“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.” - Robert Anton Wilson
Do you ever get in a crotchety mood where everything seems to vex and irritate you? I was in such a mood today so I felt crabby and went around muttering to myself and growling at the irritants and irritators. Maybe the weather had something to do with it as it was cold and rainy and grey all day long. Maybe I got out of the wrong side of the bed. Maybe I just tripped up against too many irritating things.
What are some of the tings that irritate me? Well let me make a list:
1) Bottled water which sells at exorbitant prices (more expensive than petrol per litre) and is peddled in a country like Australia that has excellent tap water
2) Imported bottled water from some far-flung corner of the earth sold at even more exorbitant process than the local bottled stuff and has snob value
3) Non-recyclable packaging – no excuse nowadays
4) Too much packaging – bags within bags within packets within boxes…
5) People who use their cars even when there is no need to – i.e. a pleasant walk down the street to the local shops to busy milk and bread, or using the car to get to work when a good public transport system will get them there sooner and with less stress
6) Advertising material that is put into letter boxes that have “No Junk Mail” clearly marked on them
7) People that talk at you all the time and don’t want to listen to anyone else
8) People that talk loudly all the time
9) Impolite people in general
10) Commercial advertisements on subscriber-paid TV (I make a point of never buying their products or using their services)
11) DVDs and BR discs that don’t have subtitles for the hearing impaired – no excuse nowadays
12) DVDs and BR discs that will not allow fast navigation or skipping through the trailers and all the guff before the main menu or feature film, wasting one’s valuable time
13) New products that are faulty a soon as they come of their box (where, oh where did quality control go?)
14) Check-out people who say: “Is that all?” to you even if you have bought a trolley full of stuff
15) Supermarkets that put stock that has expired past its use-by date on their shelves.
16) And lots, lots, lots more…
I think I must be getting seriously old if these things make me crabby. Or maybe it is the stress of modern life? In any case, what the remedy for me seems to be is humour. Joking about these things that irritate me takes the edge off my vexation and laughing about them with someone else (who is equally annoyed by them) seems to dissipate my bad mood, until the next time…
Well, that’s me, what gets your goat up?
hahaha, i love this post Nick. I didn't know bottled water is also expensive in Australia, yes, where water can be drunk from the tap. We here have the same conditions, and we sometimes joke that "we better drink gasoline", as it is cheaper! But what i hate most are people who litters so easily everywhere!
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