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Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph.
We all have them. Those petty annoyances we attempt to ignore, but in many cases, find difficult to get around. My list keeps growing and I thought it might be worth sharing with kindred spirits.
On the top of my list resides toilet paper. Forget the price. That’s a common complaint with most everything these days. No, I am talking jumbo rolls that do not fit our dispensers, forcing us to set them atop our sinks until they are down to the regular size we used to be able to buy. Let’s ponder this one a moment.
What, pray tell, is the marketing strategy “behind” it? Forgive the pun. Does a larger roll last longer? Decidedly. But are we getting a bargain in the process? Not the last time I checked. Instead, it becomes a new item to sit on our vanities which in my humble opinion, is a needless bother.
Pet peeve No. 2: Tissue for blowing our noses, wiping our eyes, or for some other cosmetic purpose. Have you tried to open a new box lately? Tried to pull out just one tissue without half of the contents coming out with it? My husband hands them over to me every time, like I have some magic formula. I haven’t for the record. Swearing doesn’t help. “Open sesame” either. I end up stuffing the unused tissues back inside, only to shred half of them in the process. There was a time when you could pull that initial tissue out, and out would pop another. Not recently. At least not for me.
Next? Reaching anyone by phone. A business or an individual. I get voicemail nine times out of 10. Then it becomes phone tag. We are expected to carry our cell phones around like an appendage. I have resorted to a fanny pack, only then encountering the added difficulty of getting the phone out of it in time to answer it.
As for attempting to reach a business, earplugs are advised unless you want monotonous muzak to visit you in the dead of night. Communication has become a genuine challenge. With robocalls, my best advice is to let the party leave a voice message. If they don’t, chances are pretty good they should be blocked, if your phone provides that feature.
Had enough? How about opening a water bottle where the plastic is so thin, the water gushes out once you do manage to untwist the top. The top itself often goes spiraling off toward parts unknown, leaving me with my bad back, crawling around on the kitchen floor as I attempt to find it. Often, Rapunzel, our cat, spots it first, batting it around like she is playing shuffleboard, then scoring her point as it disappears under the refrigerator.
“Buy glass,” you say. Well where I live, our waste disposal company no longer recycles glass. Every time I am now forced to throw out a glass container, I feel pangs of guilt as I think of it remaining in a landfill until you and I are long gone from this earth.
I guess I will end my pet peeves with this thought. There are always going to be things over which we simply have no control. We feel the frustration, and we need to vent. Can we do anything about these little annoying things that are capable of eating away at our serenity? Here are a couple of strategies I have tried that seem to help.
How about playing music by a favorite artist? Tom Petty, John Mayer, Sting, Tony Bennett or Adele, are on my current, “mellow out” list. I almost forgot Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt. In a class all their own, the Beatles. The choices are endless, from country to folk to rock, to rap to blues. I was at Woodstock so I can get easily wax nostalgic over the immortals on stage there, as well.
I also strongly advocate a good cardiovascular, physician approved exercise regimen. The physical, emotional and mental benefits to be gained cannot be overstated. Today I did my twenty lengths in our pool. Nothing to brag about, but better than ripping open a box of table napkins packaged too tightly in their plastic wrapper, only to have it tear so badly, I needed scotch tape to reseal the package.
Alcoholics Anonymous gives us the “cut to the chase” option of “letting go and letting God.” I can visualize God right now, standing at my kitchen counter pulling sandwich bags from a cardboard carton. Being God, I suppose he can pull anything off. But all kidding aside, when little things continue to eat away at us, we might benefit from trying out a helpful mantra such as, “Thy will, not my will.” Or, “This too shall pass.”
For us mere mortals, however, when all else fails, I suggest leaving your vanity clear enough to handle that jumbo roll of toilet paper. In a pinch. you can substitute it for tissues, which, in the face of it, might be more functional than any shredded tissues that remain.
Lynne Farrell Abrams has a bachelor’s degree in communication. She has been a writer and editor, an adult education writing instructor, and a substance abuse counselor. A resident of Citrus County for over 11 years, Lynne is now happily retired.
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