What annoys you?--a place to put it and leave it

[Ironclad Alibi]

My upstairs neighbor has an obnoxious alarm clock that sounds for an hour. My alarm is set for one and a half hours after his. I'm tempted to advise him to get a lamp alarm clock.

Or buy an equally loud and obnoxious alarm clock and set for a half hour before his. And a pair of very good ear plugs.

[Nunavut Pants]

Some days, everything annoys me. Down to the way my wife talks to our cats.

[Dreamstalker]

My mom insists on opening my mail (um, technically opening mail that's not addressed to you without express permission to do so is a felony; do I open your mail? No), and being a bit too up in my biz in general. My room isn't really my room (damn, I don't go in your room and start making comments about how messy your desk is or what's in your closet). Pretty much the only time I can be downtown by myself/without her is if I'm meeting a friend. There's also this weird thing about food where anything I buy needs to be eaten right away (unless I hide it; if she later finds it I get interrogated about "why did you buy this"). Yet her stuff can stay in the fridge until she decides to use it, sometimes with the result of shoving my stuff to the back where it goes bad because I couldn't find/get to it.

People who stop in the middle of an aisle, and/or somehow block the entire width with a single shopping cart. MOVE! So tempted to get an air horn for my cart...

Anyone who has decided that touching/grabbing employees is a way to ask for help. NO.

People paying with cash who hold out a handful of coins and expect you to pick through it...even with this new variant and all the other crap that can be transmitted on surfaces they do this. At the height of Covid during the state emergency declaration I was able to tell them NO because company policy/state health regs, but I've been overruled if I do that now. Right now I just stop what I'm doing and tell them to count it out themselves, and if they make me touch their coins (which are generally visibly filthy along with their hands) I make a show of sanitizing everything immediately after putting the coins in the tray and before giving their change.

[Food Lady]

I think by this point I would be responding in kind. Move my stuff out of the kitchen? Yours gets moved to the exact same place you put mine, and with exactly the same amount of consideration. Ruin my good towels? I'll cut up one or more of your shirts to replace them with. And so on. Yes, it would mean living in an absolute war zone, but don't you already?

Not really. It's frustrating, yes. Turns out they had no idea who the package was for; thanks, Amazon. As for the towels, you have to tell them something 3 times but eventually they get it. I am trying to speak up more and that's helping. I just was loathe to do it before; I don't like conflict with my own family. I'll defend other people to strangers no problem, like another customer in a store or someone online being bullied. But in my own house...Well, talked to Mom about the toaster oven and she apologized. Here's the funny part: two days ago she was complaining about the things she wanted to cook that day being easiest in the toaster oven and she doesn't like the air fryer all that much. *facepalm* It's because my brother gets these ideas and gets so excited about them that she just goes along for the ride (momma's favorite; I'm Dad's favorite. It be like that sometimes.)

[Dreamstalker]

Heh, I definitely get along better with my dad now that I'm a reasonably-functional adult. We're both on the same wavelength; super technically-inclined and we can bounce ideas/etc off each other and get somewhere. Getting into deep philosophical discussions over a breakfast burrito tends to be the norm when I visit him. Living styles are generally similar; neither of us are super neat but nor are we hoarders. Mom's a neatnik of sorts and can't understand collections of tech gear, hobbies, etc.

[Food Lady]

When someone says something they know will be offensive to you out of the blue, presented as a joke. You ignore it and they keep repeating it to get a rise out of you. The more you ignore, the longer they go on.

[Ghel]

When someone won't let you get a word in edgewise. This guy yesterday (the son of a customer) called to ask why he didn't have access to his dad's account any more. Well, if you would just stop talking and stop interrupting me when I try to explain it to you, I could tell you that Power of Attorney ceases at death and you haven't provided any documentation for the estate. And no, a healthcare directive doesn't work. I don't care if "every other" financial institution you've dealt with has accepted it, even for transferring bonds. I don't believe you, but I'm not going to tell you that.

A conversation that should have taken 30 seconds took 20 minutes because he wouldn't let me speak and just kept repeating that he was shocked (shocked, I tell you!) that we wouldn't accept a healthcare directive as sufficient documentation to allow him access to his dad's checking account.

[catcul]

"Ok, I'll let you go."

*twenty minutes later*

"Ok, I'll let you go."

*twenty minutes later*

"Ok, I'll let you go."

*twenty minutes later*

"Ok, I'll let you go."

*click*

"How is it noon already?"

[El Pollo Guerrera]

When someone says something they know will be offensive to you out of the blue, presented as a joke. You ignore it and they keep repeating it to get a rise out of you. The more you ignore, the longer they go on.

Don't ignore them. Turn to them, look them right in the eyes, and give a slow golf clap. THEN walk away.

[Food Lady]

After Christmas I left up the green and red string lights outside our door for holidays like St. Pat's (red unplugged). They are on one of those dusk to dawn timers. The timer was totally unplugged and laying on the steps when I got home. Mom knows nothing about it. Maybe the plug was needed for something electrical but there are two plugs on the outlet so one was free. Not knowing why annoys me.

[Dreamstalker]

I have one of those dusk to dawn sensor bulbs in one of the living room lamps (turns out the sensor doesn't work well because of the heavy shade--I'm going to replace it with a battery-backup bulb). My mom cannot figure it out at all. The solution would be to plug a lamp into the "always on" outlet that's connected to the wall switch, but that outlet's behind the TV so for some reason I can't touch it (the TV et al is not on said outlet, I swapped it after the second time she claimed a "power outage"). We also have too damn many floor lamps. I count four in the living room alone; only one ever gets used. There are two wall switches near the living room that we don't know what they're connected to, and I'm not allowed to figure that out or ask the super. Having a random unknown wall switch bugs me; I'd like to know what it controls so I can plug a lamp in to make things easier.

[dbuzman]

At least one of the switches probably controls an outlet.

[Ghel]

My partner's mom has the same issue at her townhouse. Every room has at least one light switch. Most of them control overhead lights, but there's one in each bedroom and in the living room that aren't connected to overhead lights. I suspect they're supposed to control outlets, but those outlets are probably wired wrong, so they're always on. She doesn't want to bother anyone with something she feels like is so minor, so she hasn't complained to maintenance.

[Ironclad Alibi]

My partner's mom has the same issue at her townhouse. Every room has at least one light switch. Most of them control overhead lights, but there's one in each bedroom and in the living room that aren't connected to overhead lights. I suspect they're supposed to control outlets, but those outlets are probably wired wrong, so they're always on. She doesn't want to bother anyone with something she feels like is so minor, so she hasn't complained to maintenance.

Most wall outlets have two sockets. They can be wired so one is switched and the other isn't. Try both sockets if testing to see if they are switched or not.

[Ghel]

She said she tried them all, but she is bad at communicating. She may have meant she tried every set of outlets, not every outlet. It's hard to tell with her. Which is a thing that annoys me, so appropriate for this thread.