What’s Bugging Me at the Moment...

So, here’s my random list of annoyances for the day:

• “Happy Holidays” – I’m telling ya; this PC crap is gonna put me on the roof with a Magnum... “Happy Holidays”. How about Merry Christmas? And if you’re not a practicing Christian, and you’re offended by that; I’m more than happy to wish you a happy whatever applied. Happy Chanukah, a Kwazy Kwanzaa (which isn’t even remotely a religious holiday), or whatever sacred or secular holiday you’re celebrating at the moment. But don’t sanitize my season be distilling and homogenizing it into “Happy Holidays”. Peh. In your efforts to not offend anyone, you’ve offended me, and probably hundreds of thousands of traditional holiday-celebrating folk like me. I certainly think Chanukah deserves its due alongside Christmas, as they are both very significant religious holidays, but not at the expense of their individuality.
• City Codes Enforcement – A neighbor of mine is going through a ridiculous battle with the city Codes Enforcement bureau, because of his fence. He lives on the corner of a cul-de-sac, and his house faces the inside of the cul-de-sac, not the street, like my house does. So, tactically, the side of his house faces the street. He erected a gorgeous (and expensive) white 8’ fence that goes all around his side and back yards, and the bulk of it borders my property. I liked it so much I paid for the materials for the portion of the fence that borders me. Anyway, Codes Enforcement decided that the part of his house that faces the same way my house faces is the front of his house, rather than the side; and code prohibits and 8’ fence in your front yard that is in front of the house-line. So, he had to remove a good portion of it, and he’s in a big battle with them, even though he’ also received tickets for having things in his *actual* front yard, so they can’t make up their mind about what is front and what is side. Ultimately, he’ll probably get a variance, but he’ll have to shell out several hundred dollars for the privilege. Which is what they want anyway, I suppose.