Pet Peeves

As I think about this interesting topic of “pet peeves” I am realizing I seem to have many fewer than I did a few decades ago. Implied is that a pet peeve is something that is at least mildly irritating. I find that I seem to have many fewer things that get under my skin these days.  I hope this is some sort of evidence of maturation on my part but perhaps it might also reflect sadly that on many fronts these days I have just given up on the human race and sadly accepted the very possible reality that we are simply an evolutionary dead end. Implied in that inevitable march to our own extinction is that we just do a lot of stupid shit.

Let’s face it the dinosaurs were around for 66 million years and they might still be here munching on any mammals that tried to evolve beyond small rodent size if it hadn’t been for that unfortunate asteroid. Earliest human fossil remains date back 200,000 years with civilization, as we know it, being only about 6,000 years old. You do the math!

Again though I don’t seem to cogitate on too many pet peeves these days I do have a few:

  1. One that occurred to me walking home from the gym the other day is a car with tinted windows. Besides wondering what the hell they think they have to hide it makes it hard for me as a pedestrian to make eye contact with the driver, something than can be life saving for someone who walks the streets a lot.
  2. Dog owners who do not pick up their dog’s poop especially in the grassy area right in front of my condo door. Though it does remind me of the old Jerry Seinfeld routine where he says if aliens were to land in any park in the world and saw a human walking with a dog and picking up its poop who do you think they would believe was the more advanced life form. The aliens may have it right.
  3. My enlarged prostate which I imagine being the size of a large lemon. This results in having to get up 3 or 4 times a night to pee, truly a pet peeve.
  4. Large cars especially SUV’s that seem so often to have a single passenger in a huge hurry. The operators of these vehicles so often seem to have a sense of entitlement that is truly irking.
  5. People who drive to the gym for there work out when walking is doable. I will admit maybe this is a retired person’s pet peeve since I do have more time in my day than someone working 40+ hours per week and having family demands.
  6. Our hubris as human beings, which I believe, will result in our being around for only a few microseconds of time relative to the dinosaurs. As the Hubble Space telescope has now well documented the Universe is so immensely large as to be incomprehensible. So a pet peeve related to this reality would be the athlete praying to or thanking a supreme being for a victory in a sporting event. If I did believe in a supreme being guiding and watching over the entire ever expanding Universe I can’t imagine that being would pay any attention their team’s success.
  7. People extending their “thoughts and prayers” is another peeve of mine. How silly and really lazy is it to think that any thought or prayer you might say could in any way help relieve any one else’s pain and suffering. Much better to get off your ass and do something or at least open your check book if you really want to help.
  8. People who have a lot of pet peeves are a pet peeve of mine. Nothing is ever right for many of these folks. Many Trump supporters seem to suffer from pet peeve overload. How many of any one’s pet peeves simply reflect an inability to adjust to change.

Maybe in the future I should view my pet peeves as an opportunity to take a harder look at the situation and examine what it is about the matter that really is bugging me. Perhaps it is an unrealistic expectation that the world is just not behaving like I would like it to rather than admitting that the Universe does not give a fuck what I think. Perhaps pet peeves present an opportunity to see if what I am actually doing is being peevish.

Come to think of it peevishness is really my main pet peeve. Being easily irritated by unimportant things is it would seem a very unproductive way to spend our wonderful and amazingly very limited time on earth.