Minor Annoyances

Ever see things that just eat away at you slowly?

Not the things in life that upset you that you quickly forget about, like the person in the car that just cut you off. It's enough to get you angry, but you go on with your day without any consequence.

No, I'm talking about the things that you see that you're talking about with your spouse six hours -- or six days -- later.

There's a couple of those floating around right now, and I hope you don't mind if I indulge a little, too, because I'm pretty sure they're all things we can get behind.

First off, a quick question: Been shopping at Costco lately?

Yeah? Glad to see that Christmas is here already ... before the autumn solstice.

Honestly, if you want to start selling Christmas items early, be like the rest of us and leave the lights on your house. That way you're ready for all the people clamoring to buy decorations year-round.

See, it's a minor annoyance. It really doesn't affect my life, but it's one of those little things that eats away. Can't we at least get to Halloween before getting Santa out?

I understand the reasons why it's done, and especially in this economy. Get it out there early, and people can buy things slowly instead of all at once. It's a strategy we're using for our son -- buying a few things and stashing them away for underneath the tree. Honestly, we probably should have a few other things ready by now.

The other one is something brand new, and almost actually clever.

As we tuned in to see the new season of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC decided to get a little sneaky with its promos for their upcoming shows.

At the end of the clips for the episodes debuting this week, your friendly voiceover guy comes on camera holding up a credit card, and telling you about it's great new offer to put you into deeper debt.

Actually, the more I think about it, it's genius. ABC just got paid to promote their own shows -- which they would've done anyway for free. Somewhere in the towers of the other networks, some senior executive is yelling at a junior suit "Why didn't you think of that?!?"

This, I suppose, is where the annoyance will probably come -- as more and more of the networks will start doing it. Though, I guess they've sorta done it before, as such-and-such program is sponsored by your-brand-name here. But I really don't think I've ever seen it to that level of brazeness before.

Oh well, I should just move on and not let these things worry me. After all, on Dec. 26, someone, somewhere, will have their Valentine's Day items out on store shelves.