# What completely normal situations get your goat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 27, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874 "2013-11-27T02:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/241 "2013-12-12T16:15:24Z")
> [@](#): > > So, one day, I was riding my motorcycle to work when the UPS truck driver that I was slowly overtaking tossed a cig butt out of his truck. In Arizona. In the middle of fire season. The butt bounced harmlessly off my windshield, but I was seriously outraged. **I pulled up next to him, honked my horn and made him pull over.** Nice. So you put other drivers at risk while you’re playing Mad Max the road warrior over a discarded cigarette. Bonus points to the cop that didn’t take you to task for this. Good job. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/242 "2013-12-12T16:42:44Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > This. > > “It was IN MY HAND 20 SECONDS AGO and I haven’t moved from the spot. So, where in #$%^ could it have gone?” > > I make myself so angry. Me too. I quite enjoy DIY, but my wife thinks I hate it because all she usually hears are muffled cries of frustration along the lines of: “Oh for fuck’s sake where the fuck’s the fucking screwdriver it was in my fucking hand a moment ago why can I never fucking find anything…” Eventually you go off to fetch another screwdriver or whatever, and when you come back the one you lost is sitting in plain view gloating at you. I hate that. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/243 "2013-12-12T20:04:33Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Me too. I quite enjoy DIY, but my wife thinks I hate it because all she usually hears are muffled cries of frustration along the lines of: “Oh for fuck’s sake where the fuck’s the fucking screwdriver it was in my fucking hand a moment ago why can I never fucking find anything…” > > Eventually you go off to fetch another screwdriver or whatever, and when you come back the one you lost is sitting in plain view gloating at you. I hate that. Were you sitting on it? 🙂 I thought of another one this morning - people who have a garage for their cars but don’t use it. I am aware that this is another one that is 100% not my business, but I spent decades scraping ice and brushing snow off my car - I would have killed for a garage, and there are people who have one, and don’t use it. I don’t get it, and it kind of annoys me. (I have a garage now, and my car lives in there like God intended.) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/244 "2013-12-12T20:12:32Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Were you sitting on it? 🙂 > > I thought of another one this morning - people who have a garage for their cars but don’t use it. I am aware that this is another one that is 100% not my business, but I spent decades scraping ice and brushing snow off my car - I would have killed for a garage, and there are people who have one, and don’t use it. I don’t get it, and it kind of annoys me. (I have a garage now, and my car lives in there like God intended.) I can speak to this. Once you have kids’ bikes, a lawn tractor, a snow blower, your other set of tires, garbage cans, recycle bins, compost bins, etc. there’s no room for the damned car. (Actually there is room now for my one car, but that’s due to ummm… no more family at home.) ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/245 "2013-12-12T22:24:10Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > That reminds me - signage still up for companies that no longer trade. I believe company owners should be required to remove signage and be fined if they don’t. Are you talking about things like a closed business in a strip mall? In those cases, it’s the property owner, not the business owner, who’s usually responsible for signs. > [@enipla](#): > > People that sneak up on me. I sit with my back to my cube door/entrance. Dammit, don’t just walk in and lean over my shoulder or bump my chair to get my attention. Clear your throat, say something, anything, but STOP STARTELING ME. I’ve seen people put rearview mirrors on the tops of their monitors. Would that work for you? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/246 "2013-12-12T22:32:40Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I can speak to this. Once you have kids’ bikes, a lawn tractor, a snow blower, your other set of tires, garbage cans, recycle bins, compost bins, etc. there’s no room for the damned car. (Actually there is room now for my one car, but that’s due to ummm… no more family at home.) Then you need a shed (or two). 🙂 We actually have a kind of oversized garage - the side is a workshop area, so we have extra space. It is the best garage ever - everything fits in it, no problem. If we needed sheds for all that stuff so the cars would still fit, I’d do it - we’ve had too many cars hit-and-run on the street to leave them out there. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/247 "2013-12-13T02:30:59Z")
Don’t even get me started on the wisdom teeth thing. The orthodontist and dentist removed about twelve of my teeth, including two sets of molars, when I was too young to reasonably object. I don’t have relatively many teeth remaining to lose due to natural causes. I keep really good care of them to try to make them last as long as possible. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/248 "2013-12-13T03:29:02Z")
We have a shed. And a storage area at ground level by the cellar. We also have a three-car freestanding garage in the back of the house, and an attached one-car garage. Guess where the cars we drive are. Right. In the driveway. The 3-car has three cars in it that my husband is going to fix up some day. Ditto the one-car. The shed and storage area have our lawnmowers, snowblower, etc. At least these days since we are both retired I don’t have to go chip ice off the windshield at 7 a.m. in order to go to work. HE gets to do it. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/249 "2013-12-13T04:03:20Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > There were enough butts along the side of the road that one could spend 15 minutes picking them up? Really? 😕 > [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Wouldn’t surprise me. I used to walk my little dog downtown and in the winter her little dog coat smelled like “wet ashtray”. > > It’s amazing how smokers think that their butts either magically dissolve when flicked away or the Magic Butt Fairy cleans them up. :mad: Many smokers are idiots who think the world is their ashtray. Sadly this has become a normal thing, but it really does outrage me. > [@Shakes](#): > > Nice. So you put other drivers at risk while you’re playing Mad Max the road warrior over a discarded cigarette. > > Bonus points to the cop that didn’t take you to task for this. > > Good job. It wasn’t quite like that, **Shakes**. It was a 4 lane highway, so I signaled and pulled into the passing land and yelled at him to pull over. There wasn’t any exciting stuff like me throwing stuff at his windshield or pulling a gun. I did show him my cell phone and tell him that I’d call his boss and report him for throwing a lit cigarette butt out the door during fire season if he didn’t pick up butts for 15 minutes, but that was after we were stopped. Yeah, I did inconvenience people for a few minutes because they had to move into the passing lane to get by. Yeah it was probably a dick move. But…I’ll bet that guy never EVER throws a lit butt out his window again. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/250 "2013-12-13T04:07:59Z")
As I alluded to earlier: there’s no fucking way there’s 15 minutes of butts at the side of a four lane highway. No possible fucking way. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/251 "2013-12-13T04:56:39Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > As I alluded to earlier: there’s no fucking way there’s 15 minutes of butts at the side of a four lane highway. No possible fucking way. Yeah, well, you live in the Land of Consideration and Politeness. Or maybe the snow is so deep that you don’t see the butts. Trust me, they are there. (I can’t believe that \>me\< the now ex-smoker is arguing with a non-smoker about how butts last forever and what a mess they make on the roads.) ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/252 "2013-12-13T05:01:31Z")
Living where I do, I’d think 15 minutes of pick-em-up would only cover a relatively small piece of ground. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/253 "2013-12-13T15:11:25Z")
I don’t know why it bothers me so much but I’ve noticed this since moving from Downtown to The Suburbs. When I’m walking my dog people walking their dogs generally pull their dog away and don’t stop to chat. When I had my beagle downtown people would stop to let the dogs sniff noses & butts and we’d chat for a minute. I made many friends that way, including my best friend. Now that I have my Coon Hound and live in a subdivision I’ve noticed that other dog-walkers aren’t as friendly. Maybe it’s because we’re usually running together and people don’t want to disturb our pace, which I totally understand, but it happens all the time when we’re just out strolling. She’s a small, friendly Coon Hound, not a scary dog at all. I just assume that people in subdivisions are more stuck-up than people downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/254 "2013-12-13T16:27:31Z")
Bathrooms that have no fan or any kind of noisemaker. I don’t want to whole house to hear me take a leak, and god forbid I have to do something else. I don’t have a built in fan in my bathroom but I always make sure I have a little clip-on going when guests are over. Even if it’s not loud enough, it at least gives you the illusion of privacy. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/255 "2013-12-13T16:37:14Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > Many smokers are idiots who think the world is their ashtray. Sadly this has become a normal thing, but it really does outrage me. > > It wasn’t quite like that, **Shakes**. It was a 4 lane highway, so I signaled and pulled into the passing land and yelled at him to pull over. There wasn’t any exciting stuff like me throwing stuff at his windshield or pulling a gun. > > I did show him my cell phone and tell him that I’d call his boss and report him for throwing a lit cigarette butt out the door during fire season if he didn’t pick up butts for 15 minutes, but that was after we were stopped. > > Yeah, I did inconvenience people for a few minutes because they had to move into the passing lane to get by. Yeah it was probably a dick move. But…I’ll bet that guy never EVER throws a lit butt out his window again. I find it comical that you don’t get how insane this sounds. If that had been me, there is no way in hell I’d pull over for some crazy person who is honking and yelling at me to get to the side of the road as we travel at high rates of speed down the highway. ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/256 "2013-12-13T17:28:25Z")
I need to add picky eaters. They drive me nuts. It doesn’t matter if I’m actively watching them pick through their dinner, or listening to them talk about how they don’t like raw tomato. I have to fight back the urge to lecture them on how they’re behaving like spoiled children, even if they are children. This goes triple for when it’s a simple food, like onion, or tomato, or melon. Quadruple for people who won’t even TRY something that they’ve never tried before. I’m not talking cow tongue, or rocky mountain oysters, but things like, you know, broccoli. It’s food. Put it in your mouth and eat it. Christ. You’re not six. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/257 "2013-12-13T19:09:00Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I find it comical that you don’t get how insane this sounds. > > If that had been me, there is no way in hell I’d pull over for some crazy person who is honking and yelling at me to get to the side of the road as we travel at high rates of speed down the highway. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/258 "2013-12-13T20:42:25Z")
> [@Lowdown](#): > > I need to add picky eaters. They drive me nuts. It doesn’t matter if I’m actively watching them pick through their dinner, or listening to them talk about how they don’t like raw tomato. I have to fight back the urge to lecture them on how they’re behaving like spoiled children, even if they are children. This goes triple for when it’s a simple food, like onion, or tomato, or melon. Quadruple for people who won’t even TRY something that they’ve never tried before. I’m not talking cow tongue, or rocky mountain oysters, but things like, you know, broccoli. It’s food. Put it in your mouth and eat it. Christ. You’re not six. I was with you until you mentioned raw tomatoes. My food nemesis. ☹ One of life’s inexplicable joys is being able to pull through one open parking space into the open parking space on the other side. So I get really bummed out when someone takes that opposite space just as I’m pulling into the one on my side and registering that, ooooh! I get to pull through! Then it’s thwarted by some assh-- no, perfectly normal person who is absolutely allowed to park in that space as is his right. Curse that guy! ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/259 "2013-12-13T22:14:49Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I was with you until you mentioned raw tomatoes. My food nemesis. ☹ > One of life’s inexplicable joys is being able to pull through one open parking space into the open parking space on the other side. So I get really bummed out when someone takes that opposite space just as I’m pulling into the one on my side and registering that, ooooh! I get to pull through! Then it’s thwarted by some assh-- no, perfectly normal person who is absolutely allowed to park in that space as is his right. Curse that guy! I can’t eat hard-boiled eggs by themselves without gagging. Given my opinion above, this makes me pretty irritated. So every time I see a bunch of hard-boiled eggs, or devilled eggs, I eat one. Then I gag for a minute or two. Sometimes I wonder at what age it was exactly (eggsactly?) that I became a jackass. I too enjoy pulling through a parking space to the other side. Even better is when it’s otherwise a full lane of cars, but you luck out and happen upon two empty spaces. THE BEST, is when you come upon the eggsact (sic) same situation only a fraction of a second late, witness someone who you think might be about to pull through from the opposite lane, and as they begin to park, you swoop in and deny them the opportunity! Then you can be all smug and like, “I totally got that person’s goat with this completely normal situation!” You know, The Goat Getters would be a pretty good name for a band. Don’t take it, it’s mine! ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874/260 "2013-12-13T22:56:24Z")
My parents raised me to be a picky eater, and I gag and can’t swallow a lot of foods that I don’t like. Sorry if I annoyed anyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-completely-normal-situations-get-your-goat/674874.md?page=14)