Column: Sharing Annoyances

by Woody

My new memoir WOODEN & ME is also available here at Amazon

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Pendulum Mood Swings

If you were expecting 700 words of nice this morning, phone your grandma. I’m in an annoyed “Why didn’t the Seahawks give the football to Marshawn Lynch at the 1-yard line?!” kind of mood.

I loved the “Like A Girl” Super Bowl ad.

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1rungirlI get annoyed that in 2015 there even needs to be a campaign battling negative stereotypes of throwing, running, fill-in-the-blank “Like A Girl.”

I’d love to see a Super Bowl ad next year encouraging boys to “hit the books Like A Girl” – 32 percent of women now receive a bachelor’s degree by age 27 compared to 24 percent of men. Even attending college, Like A Girl wins 70 percent to 61 percent for Like A Boy.

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I get annoyed by leaf blowers that simply move the mess into the street or another yard.

I love seeing a pile of raked leaves – especially if kids are busy making a mess of it.

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I get so annoyed that I get a fever and flat red spots appear on my face, neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet, by parents who refuse to vaccinate their children from measles and other diseases. To bad there isn’t a vaccine for scientific ignorance, although I guess the people who need it most would refuse it.

I love that as a kid, thanks Jonas Salk, I didn’t have to avoid swimming pools in the summer because of a polio outbreak and never knew a person who needed leg braces, much less an iron lung. I also love it that thanks to vaccines neither of my two kids or any of their friends lost their hearing, or worse, because of the measles.

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I get annoyed by mammoth street sweepers that never seem to actually sweep up anything but instead merely spray water on the dirty street and mix it with spinning steel bristles to leave a film of mud behind.

I love the street sweepers’ cousin, the Zamboni.

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I get annoyed when my laptop has a five-second hiccup and displays a spinning rainbow pinwheel before finallllllllly completing its task.

I love how much faster my computer is, even when it hiccups, than my laptop of 10 years ago was during peak performance.

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I get annoyed when the TV news “teases” a story of vital importance – “You might be serving cyanide on your dinner plate tonight!” – but doesn’t share this life-saving information until after the weather report … and after dinner.

I love it that I can get the local weather forecast in a matter of seconds anytime on my smartphone.

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I get annoyed when the driver at the front of a line of cars isn’t paying attention when a left-turn green arrow comes on and then bolts through on the yellow while the rest of us don’t make it through the intersection.

I love it when I drive from point A to point B and get all green lights.

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I get annoyed when the battery in my GPS running watch loses its charge in the middle of a run and, heaven forbid, I have to determine my pace and distance the old-fashioned way by estimation.

I love to sometimes leave my GPS watch at home and not even think about my pace.

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I get annoyed at myself because I keep underestimating the slow-as-a-doctor’s-waiting-room traffic on the 101 Freeway in Camarillo and wind up being late.

I love being ten minutes early – which Coach John Wooden said was actually merely being on time.

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I get annoyed when a doctor’s office is running 30 minutes behind schedule.

I love it when a doctor’s receptionist performs a magic act and finds a way to squeeze me in the very day I call in with an illness or ailment.

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I love that the sequel novel to Harper Lee’s 1960 literary masterpiece “To Kill a Mockingbird,” titled “Go Set a Watchman” and featuring Scout now 20 years older, will be published this July.

I get annoyed by Lee – not by her reclusiveness all these years, but because she makes it readily apparent I can’t write “Like A Girl.”

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”