Dear Crabby,
My pet peeves really drive me crazy, but I don’t know how to shake them. The worst ones are when my kids don’t put things away and I have to do it later, or when someone puts a dirty dish on the counter, but doesn’t take that extra moment to rinse it and set it in the sink. How do you deal with pet peeves? What can I do to temper my nerves when this happens?
Sincerely, Patty Peevey
Dear Ms. Peevey,
I’m shocked that you would naturally think that a kind old man like myself would have pet peeves with other people! Well, nevertheless, I do. For me, it was not so much the lack of putting things away or not cleaning off dishes as much as it was noises and such. I am not sure why, but the good Lord made it so that the sound of silverware scrapping a ceramic plate makes my teeth lock up and gives me chills up my spine. My family memebers growing up never seemed to understand or care about that and just went to town scrapping and sliding their forks all over
those plates. Oh my, it gives me chills just writing about it now. The other pet peeve of mine was rattles in my vehicles. I hated the rattles so much that I would have my kids put little pieces of paper or plastic forks in the trim of my van to try to stop these noises. One year I had everything perfect, no noises at all. The kids were part of a carpool for school and it was my turn to drive. We picked up two other girls on our way to school and only had about a 15 minute ride from there. When I pulled in the school driveway, all the kids got out except this one little girl. She came up to me and handed me a wad of papers and plastic forks. She very politely said, “I cleaned up all the garbage your kids must have stuck in the trim of your van, sir.” She walked off, so proud of herself for helping me out. I could feel the steam coming off my forehead and my blood pressure rising by the second. I sold that van a few days later! As far as helping you out or giving you advice with your family, I am not sure. I would tell you to try threatening your family members in hopes of them helping to clean up, but that wouldn’t be very nice. I could also tell you to just try leaving all those dirty dishes to pile up for a few days until the stench is enough to make those family members take notice of how to rinse them off, but that is not the kind thing to do either. I guess you will need to find your own remedy, as we all have. As for me and my peeves, let’s just say I like plastic utensiles for multiple reasons! Good luck and let me know how it all turns out.
Sincerely, Dear Crabby
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