I am glad to say that all my blog posts are about things I love or simply wish to remember, so most of my writing is positive. For instance, I love this piece of stained glass which hangs in our living room window that looks out to the porch and garden. I love everything I can see through that window, but to be fair, there are things I see that I do not care for.
In Jan Karon's Mitford series, conversations between her two central characters, Father Tim and his wife Cynthia, often include a whimsical exchange triggered by an exclamation of fondness about something from her followed by his question: "What don't you love, Kavanaugh?" And she always has an immediate answer. Like this one, quoted from Karon's A Common Life: "Ducks that cry all night, beds with creaking springs, and feather pillows with little gnawing things inside."
I have not been asked the question, but certain things lately have struck me as happening often enough to be thoroughly annoying! My list is not as creative as Cynthia's, but would include:
Questionnaires that arrive in the mail or my email inbox or get passed to me at the end of a meal which ask me to fill out a survey rating every medical appointment, customer service, or product I buy, especially the ones on Amazon that ask me to rate books I purchased so recently I could not possibly have read them yet!
Cell phone ringers set on loud that blast out bad music in public places, and their owners who answer them only to continue what should be a private conversation for all to hear.
The millions of address stickers I get in the mail that come with a solicitation for a contribution. Especially the ones that don't even spell my name right!
Plastic forks that break at the first bite, and paper plates that fold in half when loaded.
Unsolicited political phone calls as well as those which clearly target only senior citizens.
Smoke alarms that signal weak batteries in the middle of the night, and signal, and signal.
Oh yes, one more: the pop up that tells me I have perfect spelling when I try to send a message from AOL. Really?
That is all for now. What about you? What don't you like? Let's hear your list!
