Everyone born on planet earth develops peeves, right? And the *older* we get, the more peeves we’ve got IMHO. At least it seems to be true with me. I don’t want it to be true . . . it seems like the older we get, we should let loose of some, right? Hmm…
So, without further ado, let’s share some of ours . . .
Because I live in apple and cherry farm country, one of my pet peeves is orchard guns. What are those, ask the uninitiated?
Orchard farmers have to deal with birds, birds, and more birds snacking on developing fruit. Some orchardists use mechanical predator bird noises; some use fluttering ribbons and flags; some use netting over the entire orchard, both to keep birds out and to control how much sun the fruit receives.
Others use . . . you guessed it . . . gun noises. Big gun noises! Like cannons and high-powered rifle big noises.
Mom, make it stop…!
The problem isn’t with us, though. It’s our German shepherd, Hoka. See those ears? Not much gets by them…
She’s deathly afraid of any gunshots out here in red-neck country. And for 6-8 weeks, she tries to hide from the orchard guns. She won’t go outside by herself, she tries to hide in the bathtub (picture that!), or crawl under our bed.
At least there is an end in sight, though, come harvest time…
So, now that I’ve shared one of my pet peeves, it’s your turn, TKZers! What’s one of yours, and do any of your characters pet a peeve once in awhile?
Oh thank you for sharing a pic of Hoka. She is adorable. And she and I have a similar peeve.
First, I have to say I’d never heard of an orchard gun so chalk one up for new tidbit learned this week. 😎
My pet peeve is noise of any sort. I find that I am far more noise sensitive than most people. Kids yelling and screaming throughout the apartment complex. People who allow their doors to slam shut rather than quietly shutting them. Any mechanical type noises–I can’t be around people playing any type of video games because of the constant blips and beeps and racket. I have a friend whose smoke detector battery is low this week & beeping–and talking to her on the PHONE and hearing that in the background drives me bonkers.
The 2nd closest pet peeve is greeting someone as I walk by who doesn’t return the greet. Bad manners suck.
Happy Friday, everyone! May many great lines and story ideas flow from your brain to your fingertips and spit out on your computer screen this weekend!
Hey Brenda! You’re welcome…Hoka loves photo ops.
I’m with you about noise. That’s the primary reason I don’t like to go to Costco…too many people and too much noise. And why in the bleepin’ world do people walk around a grocery store with their phones on speaker, carrying on a convo that no one else needs to hear? Do I sound annoyed? 🙂
Thanks for dropping in this morning and back atcha about the many great lines and story ideas flow from your brain to your fingertips and spit out on your computer screen this weekend!
I love the photo too!
The orchard just up the hill from my house uses a sonic boom cannon to deter hail… A big gun is annoying, a sonic cannon firing off every 4 seconds before, during, and after all summertime thunderstorms storms is bone jarring! So it’s more than a pet peeve.
Thanks, Jenna…I get a lot of compliments on that photo of our pup. Actually, she’s ten years old, but don’t tell her that! In the photo, she’s sitting on the sofa in my office, watching me work at my laptop.
Now, sonic booms to scare hail away…that’s a new one on me. I had to do a search on it, and here’s a link to one article I found:
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/sonic-boom-a-gun-that-can-control-weather
It seems to call into question whether the cannons actually work to deter hail. Do you think they work? I thought our orchard guns were bad, but yours sound much worse.
Hope you have a hail-less weekend!
Drivers who don’t know that you can go halfway into an intersection to turn left.
Loud phone talkers in the grocery store line, or any public place for that matter.
People who don’t love German shepherds.
To which I’d add people who refuse to go the speed limit but instead choose to drive 5-10 mph under (and always when you’re in a hurry). LOL!
🙂
“Drivers who don’t know that you can go halfway into an intersection to turn left.”
Or those, like the Hubster, who know you can but refuse to do so because they “don’t trust” the drivers coming at them.
Oops, Terry!
I’m with Hubster! I also don’t trust a driver coming at me while I’m waiting to make a right turn. The other driver has their blinker on to turn. I wait to make my turn until I see them turning. Because often times their blinker is on because they forgot to turn it off. 🙁
Ahem. My biggest pet peeve is actually people who complain about driving. They have no idea how privileged they are; they don’t have to constantly coordinate their schedules with someone else to get anywhere. And for god’s sakes, you’re on the highway, there will be traffic!
Good morning, AZAli!
You made a great point, I think. Sometimes we must stop and realize things could be worse. I’ll try to remember that being able to drive myself anywhere I want to go is a privilege that is temporary. (Especially if my kiddos have any say in it…ha!)
Thanks for dropping by this morning, and have a good one.
Hi Jim…I somehow knew that “drivers” would be part of this. 🙂
Speaking of, in my area, if the left turn light is green it’s okay to pull halfway into the intersection while you wait. But if it’s blinking yellow, it’s not okay. That’s what I heard anyway, but around here in our neck of the woods, no one seems to care.
Another one of the peeves I pet is those folks who don’t know what a stop line is for at an intersection. Causes all kinds of situations…like they’re sitting in the middle of the crosswalk…sheesh!
People who don’t love German shepherds. You got that right!
Or people who don’t know how to navigate a roundabout. You’re not supposed to stop unless a car is in the roundabout, people.
Patricia, I hate roundabouts! There, I said it. I’m not good with them, but I am a pretty smart cookie.
Which means I’ll drive clear across town to avoid them…and to avoid the hand signals from the other drivers.
😳
Deb, you’ve cleared up a mystery that’s been haunting me for over a decade — cannons blasting. I never knew why. Now I do! There’s an apple orchid about a mile away. Sounds travel in the country, and those cannons are loud. Now that I know what they are, I hate them even more!
Glad I could help, Sue!
Currently, we are still hearing them. It’s harvest time, but the birds are still busy. And since we live in a rural area surrounded on all four sides by apples and cherries, it.is.noisy. They do tone it down when there are pickers working, but after they’re done for the day (around 2PM), it sounds like a war zone again.
Thanks for stopping by!
Deb, you make me more glad than I already am that I chose the desert as my dwelling place. I don’t have to worry about apple or cherry orchard cannons here. 😎
Haha!
Home is home wherever we are, I guess…🤩
Deb, orchard guns are a new one on me. I had no idea.
Speaking of noise, leaf blowers are a pet peeve of mine, especially the big ones used by lawn services. Having two spewing sound in tandem can really set one’s teeth on edge.
Have a wonderful, hopefully quiet weekend.
Morning, Dale.
Sounds like some TKZers learned something new today.
Since we don’t live in a “neighborhood”, but in a rural area with lots of space between us and our three neighbors, we don’t hear leaf blowers. That would be annoying. We do hear tractors, chain saws, and lawn mowers, but we can live with that.
Thanks for blowing in this morning! 🙂
Small print or light-colored print on low-contrast backgrounds. Even with readers and a magnifying glass, I often can’t read package labels.
Flying in general and specifically airline seats that are sized for toy poodles who don’t have any legs.
Endless political texts on my cell. I’ll be so glad when this election season is over.
Ugh. Me too, Debbie. My inbox is overflowing with political crap.
😵💫😵💫
I’m with you on the package labels, Debbie. I have so many floaters these days that I’m constantly swatting at flies that aren’t there; and sometimes they totally obscure the “fine print” on labels. (The floaters, not the flies…)
Your comment about flying tagged a memory for me. When I went to Vietnam in 2007 as part of a medical mission team, our friend Jim went also. 6’5″ of man with a build to go with it. He had a difficult time, especially on the flight from Taiwan into Hanoi. Tiny seats.
And a hearty yes about the election season’s shenanigans!
I spent the most part of my teenage years in the village (what you call ‘country’ in the US), farming. I was curious to give expression to the time through writing, and that was what baptised me into poetry. Those were my formative writing years.
I planted yam, corn, cassava, okro, tomatoes and… name it. But one of the crops that drew the attention of pets the most was groundnut. To scare the birds away, we would plant long sticks in the ground with two or more branches shooting up. Then we would hang clothes on the branches. When the birds looked from afar, they thought it human, so they’d keep away. It used to work then. I dont know if the birds are wiser now, cos I left that season an age ago.
Chat shortcuts are my pet peeves. d for the, u for you, b4 for before. Interestingly, I used to write like this until I hit my head on a moving train and my brain reset (That’s a joke). I know some abbreviations may be necessary, like TGIF, ASAP or the one used in the post today (IMHO). But I know people who abbreviate everything, using b for be, n for and, u for you and your for you’re. Sometimes, you only understand this kind of writing cos you’re reading in context and not individual words. From people like that I try to stay far.
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is a compulsory examination students take in West Africa after secondary/high school to gain admission into any university. It is an equivalent of SAT in the USA (I believe) and is overseen by a body called West African Examination Council (WAEC). Essay writing is required in the examination. As an examiner who marks for WAEC, I often read chat shortcuts in students’ essays and it shows how these young ones don’t even know when to use the shortcuts or not. Of course, there are (WAEC) statutory penalties for writing like this, however, (we are trained, and also) I try to put my pet peeve aside and do not allow it to influence my overall grading of students’ papers, or else, failure will sleep on the pages of their examination sheets.
Good morning, Stephen. Thanks for adding to our peevish discussion today.
I like the idea of the clothes hanging in the fields to mimic a person. Just like the scarecrow (love that word-it is what it means…), but a little different.
And abbreviated language! It’s almost like the people who always communicate that way think we don’t have enough time to spell words out. Maybe in the future, language as we know it will totally disappear. 🙁
Highway construction zone cones that start two miles before the actual construction. Grocery stores changing their arrangement every year (or at least it feels like it). Pot holes that never get fixed (my small town is riddled with them, as I’m sure many small towns are). Books with print that’s too small (thank goodness for my Kindle).
And re-sealable bags that won’t seal.
Oh yeah!
Hi Michelle!
I’m with you on grocery stores re-arranging stuff. It seems to happen when I “just want to run in real quick” for a couple of items. And then I spend 20 minutes looking for them.
Oy!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend.
Resealable bags that won’t seal! That’s a good one!
Mine: men who spit on the sidewalk (or anywhere for that matter)
People who put phone calls on speaker in waiting rooms (it’s bad enough to listen to one side of the conversation, but both?!)
People who are habitually late
People who fold over corner pages of books instead of using a bookmark
Okay, I’ll stop . . . . .
Ah, Kelly! You hit a nail on its head for me.
Spitting in public, anywhere, is a no-no for me. It’s just so rude.
Happy weekending!
I’m with you on the dog-earring of book pages. I have always hated that, it’s so unnecessary!
Me three!
Calling any organization (doctor’s office, drug store, internet service provider) and having to go through an automated menu that requires me to shout “yes” or “no” into the phone. Very frustrating.
Good one, Kay.
Remember the days way back when, when a person would answer the phone? Even if it was a switchboard operator (now there’s an obsolete phrase if ever there was one!), it was better than a voice that sounds inhuman.
And don’t get me started on the phone calls we receive from computer bots…
Have a peeve-free day, my friend!
Ah, just what I need this morning. I live in a Florida tourist area, and while we’re glad you’re here, folks, please don’t stroll across major roadways without looking. You’re going to get run over.
People who miss their exit on the interstate and BACK UP on the highway to get off!
Small, yappy dogs.
People talking on cell phones when they’re being checked out, ignoring the cashier. So rude!
Endless e-surveys after I buy something on line.
And please, God, make the election come as soon as possible.
GRUMP!
Good Peevish Morning, Elaine! Glad to give you what you needed today…
Back up on the highway? Yikes! With you on the yappy dogs…Hoka just stares at them, probably wondering what they would taste like. She doesn’t yap, she barks. And when she does, people and pets notice…
Yes to the surveys, and double yes to the election grump. You’ve got my vote!
Have a good one, my friend!
Do the politics ever stop?
Not that I’ve noticed…and I’ve been around awhile! 😬
What irks me. I hate noise.
Self appointed “constitutional law” and keyboard warrior legal advice experts. These are the folks who get the “We The People” tattoos and try to enlist those of us who have some knowledge into their tilting at windmills causes. I’ve given up totally on them. It usually comes down to “Slanmder!~ defamation! Somebody should sue them! Class action lawsuit!” or similar.
Sometimes I think that the worst decision the government ever made was to hand out those shirt pocket sized bicentennial constitutions. Now everyone’s a freaking expert.
I taught constitutional law off and on for three different colleges online. Most of the teaching was telling people “No, your uncle Roger the electrician is wrong. That’s not what it means. Read the Federalist Papers or Madison’s Notes or Leonard Levy’s “Origin of the Bill of Rights.”
Hi Robert!
Self-proclaimed anything experts are indeed annoying. Just take a look at online “medical advice” for a real eye-rolling experience.
Thanks for chiming in & hope you have a great weekend!
Havin g to talk to an animated operator when I want a “real” one. I’ve learned if I repeat “Representative” over and over, I eventually get one. 😉
Yeah, been there done that, too, Patricia.
Have a good one!