12 Pet Peeves and What I’m Doing About Them
Before I get back into continuing Round 2 of pruning more household items, I’m ready to let go of some intangible stuff – Pet Peeves. Over a year ago I blogged about my pet peeves including:
1.   Radio interviewees who end with “Thank you” instead of “You’re welcome.”
2.   Unnecessary use of bottle water
3.   Dragged music at church
4.   Oversized mattresses.
I’m embarrassed to say that apparently I’m still hanging on to too many of these peeves since I also did a rant on oversized mattresses on my Wk. 4 A-Drawer-A-Day blog several weeks ago.

New pet peeves that have cropped up in my life are:
5.   Long winded people who talk too much
6.   Pop-up audio ads on some websites that interrupt my concentration
7.   House rehabbers who paint over all the original woodwork
8.   Deer and other critters that bother my vegetable garden
9.   People who drop cans and bottles on the street. Ideally they’d take them home and put them in the curbside recycling but at the very least, put it in a nearby trash can.
10. Planned obsolescence (I learned my GPS life time update will last as long as I live but my Garmin GPS only has an expected life span of 2 years.
11. Too many generic birthday wishes cluttering up my Facebook feed
12. Manufacturers changing the size of their box or product to trick us into paying the same price for less product. (Example: toilet paper has now apparently been downsized so it is narrower than it used to be and now leaves a bigger gap at the sides of your standard toilet paper holder.

This has gotten me thinking about what things annoy me and how to let go of pet peeves. I’ve noticed that these pet peeves seem to fall into 2 general categories:
A.  Frivolous preferences and things I have little control over (the odd numbers).
B.  Annoying  but worthy things that would be a societal improvement if they were changed but may take more effort than I alone am capable of or care to invest (the even numbers). So, what to do?

For Type A pet peeves:
Accept that I cannot change other people’s language (“You’re welcome.”) long-windedness, littering (unless it’s my own kids), decorating preferences (if it’s not my own home), or Facebook birthday wishes (unless I want to lose friends and annoy people). I did mention to our music director once that dragged music is not pretty and I think it’s gotten better.) For things or people that are not in my realm of control, I hereby declare that I am crossing them off my pet peeve list and letting them go. If you hear me complain, call me on it.

For Type B pet peeves:

• There are some things that I can complain to a manufacturer about and perhaps make an impact. I blogged about the oversize mattress issue, commented on other blogs, and now see that Heloise has taken it up the cause. My son helped me figure out how to put Ad Blocker on my computer to stop the malware audio pop-ups. Problem solved. I researched ways to get rid of garden pests and cut down an old apple tree that was attracting the deer. Problem decreased.
• There are other peeves that are not so minor but I can’t do much as an individual. Things like reducing the unnecessary use of disposable bottled water require a community of advocates to pressure the market and government to make bottled water a no-no. This takes a lot of effort and joining with environmental groups, but it’s worth it. I have to choose my causes carefully, however, because I can’t do everything.
• There are some things that just are not worth my time (like contacting toilet paper manufacturers and calling them on their deceptive practices). I spent half a day talking with various Garmin representatives with the only result being that if I bought a new device they’d give me another lifetime update and a 10% discount – but of course they still couldn’t say that it’s life expectancy would be more than 2 years.

Bottom line:
There are more important things to do and worry about than waste time and energy on minor pet peeves. Now that I’ve named mine, I’ve decided to let them go. What are your pet peeves? I invite you to go public with them by naming them once here on my blog and then choose at least one you can let go of.