the grocery store today -- a take-and-bake instead of frozen.  It was on sale, and I had a coupon.  Anyway, the serving size is 1/5 of a pizza.  How am I supposed to cut a pizza into five pieces?

Ha!  I had that exact same peeve a while back. Except maybe it was for a frozen pizza.  I remember asking if I was supposed to supply the protractor and compass!  But then I'm sure I just ate it all in one or two sittings anyway.