GRRRR- Pet Peeves for today . . . a rant in the making.

Today I’m very cranky.  I am very grumpy.  I’m finding everything annoying.

When laundry from the dryer is still wet.

Drivers who don’t think rain and fog is a good reason to slow down.

People who drive with their lights off in rain and fog.

Having to slam on my breaks (three times) on the drive to work because people are driving crazy.

Me before 10:00 am.

People talking in loud and energetic voices at 7:30 am.  I always enjoyed my quiet mornings before most of the staff got to work.  Only they have hired a very very very loud person for my unit who has my same start time.  I miss my calm, quiet, start to the workday.  Without it, it puts me on the wrong foot for the rest of the day.

Not being able to hear the callers with my headset cranked up because the loudest person now sits behind me.

Having tons of work but three of my co-workers spend half of the day in each others cubes  chatting.

Nosy people trying to get into my business while I’m trying to get work done, slowing me down and keeping me from concentrating.

Callers who don’t listen.  I asked for the city, not the road.  I asked for the DL, not the state.  I asked for the year, not the make.  I asked for my vehicle not your driver.  Basically, callers who answer my questions with completely different information.  Are they even listening to the questions?

Agents who call in a claim, ‘to get it started’, when they actually don’t have ANY of the info yet.

People who ask me how I am after I ask how I can help them.  That is not an appropriate response to my question.

People who assume I just asked them how they are when I never did.  Clearly, they didn’t actually hear anything I had just said to them.

Every time work provides ‘treats’ to the staff, it is cake and cookies, despite the aggressive ‘wellness’ program they have going on.  Wouldn’t fruit and veggies be better?  Talk about mixed messages.

Callers that are clearly insane.

The company using the same three horrible restaurants to cater special lunches.  The only saving grace is that the horrible Italian place does make amazing dinner rolls.  But I can only have one.

Everyone thinking that I like chocolate because ‘everyone’ likes chocolate even though I’ve spent years saying I’m not overly fond of it.

Constant headaches because the light levels in this office are insanely bright and the place is always too hot. (Although everyone else thinks it is cold.  I think they are nuts about that too.)

Hashtags.  I don’t mind tags.  I detest hashtags.  (I admit, I may be sinking to the level of irrationality.)

Photo for a Halloween hat. She may look witchy but I have no proof she is bitchy and can’t make a case for the words being equal.

Callers who won’t let me do anything to help them but won’t get off the phone until I solve their problems.

Books that have plot points that are never addressed by the end of the book.  Basically, every major motivating plot point in the novel I finished at lunch today.

People who use the word witch to substitute bitch.  I know enough witches who are not bitches to really resent that usage and find it personally offensive.

You know, I just want to boycott the rest of the week and read a few books, watch a ton of Netflix and do some cross-stitching.

 

Sometimes WordPress Makes Me Go ARG!!!!!!! Facebook Too!

I cannot figure out why WordPress randomly stops sharing on my Facebook Page.  I’ve searched for an answer and none can be found.  And WordPress make it harder to get help now.

I wouldn’t mind making a facebook page for my blog but I don’t think it meets the requirements for creating a page.  Not unless I stretch the definition of a business or a brand.  That might be more than stretching.  It might be breaking the definations.

Lightning, Thunder, and Rain OH MY.  The storm is starting.  How fun! Maybe it will cheer me up.  On the other hand, maybe it will make me jump out of my skin.  That thunder sounded like fireworks going off right outside the window.  I thought it was supposed to boom rather than pop and snap?

No Not Honk At Me

Do NOT Honk Your Horn at Me!

There is no law saying you MUST make a right turn on red. If the road is clear, and you came to a complete stop, you may make a right turn on red, but you are not obligated to do so.

If you are a bit preoccupied in the morning, and have something on your mind, and you stop at the red light and wait until the green, you are completely following the law and are not likely to cause an accident. (This was me this morning)

Now if you start honking your horn it does not make me go. It pisses me off. Some countries are aware of this reaction, and the fact that it is the most common reaction, and have actually passed laws against honking your horn at other drivers. If you honk your horn at me, I will most certainly wait for the light to turn green.

Now if you get pissed off because I am following all traffic laws to the exact letter and decided to pull around me and make a right hand turn around me on a red light, I believe that is actually an illegal move. (This was mister black car NE plate RVN (?) 797 [I think it was an N because after a while I realized I was repeating RV9 797 and that’s the only letter I can think off that would morph into a 9])

You are in fact the one who is more likely to get into an accident, or more properly, be the cause of an accident with some poor unsuspecting fellow.

Of course, I may be a little passive aggressive in not making a right on red if I don’t have to and someone it honking at me to do so. But this is Omaha and the city is notorious for bad driving.

Near work, there is a left turn lane that is for buses only. But cars use it all the time. Right in front of cop cars. The cops do nothing. When there is road construction and there is a ‘no left turn’ sign at the intersection, people completely ignore it on constantly turn left. The cops do nothing.

When you sit at an intersection and the light turns green for you to go straight across, you have to wait for between 2 and 6 cars still making left turns through the intersection. This city has more people running red lights than in any city I’ve ever lived or visited. You are driving down a busy, four lane road (in one direction) and someone in the far left lane decides he or she needs to make a right turn and does so, cutting off the other three lanes of oncoming traffic.

Lets not even talk about rain and snow. Okay, maybe I will. Rain seems to mean, “Speed up to get where you are going and out of it as quickly as possible.” You get to work and listen to the radio and hear of all sorts of accidents.

Winter is even worse. Every time it snows, it’s like Omahans have to totally relearn how to drive in the snow.

Every – Time – It – Snows.

Not each winter, each snow fall.

I’m from the mountains in North Idaho . At the first snow fall, I have to get the feel for it that one time. Then I’m good all winter long. I learned lots of tricks and methods to deal with getting around corners and getting unstuck and so on.

Most work better with a stick than with an automatic. Manuals are so much better for snowy areas than automatics yet for some reason, most people around here don’t drive them and when I had to replace my car with a used one, I couldn’t find a single used stick at all.

Well, I suppose this is the end of my rant. Time to go.

Weather I Love

It was cool and dark all weekend.  I turned off the air and opened the window and aired out the apartment.  It was wonderful. 

 Yesterday started out cool and foggy.  The kind of fog in which you can see a long string of tail lights ahead but still feel isolated from the reality of the world.  It ended up reaching nearly 90.  The ‘feels like temp’ was over 90.  Strange for what started out so surreal and pleasant.

 Today is dark.  Very dark.  The rain started to pour down like mad just a few minutes ago.  I love this weather.  The clouds turn noon to night.  (okay, technically it is 10:08 am)  The horrible humidity and heat of summer is washed away in the torrential rain.  Flickers of light offer amazing visual effects in the clouds.  There is very little thunder right now.  So the lightning must be fairly far away.

 I love this weather.  I’ve been known to go standing in it and fling out my arms and twirl in the rain like a little girl.  I love it until the hail starts.  I can live without that. 

 I keep telling people I would do well in Seattle.  Just as long as I don’t have to drive.  Driving in that city is nightmare.  Worse.  I actually enjoy some of my nightmares.  The ones that don’t involve people I know.  It’s like watching a scary movie in my mind. 

 Our company is a national company but all the offices are in one place.  I really wish we had offices in other cities.  It would be great if I could go to Seattle but still work for this company.  I keep peeking at the jobs.  I don’t really have any intention of trying to find a new job and movie.  It’s the time of economy where you hold on to your job with both hands because at least it is a known quantity and stable.

 Still, I’m enjoying the view of the storm out the front door.  Not that I see much of the sky.  There is a short building across the road and across the alley from that a taller apartment building of red bricks, then a stretch of dark grey sky.  In the middle of this is a bright glowing orb.  It is the light for the stairwell.  With it so dark outside that we had to turn it back on. 

 Since I started jotting this, it has gotten even darker out.  It looks like 4:30 pm in the middle of winter.  I like the dark.  It seems peaceful and calming after a brutal summer.  By February I’ll be begging for the sun again.  But for now, I will enjoy the dark storms.