What annoys you? (1 Viewer)

[Tony Bensley]

My Walmart order is finally in London!

Of course, the niggling "Where will it be delivered?" question remains; the post office preference I selected, or the Walmart on Highbury, where it's actually supposed to go?

The post office is within close walking distance. The Highbury Walmart, not so much!

CHEERS!

 

[Clinton McClure]

I’m annoyed that every Friday afternoon, just as I’m getting off work, some knucklehead has a wreck on the I-430 bridge over the Arkansas river and snarls traffic for hours.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I’m annoyed that every Friday afternoon, just as I’m getting off work, some knucklehead has a wreck on the I-430 bridge over the Arkansas river and snarls traffic for hours.

We are retired but it amazed me how often we get delayed on that bridge for the reason you mentioned. What also irritates me are the people who don’t alter their (speed of) driving no matter the weather. There’s some of your delays on the bridge.

 

[BobO'Link]

I’m annoyed that every Friday afternoon, just as I’m getting off work, some knucklehead has a wreck on the I-430 bridge over the Arkansas river and snarls traffic for hours.

I've not been on that route so I just did a virtual drive (via Google Maps). It's 3 lanes in each direction. Lots of lane space *and* a shoulder - even on the bridge. The exits on each end appear to have long off ramps - and it's 3 lanes there as well. I expected to find something like I40 through the middle of town - not a spacious road. I just don't get it... we have pretty bad drivers here (my grandson just turned 16 and has no interest in learning to drive because of the bad drivers and traffic here) - I can't imagine even them having trouble on that stretch of highway.

 

[bmasters9]

I've not been on that route so I just did a virtual drive (via Google Maps). It's 3 lanes in each direction. Lots of lane space *and* a shoulder - even on the bridge. The exits on each end appear to have long off ramps - and it's 3 lanes there as well. I expected to find something like I40 through the middle of town - not a spacious road. I just don't get it... we have pretty bad drivers here (my grandson just turned 16 and has no interest in learning to drive because of the bad drivers and traffic here) - I can't imagine even them having trouble on that stretch of highway.

There is another indirect way of taking virtual tours of America's Interstates-- searching for videos of them (by such users as CrossCountryRoads, roadwaywiz, and Isaac of Olympia). Have you ever tried that?

 

[Johnny Angell]

I've not been on that route so I just did a virtual drive (via Google Maps). It's 3 lanes in each direction. Lots of lane space *and* a shoulder - even on the bridge. The exits on each end appear to have long off ramps - and it's 3 lanes there as well. I expected to find something like I40 through the middle of town - not a spacious road. I just don't get it... we have pretty bad drivers here (my grandson just turned 16 and has no interest in learning to drive because of the bad drivers and traffic here) - I can't imagine even them having trouble on that stretch of highway.

Well, trust me, it happens.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Well, trust me, it happens.

All. The. Time.

 

[Chip_HT]

I probably wrote something up last November about how the local school system didn't have classes on Election Day, but still scheduled parent/teacher conferences for that day. (Extra annoying for me because I voted at a different school than my kid attended, so I had to weave around the madness twice.)

They got a lot of complaints from parents (myself included), so this year, they scheduled conferences for a different set of days. But now they are considering closing schools for the primary election day in March. Except they want to schedule a teacher workday on that day.

Hey morons, the point of closing schools is to provide parking spaces for voters. Those parking spaces are used primarily by teachers. You need to give them the day off too.

 

[LeoA]

Went to Dover for the NASCAR race after skipping last year. I'm potentially annoyed with the Pennsylvania Turnpike system again, two years after some problems going to another race at Dover.

I'm not sure if I screwed up or not. Where I get on near Scranton off I-81, there's two toll booths in close proximity. Never had a problem here in my previous two times going to Dover. You feed the machine some quarters or dollar bills and depart, and a couple of miles down the line you repeat a second time.

This time though there are just two lanes open at both and they're both EZPass and something about a Turnpike license plate. All other lanes were shut down and I got my picture taken as I went through both of these toll booths.

Since I doubt it's more cost effective to bill based off my license plate (Especially with things like rental cars confusing matters), I wonder how I screwed it up this time in spots that were clear cut my first two visits. Time to load up Google Street View and see if I can piece together what I did wrong.

The 99% of my Turnpike driving afterwards was a smooth experience at least with no pictures taken of my license plate. Just the opening three miles or so got me, lol...

 

[LeoA]

Like I felt at the time, Google Street View suggests I didn't have any other options except to drive through one of those lanes, without an EZPass. So maybe I didn't screw up.

I was thinking at the time that the Toll Plate was an extra cost option Pennsylvanians could pay extra for to get some added convenience, but that seems unnecessary with EZPass.

Are they doing this just because so many people are using plastic money these days and lack money at the ready?

 

[Malcolm R]

It does say "Toll By Plate - We Bill You", so I think your only option is to drive through. It sounds like they bill everyone that doesn't have an EZ Pass though that doesn't seem cost effective, especially if the car you're driving is not connected to you (rental, or a borrowed friend/family vehicle). Though I suppose it may be cheaper than salary/benefits/administration/security for employing live-person attendants.

I'm guessing car rental companies must build these into the rental fees, as the bills would go to them. Friends/family will just have to track you down, I suppose.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Leo:

The way I understand it, you did nothing wrong. The Mass pike has done the same thing. They have removed all toll collections and gone to an all EZ Pass system. In the event of cars passing without EZ Pass, they take a pix of your plate and mail you a bill.

Are they doing this just because so many people are using plastic money these days and lack money at the ready?

That's a rather loaded question. Some will tell you that's part of the answer...and they want to keep traffic moving and avoid the back-ups at the tolling booths as people fish for change.

Others posit that it gives the government more information about your travel patterns and its an expansion of "big brother" monitoring.

It's probably a combination of both.

 

[TJPC]

Why are people so paranoid? We haven’t used money for years. Everything we buy is on MasterCard and paid off in one lump sum at the end of the month. We rack up air miles by the ton. I just got a battery lawn mower costing $600. in the store for free with air miles. I have carried around the same twenty dollar bill in my wallet for years. (The Queen on it looks about 20 herself!).

 

[Mike Frezon]

The Mass pike has done the same thing.

Oh. And I forgot to note, too, Leo.

New York State will soon follow suit.

 

[Walter Kittel]

As Tom Sizemore opined in Strange Days...

"The issue isn't whether you're paranoid, but whether you're paranoid enough."

Seems like sound advice these days, but maybe not. (?)

- Walter.

 

[jcroy]

I only use paper cash if I don't want a digital data trail for a particular purchase.

For most purchases, my digital data trail would be quite boring to most people. For example, most of my dvd/bluray purchases is very bog generic scifi stuff and some boring cop/procedural type shows. My only recent purchases which might raise some eyebrows in some quarters, would be history books about nazi germany and the manhattan project (which build the first nuclear bombs) as mentioned in another thread on here.

 

[TJPC]

I don’t find my own life that interesting. It is hard to imagine some outside dark force being more intrigued!

 

[Malcolm R]

Selecting a cookie from an assorted tray thinking it's a chocolate chip cookie, and finding out it's oatmeal raisin instead.

 

[Mike Frezon]

For me, selecting a cookie from a tray and finding out its chocolate chip instead of oatmeal raisin.

And that just happened to me, too!

 

[BobO'Link]

Hmmm... I'd be happy with either.