Bug List

Here is a list of twenty things that bug me and why I think they exist.

 

1.      Every evening, my dog decides to “defend her turf” by barking at every single person she sees passing our house.

·      Why: The dog sees the people (i.e. maniacally stares down the street) from a window in our guest room. Even if we close the door, she can always get into the room because she is tall enough to reach and push down the door handle when she stands on her back legs.

2.     Every time we use our oven, it makes a horrible rattling sound.

·      Why: The rattling noise is due to a loose part in the fan mechanism of the oven, which turns on every time the oven is used.

3.     Every single phone charger I buy only lasts a couple of months before it breaks and has to be replaced.

·      Why: The structural integrity of the charging cord becomes compromised right where the cord plugs into the phone, resulting in issues inside the cord and/or fraying of the exterior cord casing, which exposes the interior wires.

4.     In a very heavy downpour, the windshield wipers on my car do not sufficiently clear the rain off of my windshield.

·      Why: The fastest speed for the wiper blades is too slow to effectively clear the water.

5.     The wifi in my house is very spotty, and often the connection drops and must be reset.

·      Why: The router is in a room that is in the back of the house instead of in a more central location.

6.     The upstairs of our house is always hotter or colder than the rest of the house, depending on the season.

·      Why: The upstairs has more windows that let in the sunlight or cold, and has worse ventilation, making the AC or heat less effective.

7.     Every single day (except Sundays) it is difficult to get into and out of the parking lot of my local Publix around lunch and dinner time due to the line of cars waiting to enter the Chick-fil-A drive thru.

·      Why: Their entrance to the drive-thru is basically directly off of the street, and there is not sufficient room for the cars to get into line without blocking half of the street.

8.     In the Publix parking lot, people will illegally drive the wrong way on one-way lanes.

·      Why: The exterior two-thirds of the parking lot has two-way lanes and normal parking spaces, but the middle third of the lot is randomly one-way lanes with angled parking spots, leading to confusion.

9.     There is rarely enough water in the coffee machine to make a cup of coffee or tea.

·      Why: The machine does not hold a lot of water and must be refilled very frequently.

10.  The city of Gatlinburg, TN (a tourist destination near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) does not offer residential recycling pickup to any of its hundreds of vacation rental cabins.

·      Why: The recycling trucks may have a difficult time climbing the steep mountain grades on narrow roads to reach the residential areas of town.

11.  Our roll of parchment paper must be cut with a pair of scissors despite coming in a box with metal teeth.

·      Why: The design of the box makes it difficult to tear the paper along the metal teeth, and the metal teeth themselves are dull.

12.   Any plants that are planted in the flower bed in front of our house die.

·      Why: The bed is sloped which makes it difficult for plants to grow and the soil is very sandy and not conducive to flowers.

13.  My dog’s treat toy is usually very gross and dirty.

·      Why: The toy is designed to make it difficult to get out the treats, but this

 design also makes it very difficult to keep clean.

14.  If I buy a pack of hair ties, half of the ties break almost immediately and can’t be used in my hair.

·      Why: I have thick hair and the elastic in about half of the ties is not stretchy enough to use in my hair.

15.  Any time I leave a bread product out on the counter (like a loaf of bread), our cat rips through the plastic to eat the bread.

·      Why: The cat is a rescue cat who previously had to scavenge for food and won’t drop the habit.

16.  I’m always losing bobby pins and having to buy more.

·      Why: They are small and easily get lost.

17.  It’s difficult to find a quiet place to work in my house.

·      Why: I am working from my family’s home during this pandemic. Our house has an open floor plan where sound travels easily, and other members of my family are also trying to work from home at this time, increasing the noise and general distraction level.

18.  It is difficult to roll up the garden hose after it is used to water the flowers.

·      Why: It’s a 75-foot house that needs to be completely uncoiled to reach the flowers, and it is very heavy and bulky to try to recoil.

19.  If I have to work for a long time at my kitchen table, my shoulders hurt.

·      Why: The height of the chairs at the table are too short to comfortably sit and type for long periods of time without muscle strain.

20.  Any time I paint my nails, I always smudge the polish before it is finished drying.

·      Why: It takes a long time for the polish to dry and I am clumsy.

 

 

I had a lot of difficulty coming up with 20 specific things to put on this list. I am not used to looking at everyday life with such a critical eye, deliberately looking for “problems”. While the problems I listed are things that bug me, I often overlook due them due to how minor the negative disturbance is in my daily life. Since a lot of these problems are things I deal with daily, I tend to not view them as a “problem” (even if they are annoying things that probably could be improved) but rather as just a part of life. I hope that forcing myself to acknowledge some of these simple irritations will inspire me to find ways to try and fix them, rather than continuing to live with the constant, low-level of irritation they bring.