It’s in the Title!

Still sticking with the month-long challenge to blog daily along with a hilarious crew at #reverbbroads11. Today’s prompt: What are your biggest pet peeves?  From the entertaining Emily.

I feel the need to provide a disclaimer today. It is important, when reading the remainder of this post, to note that today is the last day of the semester. The halls of my building were bare today. The deathly quiet after a pretty tiring semester and my three-year-old crawling into my bed in the middle of the night, only to play soccer with my kidney, have exhausted my perkiness . The short of it? I am a little slap happy.

Therefore, I am not sure if this is a really good day or a really bad day to discuss my pet peeves.

I get annoyed at the use of “irregardless.” I am bothered by my inability to use the correct password, and I hate wrestling with the poorly designed packaging of cracker sleeves. However, the pet peeve that seems to become an almost daily aggravation for me involves the improper use of a turn signal. I am not talking about people who leave their turn signal on. I give them the benefit of the doubt that they had intended a turn or they are playing their stereo too loud. Either way, it gives me a chuckle.

My pet peeve is about how to appropriately use the turn signal. Stick with me for a minute. A turn involves: braking, turning the steering wheel, and accelerating through the turn. Can we agree to that (with the exception of high speed chases)? Therefore, a turn signal should be used to SIGNAL and approaching TURN, would it not? It should forewarn the act of turning.

I find too many drivers are apt to use the blinker-thingey WHILE turning. You have already started breaking and then decide to click on the aforementioned blinker. It does me no good then. However, if you put on the signal, I think, “hey, that driver is going to be slowing down soon!” I can then take appropriate action to not eat your bumper.

If it were intended to be used in the midst of a turn, it would be called a “turn confirmation.” It’s not. It’s a turn signal.