Pet Peeve: Traffic Backup

Here's another thing I can't stand - traffic. Okay, that can't be called a pet peeve because everyone hates it, but I have a pet peeve about MY traffic.

I live on a beautiful mountain that overlooks a valley, that stretches length-wise between Jerusalem and my city. From my living room, I can see Jerusalem on the next set of hills. I can also see, far below me and climbing up, the highway that allows tens of thousands of people from my city to enter Jerusalem and beyond. Every morning for the last few months, traffic has built all the way from Jerusalem down the hill and sometimes even curving back up our side.

And my pet peeve is that I can look out the window and see the road is clear, but in the 15 minutes it takes me to leave my home, cross the city and finish the descent before circling and climbing...the traffic will build suddenly. What good is having a window on traffic, if it takes you so long to get there, the traffic has such a chance to change? We're moving in a few weeks - maybe then I'll know if it is better to knwo or not know, expect or not expect.

Either way, I hate traffic...but I guess that doesn't really count because is there anyone who LOVES traffic?

Pet Peeve: The Gas in Your Tank

Another pet peeve of mine is the amount of gas in your car is directly (and inversely) proportional to the distance you have to drive and the amount of extra time you have. If you have plenty of time and are traveling nearby, your tank will be full. If you are running late and need to travel a great distance, you will find your tank near empty.

An add-on to this pet peeve is special to Israel where many gas stations give out free newspapers on Friday morning. In this case, you often find that you don't care about getting the free newspaper - you just need to go somewhere...and of course, everyone else DOES care about the free newspaper and so all tend to want to get gas at the same time and at the same location.

Pet Peeve: The Chain of the Find

I can't stand when I can't find something; worse, I can't stand when I can't find something because I'm sure I put it in one of those "safe places" and I can't find the key to where that is.

And, of course, the issue is urgent and time related and if I don't find it immediately, finding it later will have little importance!

Pet Peeve: Phone Batteries

Yes, I know you have to charge them, but did you ever know that that amount of time that a telephone battery remains charged is directly proportional not just to the amount of time you use the phone (and how dumb is that - the more you need to talk, the more you need the battery, so why is that the time it goes dead!), but also to the amount of distance you are from the charger.

It's true - honest! So if you forget the charger at home one day - that's the day everyone will call...until you are driving home with no phone at all.

Yes, phone batteries and the impossibly short time they last is yet another of my pet peeves!

Running Out of Paper...and Not Knowing it

I hate sending a large file to print and then waiting long enough, going to the printer...only to find that you ran out of paper pretty early on and now you have to go back and wait while it prints out. Yup, that bothers me - and worst of all - it usually happens when you are in a rush or want to go home.

Pet Peeve - Microwave Popcorn

I can't stand when you spend good money buying microwave popcorn, only to have a bunch of the kernels not pop...and then, you decide to put it back in for another few minutes, only to have it burn. I know on the scale of things, this is a minor one, but there you go - another peeve!

Pet Peeve # 3: Light bulbs

No, light bulbs aren't a pet peeve of mine, but when they blow out (or where they blow out) is. There is a marked increase in bulbs blowing in relation to where they are located and before you think I mean in hotter areas or something from which you can draw a conclusion, no, that's not it. The higher the bulb is, the more difficult it is to reach, the more often it will blow out.

And, by extension, the less convenient the time, the more likely it is that the bulb will blow then. We are Orthodox Jews - we do not use electricity during the 25 hour period of our weekly Sabbath. What this means is that what we leave on Friday afternoon, stays on until Saturday night...unless it blows...loudly...during the Sabbath, like during the meal when we are all sitting there, or, worse, just as my husband is reciting the blessing over the wine. All eyes on him, silence but for his voice until the bulb blows, loudly...and, as luck will have it, takes the living room circuit with it, plunging the room in darkness but for the candles burning on the side table and the light coming in from the kitchen.

Yes, bulbs and their time-to-blow is definitely another pet peeve of mine.

Pet Peeve # 2: Kids and Bedtime

Kids and Bedtime is another pet peeve. When you have nothing major the next day, kids will accept their bedtime relatively quickly and easily but when you have a meeting or some important appointment, everything and anything is going to result in your child going to bed late, coming downstairs several times remembering something important or whatever.

This has been the case through five children and more than two decades of mothering. I don't know if they feel it but it has to be something more than just chance. I have to give an important presentation tomorrow - we're now running on an hour and a half past my youngest child's bedtime and this has now risen to the level of pet peeve.

Pet Peeve # 1 Olive Oil Bottle Meets Stone Floor

No, this isn't my greatest pet peeve, but since it just happened, we'll start with this one. Feel free, at any time to jump in and comment or send me your pet peeves.

So, here goes:

Pet Peeve:

Did you ever notice that the bottle of oil that falls to the floor and spills...is always the glass one, the one containing olive oil?

There you go, in the scheme of things, it's a relatively minor, though inconvenient one, but there it is. That's a pet peeve of mine. Why can't it be a plastic bottle of water? Oh sure, that happens too, but the results are not nearly so extensive. I had planned to wash the kitchen floor anyway, but not at 10:00 a.m. - I thought to do it AFTER I finished cooking, not just as I was really getting started.

So - Pet Peeve # 1: olive oil bottles falling and shattering all over the floor!