|
Things That Set Me Off!
I was listening to my favorite morning radio show yesterday, “Bob and
Sheri”, and was inspired to write a new column based on their chatroom.
For those of you unfamiliar with this radio duo, you are missing out as
they are very entertaining. We get them from 5 AM – 9AM on weekday
mornings and I listen to them while getting ready for work and on the
commute. At 7 each morning they come up with a topic for their daily
chatroom and people from all over the country can call up and chime in
with their stories, mostly humorous. Yesterday, the topic they came up
with was “something that you are passionate about and talk about all the
time, bore people with, get in fights over, etc…” as an example, Sheri
said that she is adamant about not eating foods with high fructose corn
syrup which is just about anything we eat these days. She won’t let her
kids eat it and has daily arguments with her husband because he loves
junk food and refuses to listen to her, continuing to shovel candy, pop,
etc…down his throat almost as a taunt. As I drove along highway 28, I
was thinking about things that set me off, and managed to come up with
quite a few…too many to list here though I will list as many as space
allows.
My family can surely guess my biggest gripe…I have been complaining
about it for years and years and never will give up my crusade against
the evil cigarette. Now, if you are a smoker, please don’t get upset
with what I’m about to write (or perhaps write your own column about how
non-smokers tick you off.) Now then…as a youngster I was subjected to
inhaling second hand smoke from both parents, as were my older brothers.
I suppose they knew that smoking wasn’t a good idea, but were unaware of
the health risks that second hand smoke could cause and therefore were
lit up continually on long car rides across the nation on our annual
vacations. If one wasn’t smoking, the other one was. The window would be
cracked a couple of inches to allow the acrid smoke a means of escape,
but I believe that all it accomplished was pulling the smoke into the
back seat where young children were gasping for fresh oxygen. As a
result, I have never been the least bit tempted to smoke, even as a way
to lose weight. I’ve often wondered what the initial attraction is to
the young person who decides to smoke their first cigarette…it surely
can’t be the taste (I’m assuming they taste as bad as they smell), it
can’t be that it makes you look cool…they are expensive and leave a
reeking odor in clothing, hair, breath and any unlucky thing that
happens to come within feet of the smoke. I could go on and on, but my
preaching won’t stop anyone from smoking, so let’s just suffice it to
say that I hate cigarettes, and their smoke and nobody ever come into my
house and light up.
Next in line is the show that I believe is on MTV called “Sweet
Sixteen”. I know, I know…I haven’t been a sweet sixteen for decades, so
why am I watching this show? I am a channel flipper and there’s just
something about this show that when I happen upon it, I have to sit and
watch, sort of like driving by a car accident. It makes you sick, but
you feel compelled to look. If, by chance, you have never had the
opportunity to see this show the premise is this: a really, horribly
spoiled young girl, the daughter of filthy rich parents, is soon to turn
16 and thinks that entitles her to throw a party that will never be
forgotten in her city. The parents are more than eager to throw away
tens of thousands of dollars on this “special” event that this girl
doesn’t truly appreciate and most of the time, the girl is a bratty,
snotty, little biatch who never lifted a finger her entire life and has
no concept of how long the normal American has to work to earn even a
fraction of what this ridiculous party is costing. She gets in her
daddy’s private jet and flies to Los Angeles or New York City to find
the perfect gown(s) and rents a mansion, hires celebrities (usually some
crappy rapper that I’ve never heard of) and invites only the coolest,
most popular kids in her school. I get so angry at the girl, but even
more-so at the parents who let her get away with treating everyone like
crap and then at the end of the evening, present her with a new
vehicle…some horrifically overpriced Hummer or SUV that she will
undoubtedly wreck in a month. Each episode tries to outdo the previous
one and I hate myself for watching.
As long as I’m on a roll here with people I feel are undeserving of
riches, let’s head now to professional athletes. Sure, they work out and
stay in shape and practice long hours on their game, but really…is any
one person worth millions just because he can make a ball go through a
hoop or can throw a football? I think not…I think there are a lot of
people that work a heck of a lot harder than those guys and risk life
and limb daily only to get paid a meager salary. I’m thinking here of
police officers, firefighters, soldiers, mail-carriers…well, maybe I
don’t risk life and limb, but somebody has to deliver those bills. It’s
not all fun and games at the local post office.
OK…I’ll change the subject just a bit and rant about all the perverts
that seem to be crawling out of the woodwork. Everyday the news has
stories about pedophiles, rapists, child abusers…South Dakota recently
allowed the names and locations of child molesters to be publicly viewed
on the internet. Out of curiosity, I went to the website and typed in
local towns just to see if a familiar name popped up. When I typed in
Vermillion, which is where my daughter, Jordan, lives with her husband
and two daughters, up popped a name and address right on her street! I
immediately called her and told her about it and it turned out that she
knew who this person was and had seen him several times. OK…instantly
there are about 300 new gray hairs on my head. Now granted, I don’t know
what this person did for sure, but I still worry about my little
granddaughters living that close to a convicted pervert. Here’s one
thing that I think would surely deter any man who is considering messing
with a child. If a certain body part were removed when a guilty verdict
was established, he would not be able to use it again, obviously and it
seems like it would make others stop and think before whipping it out.
Instead, they are turned back out into society and everyone just has to
hope that they will not be the next victim. This leads right into my
next peeve which is a convict on death row. If somebody has been found
without a doubt to be guilty of a crime worthy of the death sentence,
then let’s just get it over with. What good are they doing sitting on
death row using up tax dollars? I’m sure I’ve upset many by now, so
let’s move along, shall we?
I will end this tirade with a local gripe. Those of you who live or have
ever lived in the eastern part of South Dakota have surely watched the
local news channel known around here as Keloland. It is the king of the
three local stations, seeming to have better sound, lighting,
anchor-people and all, so it has become our channel to watch for local
news. Most of the time, it’s great, but one thing that really gets my
goat is when there is a weather situation. The station is located in
Sioux Falls, which is the largest city in South Dakota and inarguably
has the largest population, so I understand that there are many people
there who don’t really care what the weather is like in Huron, or
Aberdeen. But, there are also people who don’t live in Sioux Falls who
would like to know about the weather in their area. There can be a heavy
rain here, but it gets little to no mention…instead we get to hear about
a cloud that is flitting above Sioux Falls and may bring a slight risk
of showers. A good example came about this winter. I get up a little
after 5AM and was surprised one morning to find the wind blowing, snow
drifting and more coming down. I turned on the TV to hear what the
weatherman had to say about it, and there was nary a word! All he could
talk about was the beautiful day ahead for Sioux Falls! I couldn’t
believe it…had I been seeing things? I went again to the window and
peered out…it was definitely blowing and drifting. What the heck was
wrong with this guy? So, I stormed to the computer and got on their
website and sent an email stating the conditions near Huron. Lo and
behold, he read it on the air! And he used my name! I was SO
embarrassed…but within a few minutes, he began reading emails from lots
of others in surrounding communities with the same message. I think
there were a lot of disgruntled South Dakotans that morning. Just
because the weather was fine in Sioux Falls, does NOT mean it’s great
everywhere else!
Whew…that was a lot to get off my chest! I feel better already… The
radio talk show hosts, Bob and Sheri are always getting chewed out by
someone who didn’t like something they said on air, so now it’s my
turn..I had better get prepared for the onslaught of hate mail sure to
come my way. Come to think of it, that’s another thing I hate…when
people don’t agree with me!
|
|
