I have a few pet peeves.
I’m an old guy, so I’ve got decades of things that annoy and irritate me.
I’m also old enough that many of the things that annoy and irritate me, I’ve simply grown to accept.
I’m not going to change them, nor can I stop people from doing them.
It is what it is.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t still annoy me.
Two of them, however, are at the very top of my list:
A — Discarding cigarette butts
B — Not putting a shopping cart back in the corral
A — The Cigarette Butt
Now, I’ve never been a smoker, so I have no idea what it would take to quit smoking.
The annoyance isn’t in the actual act of smoking.
No.
It’s what people do with what’s left over when they’re finished smoking the cigarette.
People, to just nonchalantly flick your cigarette butt out into a public area is dirty, filthy and disgusting.
As a smoker, you know you smoke.
You know you’re going to have a cigarette butt left over when you’re finished.
And I can assume that since you’re smoking, it’s probably not your first cigarette, so it’s certainly not the first time you’ve been left holding a cigarette butt, wondering what to do with it.
Once again, I say this with no experience as a cigarette smoker.
However, I do like to eat sunflower seeds.
And much like a cigarette, when I’m done with a few sunflower seeds, there’s something left over.
The shell.
Something that must be discarded.
When I’m in my car, or enjoying my sunflower seeds out in public, I have something I can dispose of the shells in.
I usually have a disposable coffee cup handy.
And when I’m done, I don’t just throw the cup on the street.
I purposefully put it in a trash can, or I’ll take it with me to my car and dispose of it in a trash can later.
But the cigarette smoker will often just flick his butt wherever he happens to be.
If you’re in your car, many smokers will just flick it out the window.
I do appreciate that many retail establishments and stores have cigarette-butt receptacles available.
That would be a great place for a smoker to discard his butt.
What a great idea.
What a convenience for the smoker.
But nope.
Perhaps the most nonsensical part is when, instead of putting your cigarette butt in the receptacle specifically designed to hold cigarette butts, you just flick it into the parking lot before you go into the store.
Many times, RIGHT NEAR THE CIGARETTE-BUTT RECEPTACLE.
People!!!!
Call it disgusting.
Call it careless.
But let’s also call it what it is.
Littering.
If I’m drinking a plastic water bottle and I walk into a store and finish it, I don’t just throw the empty bottle in the parking lot.
No.
I look for a place to put the empty water bottle.
You know…
A trash can.
Now, I cannot casually label all cigarette smokers as careless and thoughtless.
I’ve witnessed many smokers who, when they’re finished with their cigarettes, take care of their butts the appropriate way.
But, in my experience, that seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
And don’t even get me started on sitting in traffic at a stoplight behind a car with the driver smoking, only to watch the smoker casually flick the cigarette butt out the window.
I despise sitting at a stoplight, looking out my window and seeing a pile of discarded cigarette butts on the ground.
It just seems so unnecessary.
Which brings me to…
B — The Shopping Cart
I can safely say that I don’t believe I have ever not put a shopping cart back in the corral.
I just don’t do it.
Leaving your shopping cart sitting in the parking lot isn’t something I consider merely thoughtless or lazy.
I consider it downright inconsiderate.
I’m kind of an oddball.
I don’t know what it is, but I actually enjoy going to the grocery store.
It helps that we live less than a quarter mile from our local grocery store.
If we lived a couple of miles away, I’m sure my enjoyment of going to the grocery store would be less.
I remember one Sunday morning when I had to go to the grocery store three times in a ten-minute span.
It was early Sunday morning, and I was going to make French toast and sausage for my wife and me.
But I didn’t have any milk.
So off I went to the Milton Food Lion.
I did check the refrigerator and saw that we had four eggs. Since I only needed three, we were good to go on eggs.
First trip: I forgot my wallet.
I noticed it as I walked in the door, so I had to turn around and go home to get it.
Second trip: I had my wallet and got the milk.
I got home and started making the French toast.
It was still early morning, so I didn’t want to turn on the bright kitchen light. I just used the dim kitchen light, which was all I needed.
I went to grab the cinnamon, and as I searched through the place where we keep our spices, I saw what I thought was cinnamon.
The container was turned slightly, and I saw the “gr” for “ground” on the side of the label.
Beneath that, I saw the “c,” which I assumed meant cinnamon.
It was not cinnamon.
It was ground cumin.
Son of a……
Third trip: Back to the store.
I had already put the ground cumin into my three beaten eggs, which I had to throw out.
That left me with only one egg.
Which, as it turns out, is not enough to make French toast for two people.
So while I don’t mind going to the grocery store, I really don’t like shopping carts left in the parking lot.
I’m one of those people who, when I pull into the parking lot of the Milton Food Lion, might notice someone loading groceries into their car.
And I will always offer to take their cart back for them.
But I don’t want to seem like a stalker standing there, waiting for them to unload their groceries.
So sometimes I’ll sit in my car for a couple of extra seconds, waiting for them to get near finished.
I don’t consider it a heroic act in any way, and I’m not judging the person.
I’m sure they would turn around and put their shopping cart back where it belongs.
But since I’m going that way, I don’t mind taking their cart and putting it back where it belongs.
But I have also witnessed people leaving their shopping cart sitting in the parking lot, simply pushing it off to the side, getting in their car and going on their way.
Thoughtless.
Inconsiderate.
Selfish.
Now, I’m not without faults.
I’m sure I do some things that people might find annoying.
But I have this quirky thing that I do.
When I park in a parking lot and I know I’m going to use a shopping cart, I purposefully park next to a shopping cart corral.
Just like the sunflower seeds, this isn’t my first time going to a grocery store.
I know I’m going to need a shopping cart.
And I know I don’t like walking a quarter mile to put the cart back.
Certainly not a Boy Scout, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be prepared.
