I'm annoyed

Okay, I got hit with three of my pet peeves all within a half-hour time span this morning. I can handle one at a time, though Mrs. Euphrony would likely hear about it later in the day. She would politely listen to me rant and then gently remind me that I've stood on the same soap box so many times that my shoe prints have worn a rut into the top. Had it been a mere two things, I may well have survived. But three in so short a time span warrants a blog post.

Here they are, in order of occurrence:

1. School Zone Speeders:
   Really, is it so time-saving that you must drive at twice the posted speed limit for a school zone over that long stretch of maybe 200 yards? Come on, people, it will add a possible 20-seconds to your commute to work if you slow down just enough to not blindly run over a kid that is just trying to get to school. I drive by three schools on my way to work, and within a block or two of four other schools. I am slowed down much more, on average, by the train tracks I go over than by the school zone. Let's keep our kids a little safer, shall we?
   And, where on earth are the cops that are supposed to stop these reckless drivers? My mom got a ticket for speeding through a school zone in Abilene a few years ago: the kicker is that the school had been closed, after much public debate, about six months before she got the ticket. They had never taken down the school zone signs, or stopped the lights, and the cop acknowledged that everyone knew there was no longer an active school there; but, the posted limit is the posted limit and she got a ticket. (She was able to argue it down with the judge to a normal fine instead of a school zone fine. Some sanity was found.) The moral of the story: cops seem to be able to police the inactive school zones, but not the active ones.


2. Chris Tomlin radio:
   It's not that I dislike Chris Tomlin's music, or worship music in general, but he has become the poster boy for the praise and worship genre. Still, do we have to have Chris Tomlin played every third song on KSBJ? Really? And of the two in between, at least one is a worship song from another artist. I love to worship Jehovah, I love to sing and I love songs that you can sing along with. But I need much more than to be told in every way possible that Jesus loves me and the God is magnificent. I know this and I have known this for decades. There are those who need to hear this, who may not really know God's love, but they also need to hear more that that.
   It's like having a painting of a beautiful scene in nature and being shown only a sliver of the blue sky. Was that the sky, or water? What does the rest look like? You don't know from that sliver of a glimpse. Or it's like a warm hug from a loved one. Feels great, doesn't it? But after ten minutes you start to feel a little uncomfortable, a little smothered or claustrophobic. You know there's a lot more to your relationship than just a big, unending hug buts it's lost from sight. In short, like the music but hate the repetitiveness. (Disclaimer: I actually have major problems in general with any Top 40-style radio station. By their very nature, they play songs to death, and for someone like myself who likes a very broad scope of music and musical styles this is annoying. Personally, I listen to my CDs (on shuffle) a lot, or listen on-line to half a dozen radio stations from around the country to get different regional perspectives, or listen to something like Yahoo! Music to get more variety in what I hear.)


3. Perfume strong enough to kill:
   Why, oh why, do some people insist and persist in donning enough perfume or cologne to justify classification of their bodies under OSHA guidelines for topic materials? As I walk in to work this morning, strolling down the long hall to my desk, I am assaulted by the maleficent odor. No person is in sight, or had been as I approached the trail, so this was a scent so heavy that no blood hound was needed to track the offender. This would only be a slight annoyance to me if not for the fact that I am extremely sensitive to scents; sitting next to a person wearing moderate amounts of perfume or cologne will likely trigger a migraine headache that will last for hours. What I smelled in the hallway today, with no person left in sight, was strong enough to choke a dog. I proceeded with alacrity past the danger zone. No headache has ensued, but the need to rant surpassed all others.

Okay, I feel a little better now. And Mrs. Euphrony doesn't have to listen to the same-old gripes for the umpteenth time. I'm stepping down off the soap box, now. It's available for someone else to use.

Tags: School Zone, Chris Tomlin, Perfume, Migraine Headache, Pet Peeve, Music, Radio