A Few Little Pet Peeves

Everyone one of us has them our pet peeves that seem to get to us. Most of the time they are small little things that have a larger impact on us then they probably should. So here are a couple of mine.

The morning weather forecast

Three to four days of the work week I go to the gym in the morning. I would like to say I’m extremely organized when I get up each morning and that I always get up when I should. But that doesn’t always happen. Needless to say some mornings I’m running around trying to get out the door and not be late. I like to listen to the morning weather to know what the weather for the day is going to be like (I know really obvious one there).

I get up and turn on channel 4 to the weather. And here’s what I get. I’ll get the morning forecast. Here’s what the weather will be like by 8 am and then what it will be like around noon. If I want the rest of the day I need to come back in then minutes. Or I might get the forecast for the day but if I want the extended forecast again I have to come back in ten minutes. Guess what I don’t have ten minutes to wait around for the weather. I’m moving around the house to get ready to leave. I can leave the TV on and hope I end up by the TV when the next forecast comes along. Most of the time I’m upstairs getting my clothes on or washing my breakfast dish and I miss the thing.

I decided one morning when I didn’t go to the gym to see what other stations did. And they all do something similar to what channel 4 does. They never seem to give the entire forecast at one time. Come back in a few minutes and we’ll give you that information. I realize this is done so people will stay watching the station but come on. How about at the hour and half hour an full day full extended forecast. How hard could that possibly be.

The inability to respond

In this day and age with Twitter, Facebook, texting, e-mail how hard can it be for people to respond when asked. I can not tell you the number times I’ve ended a text or e-mail with please let me know, is this OK, does this work for you, please get back in touch about this or some variation on the above.

The response I get this the great electronic, internet void. It’s like my email or text has been sucked into a black hole. How hard is it to respond along the lines of I don’t know this really hard phrase: yes that’s fine or it works for me or just plain old simple yes. Really really really really hard to do.

The excuses I get oh sorry I forgot to get back to you (which I think is a cover for it never occurred to me that I needed to respond at all). This isn’t like you have to write a letter, address the envelope, find a stamp and then mail your response. All you have to do his hit reply on whatever device is in front of you type in three or four words and hit send. The ironic part of this is the majority of the people that pull this are the people who get all bent out of shape when you don’t respond immediately to them.

People in the way

I’m not sure that’s exactly the right way to describe this one. Here’s an example. I’m coming up the escalator at Metro Center the other day. The person in front of me has a piece of luggage on wheels. They get off the escalator and are just about in the center of the walk way. Now this walk way widens out but it takes a while to do that. By being in the center or the walk way the luggage is off to the left. Essentially preventing anyone from getting by them.

Another example, also on the Metro, is people going through their bag, purse or wallet looking for their smart card while standing in front of one of the turnstiles. It should not be a surprise that you need your card while leaving the Metro. Have it ready before you leave or get out of the way while you are looking for it.

Here’s another one. People who stop at the top or the bottom of an escalator. Very simple advice move out of the way. Stopping is a great way to get someone hurt.

These things seem to happen a lot in Washington especially during tourist season and are most obvious on the Metro. The thing people have to realize is where they are in the flow of people and make sure they are not in the way.

And that’s the end of my pet peeves, at least for today.