Pet peeves, we all have several, I'm sure, but these are some of my most annoying;

WHEN BUYING A CAR.

Sales people who address all of their sales pitch to the husband drive me up the wall. Even when they have been told several times that the car is for the wife. Also sales people who, when you tell them what you are looking for, tell you "You do not want that." How dare they presume to know what I want. I told the dense sales man that I wanted a standard shift and the fool said, "You do not want that." The arrogant fool. I turned on my heels and left the car dealership leaving him running after me, asking why we were leaving. I replied, "Figure it out."

We went down the street and got what I wanted from a courteous and respectful sales person who understood that the car was for me, not for my husband and that I really did want a standard shifting car. The first sales person seemed to think that it would be his car but that he was going to "let me drive". It is just rude, disrespectful and insulting to treat a woman, or anyone else for that matter, that way.

RUDE TELEMARKETERS

When telemarketers call during dinner hour. They know when dinner hour is, before answering machines and wireless phones, any telemarketer who called between five PM and seven PM was told to not call back and hung up on. If they are rude enough to interrupt my meal time, I can be just as rude by hanging up on them.

When I was home with my newborn son the telemarketers got so bad that if he was breast feeding and the phone rang he'd let go and start to cry. The poor child had his meal interrupted once too often, he became conditioned to thinking that the ringing phone meant that he was going to have his dinner interrupted yet again. It was at that point that we went out and purchased an answering machine (This was still quite a novelty at the time.).

COMMERCIALS AIMED AT A DUMB AUDIENCES

I can not stand it when commercials assume that the public is down right stupid. Right now there is one add running that seems to look down on the use of cash. It applauds the use of a credit card key ring tag. Making purchases with cash is a time honored American tradition. It's called "cash on the barrel head" and is respected for a reason. It keeps the books balanced, people do not over spend with cash, keeping track of your available monies is easy, when your pockets are empty you are out of money and you stop spending. It's so simple.

The credit card companies do not want us to think like this but it is such an easy system to stay out of debt. It is a way to not pay ridiculous interest charges on balances for the rest of your life. It is a good way to stay off of the, "Never, Never Plan," that the credit card companies thrive on. The consumer pays and pays and pays some more. The credit card company gets fatter and fatter. No thank you. I have a perfectly good brain and I know that I do not want to be making credit card payments on everything I buy forever. The commercial shows folks buying non essential items, coffee in the morning, plant materials, and movie tickets with the credit card key ring tag. If you would not usually use your credit card for these purchases why would you want to use the tag for that?

Life can slow down long enough for me to use cash. If they do not like it, they can watch as I leave the store with my cash still in my pocket.

RUDE DRIVERS

People who use their horn instead of their breaks or brains. Enough said.

Learn more about this author, A. C. O'Brien.
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