Additions

So I thought of a couple other things that bug me. To illustrate the first point I will tell a story.

As some of you may know, Staci and I are trying to purchase a house; we put in an offer on a great house in Pleasant Grove up on the hill with an amazing view of the valley, a great Trax deck, a rentable basement, and a great kitchen with an even better pantry/mudroom. We put in our initial offer on the house back in October and it took the bank (it is a short sale) until December to respond to our offer and come back with a firm asking price. We checked out the house again and decided it was worth pursuing and put in another offer 2 weeks ago. The bank responded much quicker this time to our offer but their response was absurd. The bank has decided to not negotiate any more and instead foreclose on the house. The reasoning behind that decision is lost to me. Why in the world would the bank decide to spend thousands of dollars to foreclose on a house and then try to sell it rather than accept a couple thousand dollars on a short sale. What the heck!! It bugs me so much. Now the current owners' credit will be even more shot, they will not care about the condition of the house any more, the house will most likely remain vacant for a while and it will get in even worse condition and the bank will probably end up selling it for even less than what we are offering. All well.

Doctors bug me. Not all doctors, but the doctors who act like know-it-alls bother me. They are like mechanics. Most of the things they say, the patient (or customer) has no way of verifying if they are right or making stuff up. Staci was misdiagnosed for 10 years by her doctor, and it wasn't until we suggested a procedure was it discovered that what her doctor has been telling her all this time was completely wrong. Argh! And there is nothing we can do about it.

So, if anyone knows of a good house for sale or of a competent family doctor in the Provo/Orem area, we are in the market for both. (We do feel good about her OBGYN, though).

Things that annoy me.

• People who expect you to let them pull in front of you when they are sitting in the middle turn lane (suicide lane). You're not playing frogger, wait for a gap in both lanes until you try to merge. Don't pull halfway out then expect other cars to slam on their brakes to let you in. (by the way, I am all about being a courteous driver,
  
• Athletes and celebrities who expect people to listen and give credence to their opinions about politics.
• Reality TV stars (and I use the term "stars" very loosely).
• Pollution
• Meteorologist: maybe I am showing my ignorance but how can a collective group of people be wrong so often and still get people to listen to them? Oh wait, that reminds me....
• Politicians: if the old "power corrupts" then how is it possible for career politicians to be anything but corrupt. They live their lives making laws and telling people what to do; they are like a parasite living off of everyone else in the country who actually works for a living. An honest politician is an endangered species. Please give us term limits on all Congressmen and Congresswomen, someone should not be a Senator for 30 years.
• 
• Taxes: I really don't think most people realize how much they are paying in income taxes every year because everything is automatically deducted from their earnings. And then on top of that we pay Social Security (which is a doomed program, I don't plan on ever seeing a return on that), and a bunch of other taxes that I don't feel like writing about right now.
  
• and last (for now), but certainly not least, by bad attitude. I used to be a much happier person, at the rate I'm going I will be one grumpy old man. I suppose I now have a new year's resolution.