In my neighbourhood there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC as the kids say. I am not annoyed by the presence of the KFC. Just heading that one off at the pass if you thought that was where I was going. In fact, I quite enjoy the nightly aroma as it wafts through the neighbourhood. Not to mention the glow of the bucket on the cold winter nights. It's quite festive.

No, what annoys me is not the KFC, but the customers. Not all of the customers, just some of them. I must admit that I do not know if the behaviours I am going to rant against are exclusive to KFC clientele. Please send in your own evidence if you know of such goings on in other locations.

So here's the deal. At this particular KFC, there is no parking (legal anyway) right by the actual entrance (in fact now that I think about it, this KFC doesn't even have a handicapped parking space). There is plenty of parking out behind the restaurant. The distance from these spots to the door is 60-100 feet or for you youngsters out there it is about 25 metres. The area right around the chicken outlet clearly has "no parking" marked on the ground and in some spots on the walls, yet many of the customers park in these no parking areas to go in to get their chicken. The thought of walking an extra 25 metres is just too much, which given the contents of a KFC dinner makes this crime of laziness all the worse.

To top matters off, some of these lazy people (and I've seen that they can walk without any noticeable limps or other pain) also leave the car idling. And not because it is cold out! Call me crazy, but that's annoying.

I don't often patronize the local KFC, but when I do it is often to make a very small purchase. If I'm making mash potatoes for dinner, I'll sometimes run over to the KFC and purchase a small gravy for me and the missus. The kids don't like gravy, so the small individual gravy that is about a buck, does the trick. That's my entire order. Usually gets a chuckle or at least a grin from the KFC employees. I think I might be known to them as "Gravy Man".

Let's Be Sensible with the Parking

     Okay, here is something that has bugged me for a long time and will probably get me in trouble with some people.  Handicapped parking.  No, I don't find the concept of handicapped parking annoying, but I do find the way it is put into practice to be terribly frustrating.  

     Now to be clear, there are places where such spaces make sense.  My local grocery store has a few spots up close and that makes plenty of sense.  However, sometimes it is silly.  There's a rec centre in town that because of its large parking lot (at least I surmise that there is some kind of ratio rule) has ten handicap spots.  They are all together and they are almost always empty.  And to top it off they are a long walk from the door.  That's right, because the closest spots to the front door are around the side of the building.  Anyone who can make it to the door from those spots can make it from anywhere in the parking lot.

     Have I ever told you about the time I backed out of the garage as a teenager with the car door open.  Almost took the darn thing off.  Then a few months later I did it again.  Cost quite a bit to fix it.  Now that was truly a handicapped parking space.

Plastic - It's Your Turn

     Plastic is a great product.  Nowadays it is hard to imagine how we survived without things like computers, gas barbecues and of course plastic.  Unfortunately with the plastic and maybe even the barbecues, I have a sneaking suspicion we aren't surviving as long as we could.  So today on A&A my friends it is time to take aim at plastic.

     Plastic has its place, but my fear is that plastic is leaking into our food and poisoning us.  I don't have any research to back this up (although alert readers can probably dig something up as there seems to lots of hints being made), but it is my gut instinct.  Even if I'm wrong, I do think I'm right that plastic changes the taste of things and changes it for the worse.  So here is what annoys me.  More and more liquids can only be bought in plastic.  It started with the milk, then moved onto Coke, and now.... wait for it... it has struck my beloved HP sauce.  HP sauce is now only being sold in plastic, at least at my local stores.  

     I have tried to avoid plastics as much as possible by using alternatives.  I switched to a metal water bottle. I switched to the 26 ounce rum when the mickeys went plastic.  I only buy the salad dressings sold in glass bottles.  I even buy the more expensive small glass ketchups rather than save money with the bigger plastic ones.  What's the alternative for HP sauce?  There is none.  How can I enjoy my sausages with anything but HP?  This plastic thing has officially gone from worrisome to annoying.  

Today's anecdote comes from my days long ago in the grocery business...

     Some of you may not be aware that back in university I worked at a local Safeway.  I was a lowly clerk taking care of buggies, bagging, and bottles.  Back in the day (the good old days) the pop was still sold in glass 750 ml bottles rather than today's plastic "torpedoes".  When these glass bottles were returned we would load them into empty banana boxes and pull them in a wagon to the back for shipping elsewhere.

     I had two of these banana boxes stacked on top on each other and was heading to the back when the load shifted and the top box fell.  I may have inadvertently have aided the dreadful advance of the plastic container.  As I stood there staring at the mound of broken glass that I had caused, the assistant manager came around the corner and gave me a very dry, "Way to go Jack," and walked away.  "Can we get a dry clean-up on aisle six, please."

P.S. - For more interesting stories from the grocery store, I recommend the cashier blog that I have added to my links list.  "Be Kind to Your Cashier".

      

Okay Lads - Put Down the Pipes

A lot of people are annoyed by the bagpipes. Everyone likes to poke fun at this fine Scottish instrument. Plenty of jokes about dead cats and the like. Or something like that. I've pretty much ignored these people over the years (one of which is the Missus) and figured them to be intolerant musical snobs who don't know how to appreciate the multicultural mosaic of instrumentation that lives on our fine planet. Until now...


Last Friday night, my son's baseball team which I proudly help coach, was playing a game in beautiful Duncan. The game took place in the shadow of the world's biggest hockey stick right by the highway, if you're familiar at all with Duncan (I know my readers from faraway might not be, but suffice it to say that it's a landmark). Behind our dugout and the backstop was a parking lot for the hockey arena to which said humongous hockey stick is attached. Early in the game, in this parking lot within a baseball throw (actually less than that even) of our game, a group of bagpipers began to practice.

Now we're not talking one set of pipes here, it was a whole marching band of them. I'd say at least ten guys. They were pumping out the volume and marching back and forth behind our game. It was quite surreal to look out onto the field and see the action being accompanied by one of the three songs written for the bagpipes. It was headache producing. I guess my tolerance for the bagpipes was just a little stronger than the masses, but I now know what the fuss is all about.

The Recap Post

     Okay, it's time to catch up on a few annoyances from the past and see how things are going.  

This weekend I was down at the Oak Bay tea party, briefly.  Just wanted to have a Baron of Beef.  Anyhow, while I was down there I noticed that the Girl Guides were staffing the Tetley Tea Tent.  You could get a cup of tea and some of their cookies.  I resisted the temptation to check it out, but now I'm regretting that decision.  It would have been a perfect opportunity to learn a few things.

I would have first checked to see if when you got your cookies with your tea if you were forced to take both a chocolate and a vanilla or if you had your choice.  And if there was choice, just which flavour was being scooped up.  Alas, I have no proof for my vanilla is better campaign.  I also should have gone up to one of the Girl Guide leaders and had a word about the cookies.  Maybe they have more pull than the lowly sales girls that I've dealt with over the years.

 

Since my post on tattoos, I've noticed that they really are taking over the bodies of those born between I'd say about 1980 and 1990.  Figures that 80's kids would be so clued out in terms of fashion.

 

On the wasp front, I am happy to say that I not only seem to have killed off the buggers at my house, but I also went over and did in a nest at my mother's.  I'm now for hire, cheap! For twenty bucks I'll come kill your wasps too.  As for the rats, there has not been a return visit.  I did talk to a guy this week who had a rat come up his toilet.  A lot of people didn't believe me when I floated that theory about my rat, but he says it happened to him.  He tried to flush the rat, but it just stretched out its legs and watched the water go round and round.  

     I have had some regular readers suggest some annoyances to me recently and I will probably get around to tackling these in an upcoming post.  What I'd really like to my readers to send me is photos of annoying signs like the ones in my post, "Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign".  If you don't remember that one you can find it using the blog archive on the right.  It's under April.  Bye for now.

Bertuzzi, You Suck! ..... maybe....

     I promised more on Bertuzzi in my last post, so here goes.  I have always been annoyed by players who are seemingly blessed with talent and don't show any hustle or effort.  I'm not talking about the guys who are trying to look cool and nonchalant, although they annoy me too (there's another post for later).  I mean the guys who just seem lazy.

     It is so obvious with Bertuzzi (if you don't know he spends most of the time when he doesn't have the puck just cruising around like he's at a public 

skating session) that he has become a verb in my lexicon and many of the people I have used it on know exactly what I mean.  As in, "hey you, don't Bertuzzi it", used when someone is putting in a half-ass effort on something.

     Now sure, Bertuzzi became a public enemy after the Steve Moore incident, but I was off his bandwagon way before that.  In fact I can forgive him more for that stupid mistake than the rash of stupid penalties he was always taking, especially at crucial moments late in key games.  He drove me crazy long before he drove Steve Moore into a neck brace.  

     So, to sum up, I don't like Bertuzzi.  Wait, stop the presses.  I've softened on Todd recently.  During the play-offs this year (Bertuzzi is now in Calgary), Bert's coach, Mike Keenan, was blowing a gasket late in the game and wanted at the opposing coach.  I mean he was really losing it and was heading towards their bench.  Good old Todd was at the end of the Calgary bench and he put out his big arm and held Keenan back while quietly saying something to him.  The something he said seemed to calm Keenan down enough to keep him from doing something stupid.  I'm guessing it was something along the lines of, "Coach, it ain't worth it."  Anyhow, I liked Bertuzzi at that moment.  I'm now off the Bertuzzi sucks bandwagon.

     I might add though that the name Bertuzzi is one of the best names to speak in anger.

     My brother was in a downtown bar one night having a good time.  He has a very slight resemblance to Bertuzzi.  Some other patron who had probably had a few  beverages yelled across the bar at him, "Hey Bertuzzi, you suck!"  I wish I had been there.