Thursday Thirteen

Today, I offer up a few peeves, in no particular order.

1. The new Windows 7 operating system apparently reverts back to some kind of a DOS check occasionally on start-up. It takes the computer several minutes to run a chkdsk command. It never finds anything wrong.

2. My Brita filter in my Brita pitcher has little black specs of carbon or charcoal or something. All the time, every filter. According to the literature on the box, this is "normal." And of course because some corporation says so, we all believe it, right?

3. Snow on the ground for four weeks. Okay, I'm ready to see some grass! Preferably green.

4. Junk mail. I still get an awful lot of it and this year at Christmas it seemed worse than it had been in years. I apparently got on some mailing list after spending years trying to get off of them all.

5. Leaking windows. Our windows, which were installed in 1987, let air in now. During some of the really cold days this month I thought I would freeze.

6. Books that aren't as good as promised.

7. Movies that are worse than I ever expected. (Pretty much anything with Adam Sandler fits this bill.)

8. Pillows that go flat within a month of use. What is up with this, anyway? I pay $30 and up for a name-brand hypo-allergenic support pillow and in 30 days the thing looks like it's been run over by a fleet of trucks. Where's the neck support?

9. Chatty checkout clerks who feel it is their duty to comment on your purchase, the color of your checks, the kind of coupons you use, etc. Mostly I don't mind but sometimes it rubs me the wrong way. I try to remember that pushing items across a little beam of light all day (not to mention hearing that "beep beep" for eight hours) cannot be that exciting.

10. My husband's chewing tobacco. If he only knew how much I loathe that stuff! Or maybe he knows but doesn't care - Lord knows I've complained about it enough. At any rate, I hate it. That big cup of spit sitting around the house. Dribble on his shirt. Flecks of tobacco all over my car. Yuck.

11. Emotional reactions to social and economic issues that instead require actual thinking. I see a lot of this going on, not only from the man in the street but the people who are supposed to be making changes for the better. It scares me.

12. Telemarketing phone calls. Thanks to the federal "do not call" list there are fewer of these interruptions, but I still get them. Other countries don't have this problem. Why? Because they are "opt in" and not "opt out." That means that people can't just up and call you unless you've given them permission to. And would you give permission to the banks, the politicos, etc., to call you whenever they feel like it? I didn't think so.

13. No decaffeinated Irish Breakfast Tea at my local supermarkets. I frequent three and none carry it. It is my favorite and it is extremely hard to find in the Roanoke area.

Lots of people play Thursday Thirteen. Learn more about it and see other participants here. You can see my other Thursday Thirteens here. This is my 122 entry!