Hello again from POP. It seems as if quite a bit of time has passed since I last shared a “Pop’s Perspective” with you but as I sit here watching the snow melt I realize it is “almost” Spring again and that we can finally look forward to seeing some green grass. For me, it has seemed like a very long winter. The snow has piled up and the weather here in the Northeast best described as frigid! I guess, as I grow a bit older, I enjoy the winter season less and less and it has become one of my Pet Peeves!

So that got me thinking about Pet Peeves and trying to analyze if I really have any of them. Since I did not know the origin of the term, I decided to look up some information on the subject. And here is some of the data I uncovered:

• A Pet Peeve may be a minor annoyance that individuals identify as a particularly annoying to themselves – usually to a much greater degree than others may find it.

• An irritating experience caused by others that you cannot control.

• Something that may be a bit annoying to most people but is extremely annoying or upsetting to a particular person.

• Something that may well seem acceptable to others but annoys the heck out of you.

I also discovered that the term’s first known use can be traced back to around 1919 and is closely related to the word peevish, which means “ornery” or “ill-tempered”.

And that led me to examine my own persona to see if I could find any of these Pets in my life. And of course I did not believe for one minute that I actually harbored any such things. But after careful self-analysis, lo and behold I did find a few! So let me share just a few of my personal ones with you and I’ll bet that some people might think of several others:

• A USB cord has only two possible connections; why do I always get the wrong one on my first try?

• Conjecturing: when a person does not know the whereabouts of someone, trying to guess or figure out where they may be. For example: “Oh – they aren’t home; they must have gone to the mall” when in fact they have no idea where the people are.

• Limp or “dead fish” handshakes.

• Automated Help Lines where one has to go through a seemingly endless array of “push this for that” when I only want to speak with a human being. Why can’t they have a menu that first offers you a chance to speak to a live person?
Just a few on driving:

 People who have no concept of what that triangular sign reading “Yield” means. Just put your signal on and pull out.

 People who insist on filling up the space I have left between me and the car in front so that I have a couple of car lengths.

 People who do not and will not acknowledge the courtesy of “Alternate Merge”.

 People who, when there is a lane closure coming up and most drivers move to the lane that will be open, cannot resist zooming up to the last possible moment to cut into line.

 Drivers who, when there is no one directly behind you, feel a need to pull out in front of you so you have to hit the brakes.

Another of my favorites involves being in a queue or line. I always leave some space between me and the person in front of me only to have the person behind me get almost to the point of touching me and in some cases actually bumping into me.

Seeing Christmas decorations still up on the first day of spring.

People who seem to take forever to leave a parking space when I’m clearly waiting for it.

Then there is the matter of typos and incorrect grammar in newspaper articles. Don’t the news organizations have spell/grammar check or at least proof readers?

Regarding Social Media, such as Facebook: Pictures, family news, social events, invitations, recipe sharing etc. are most welcome to me. But a PP of mine is when people post political views. To me, those do NOT belong on a social media website.

And finally (although I could list several more) as many of my readers know I could not leave out something related to golf:

• The golfer who hollers “fore”, takes six and writes down 5!

• The player who, just as I’m about to take my putting stroke, pulls the Velcro strap on his golf glove.

So, as I examined some of my own personal Pet Peeves, I began to realize that most of them are, in fact, minor occurrences that should be easily overlooked or relegated to minor annoyances. I’d probably be better off keeping them more to myself rather than “sharing” my annoyances with whomever might be around. I think I’ll work on that.

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Thanks for letting me share yet another of Pop’s Perspectives and watch for more in the coming months.
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