So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Benny Holiday]

I remember when 'climate change' started here in Sydney. It was 1989, and I was 19 years old turning 20. Before that, we used to get four distinct seasons, we would get a cold frost in the middle of winter and the temperature in the south west where I live dropped to 0 degrees Centigrade, with some mornings down to -1 or even -2. In summer, it would be a dry heat, 36 degrees Centigrade average, with a few extra hot days in January or February reaching 40 or above, up to a rare 44 even.

Then, in 1989, for 8 months or so we started to get massive thunderstorms every afternoon at 4pm. You could almost time your watch by them. I was working in an office in Liverpool and another worker there my age and I would go and raid the vending machine for prawn crackers every day at that time. Huge lightning strikes, booming thunder, wild winds. I was dating a girl who lived a few miles east of town and I remember driving to her place one afternoon through one of those storms, trees and branches falling down over the roads, cyclonic winds, lightning and thunder.

After that, the weather changed. The dry heat of summer was replaced by unbearable humidity. This last summer we had several days at 46 degrees Centigrade and our record of 48 degrees. I think last winter we got two barely noticeable frosts, maybe one morning it got down to 1 degree. Much much milder. Instead of definable seasons, the weather is all over the place now. Towards the end of summer we had one day that was 36 degrees, the next was 21. That never used to happen. It's unpredictable and strange.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some parts of New England had the coldest May night since 1887 last night. I can remember a few notably cold and miserable springs, but this one is without question the coldest and most miserable of my life.

 

[Bushman]

weather - meh, I just take it as it comes and deal with it. Maybe if I were the outdoors type I'd think differently.

"I never never ever do a thing about the weather, for the weather never ever does a thing for me."
- The Dodo

 

[Trenchfriend]

2020 and there are truck drivers WITHOUT NAVI!!

 

[Trenchfriend]

@Fanny
How things are going?

 

[AmateisGal]

When the neighbor in the upstairs apartment throws his/her cigarette butts on my patio.

Okay, maybe that's not too trivial after all!

 

[Trenchfriend]

When the neighbor in the upstairs apartment throws his/her cigarette butts on my patio.

Okay, maybe that's not too trivial after all!

Collect, pack in gift wrap and lay it on his doorstep.

 

[AmateisGal]

Collect, pack in gift wrap and lay it on his doorstep.

I would, but there are four apartments above me and I don't know which one is the culprit!

 

[Zombie_61]

When the neighbor in the upstairs apartment throws his/her cigarette butts on my patio.

Okay, maybe that's not too trivial after all!

Speaking as someone who smoked for 30 years, I don't think it's trivial at all. It always irritates me when people carelessly discard their cigarette butts, especially when they're doing so on someone else's property. There are proper receptacles for cigarette butts, and if there aren't any handy at any given moment there are a number of things that can be used as an improvised receptacle. The only reasons for improperly discarded cigarette butts are laziness and lack of respect for others.

 

[tonyb]

When the neighbor in the upstairs apartment throws his/her cigarette butts on my patio.

Okay, maybe that's not too trivial after all!

Can’t have that.

It’s been a few decades now, but back when smoking was more socially acceptable many smokers (me among them, I’m a little embarrassed to say) thought that casually discarded cigarette butts somehow weren’t litter. Those orange sparks from butts flicked out car windows at night was a very common sight, and many of us regarded the fire hazard that presented as just one of those things we had to live (and die) with.

I stopped littering butts a good decade or more before I quit the smokes, in ’06. But I’m sure I tossed thousands and thousands prior to seeing the, um, light.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A couple years back I was driving thru the middle of town here in the Plodge, and it was a hot day so I had the windows all rolled down -- 1941 style AC. I was stopped at a light, and some buttnozzle on the sidewalk flipped a lit cigarette right in the passenger window. Fortunately it landed on the floor and not the seat or on me, and I was able to crush it out and throw it back at him before the light changed -- accompanied by a pointed comment concerning the circumstances of his parentage.

I'd like to be kind and charitable and think he didn't do this on purpose, but on the other hand how much of a complete idiot do you have to be to throw a smoldering butt in the direction of a line of traffic?

About the only thing I can think of that I hate more than dealing with cigarette butts is finding gobs of spent chew inside beer bottles after a show. Sanitation protocols require that every single used bottle has to be rinsed clean before we box them up and put them in the storeroom -- which is a pretty sickening process as it is, but there is nothing on God's green earth that is more disgusting, repulsive and nausea-inducing than encountering the remnants of some fool's cud.

 

[Touchofevil]

People who dart out in front of me because they are in such a rush, but veer to and fro in the lane(s) as they fumble with their seatbelt or whatever else they are messing with because they couldn’t take the time to do it before darting out and cutting me off.

 

[Hercule]

People who dart out in front of me because they are in such a rush, but veer to and fro in the lane(s) as they fumble with their seatbelt or whatever else they are messing with because they couldn’t take the time to do it before darting out and cutting me off.

My pet peeve is when I'm backing out of a parking space and I'm easily half way into the isle and somebody speeds by behind me.

I regularly see this scenerio on the highway: I'm in the middle of a three lane highway with nobody around me and one car some distance ahead. A car will come speeding up to pass me on the right then cross over to the left lane to pass the car ahead then to quickly cross over to take (barely of course) a right hand exit.

 

[GHT]

About the only thing I can think of that I hate more than dealing with cigarette butts is finding gobs of spent chew inside beer bottles after a show. Sanitation protocols require that every single used bottle has to be rinsed clean before we box them up and put them in the storeroom -- which is a pretty sickening process as it is, but there is nothing on God's green earth that is more disgusting, repulsive and nausea-inducing than encountering the remnants of some fool's cud.

That is disgusting I agree and so is cleaning up after alcoholic sickness. In my student days I did many things to bring in extra money and bartending was one of them. The weekends, when I worked, always had the drunk who only knew that he couldn't swallow anymore when he brought it all back. Clearing it up off the floor wasn't as bad as it sounds. Getting the urinal to flush again after the drunk had chosen it as the receptical, that was particularly repugnant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'll spare you the details of some of the incidents like that I've had to clean up. All it takes is one idiot whose definition of "a good time" includes gluttony and drunkenness to ruin the night for everybody.

If it was up to me, we wouldn't serve alcohol at all -- I don't think it has any place in a performance environment. The risk of incidents far outweighs any profit to be made from it. But it isn't up to me, so when certain shows come to town I make sure I have plenty of rubber gloves, masks, and disinfectant on hand.

 

[Touchofevil]

My pet peeve is when I'm backing out of a parking space and I'm easily half way into the isle and somebody speeds by behind me.

I regularly see this scenerio on the highway: I'm in the middle of a three lane highway with nobody around me and one car some distance ahead. A car will come speeding up to pass me on the right then cross over to the left lane to pass the car ahead then to quickly cross over to take (barely of course) a right hand exit.

Had that happen backing out of a parking space recently enough. They were obviously racing to an emergency of some sort is the only thing that makes sense. People, they’re the worst.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Das Boot is not only popular for it's piggish lines, jokes or the strong scenery. The wisdom lines are nice, too!

Captain Lieutenant after fake dive alarm:
-"April, April! Exercise is half the life. Just not become moss-grown."

 

[Trenchfriend]

One question about etiquette:

If someone in the store has money for the article ready by hand and lays it down on the cash desk, before the cashier operates the register, is that very disrespectful?

What do you think?

 

[Tiki Tom]

One question about etiquette:

If someone in the store has money for the article ready by hand and lays it down on the cash desk, before the cashier operates the register, is that very disrespectful?

What do you think?

Not at all. I’m much more annoyed by the person in line in front of me who shows up at the register and is somehow taken by complete surprise by the fact that she has to pay. First she seemingly can’t find her wallet in her purse, then she can’t find the right change. Happens fairly frequently. I always try to have the approximate amount at the ready when I get to the register.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When it's more or less tropical and you're sweating after shower...