IT BUGS ME WHEN...

How would you complete that sentence? What's your pet peeve?
     One of mine is when people can't be bothered to return their shopping carts to the spots provided. I've seen many an able bodied lazybones, leave a shopping cart wherever, get in the car and drive off. The bossy mom in me wants to holler, "Hey! Put that where it's supposed to go." So far I have resisted. I've returned a few abandoned carts to their stall though,  all the while muttering, "How hard is it to go a few extra steps?" I also do a lot of muttering when we're driving and I see trash thrown out alongside the road. We used to have a house on a little lake and every time I walked around the lake I wound up picking up bottles or candy wrappers or empty chip bags leftover from treats people had bought at the nearby convenience store. Wrappers they couldn't bother to wait to dispose of until they got home. What's with that? Maybe these are kids, who are thinking the same thing they might think in their own house - Mom will pick it up. But your mom can't be everywhere. And why can't you pick up after yourself?
     I think back to when I was a kid and try to remember seeing trash by the side of the road. I can't. I grew up in Washington State and maybe we were different and have been invaded by slobs. Or maybe this is a bad habit that's sprung up in just one generation.
     Maybe there's nothing that can be done about all of this. Maybe, as in other areas where our culture has slid into bad behavior, it's too late to change people.
     Or, maybe it's not. Maybe we can start reminding our kids and grandkids to be good citizens and do their part to make the world a better place, starting in their own community. To not only pick up after themselves at home but when they're out and about as well.
     Anyway, those are my thoughts. And that's one of my pet peeves. What about you?