Things people do that just baffle you

[Whatexcellentboiledpotatoes]

What does either a specific person in your life, or just the general public do, you just don't understand why they do it, and you either can't ask them or you've tried to ask them and they can't tell you?

Write it here and maybe someone else that also does it can tell you why, or has an idea as to why.

Here are mine:

Why do my neighbours across the street bring their bins outside a full 24hrs early? They are retired, home most of the day, go in and out of their house five or six times during that 24hr period, but bring their bins out early Monday morning when they don't get picked up until Tuesday morning?

Why do people talk on their phones on speakerphone in public, what is the purpose?

I'd don't lock the door when we're at home so we don't have to remember to take keys, kids can go in and out easily etc.
Do lock it overnight though.

I have to put ours out early the day before because I would forget otherwise, happened too many times so not risking it now! They come for the recycle bin at 6.30am on our street and I'm not getting up at that time.

Why do patients insist to their dental hygienist they floss every day when clearly they don’t . We can tell .

Why do some dog walkers hang up dog poo in the trees
It's absolutely disgusting and I don't understand it

It's 100% down to poor management

The workers often get the flack for it and are labelled as "lazy" but that's rarely the case.

Jobs are not started on time because of miscommunication between different departments, then to rush a job through, they will send four or five blokes to a two man job. This doesn't make it go faster. It's a two man job. It just means that two blokes have got something to do and the other two haven't. So they stand/sit around. And the managers who have often never done any manual labour themselves don't listen to the people who actually do the work and know what they do and don't need.

And sometimes, again due to poor management, they need to wait around for something or someone they need to turn up before they can do anything. They're told the concrete, or the pipe, or some part they need will be there today, they get to the site and they are told "yeah, it will be at some point today" as it turns out it's being driven down to Portsmouth from a lorry just leaving Liverpool.
So they stand around waiting, because if they were to go home, they wouldn't get paid.

And they generally look fed up and/or angry because they are not being listened to by council pen pushers with no idea how to manage a site.

Go to an actual building site, managed by builders, and you'll see it works somewhat better.

I often drive to the shops. They are less than a 7 minute walk. I'm 52. But I have rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia so I am learning to 'pace' myself. Some days i am fine, others I need a walking stick and sometimes I can;t get out of bed. So i am sure that people see me sometimes with a stick and other times without and think I'm faking something or other!

Perhaps (!) a bit more niche but I see this a lot on TikTok videos for plane-spotting (and lately cherry blossom spotting in Greenwich Park etc) and it does annoy me quite a bit.

Posting beautiful vids of plump cherry blossoms and then answering 'Greenwich Park' when someone asks you 'where is this?' - only 180 acres to pick from ;) Similarly 'Heathrow' (or other airport) in response to queries about where someone spotted a particular aeroplane. I always cheer when someone gives a bit of context or a map reference.

Also, discovering about a decade ago that user experience research by Google showed that when searching for a word or phrase in a document (web page, PDF, spreadsheet - pretty much anything on a computer) 90% of computer users don't use Ctrl+F or Edit/Find to jump straight to it and instead scroll up and down visually scanning for it. I'm a computer nerd so would expect to have picked this up and obviously other people aren't, but of the useful and timesaving things you can do on a computer this would be in my Top One ;)

On all the phones I've had the search method is a bit different - on a web browser you pull up or down to bring the address bar back onto the page then overwrite the link with the terms you're after and it will tell you how often it appears on the page.

Jo

People who saunter across the road behind my reversing car 😮
People who stand in the queue in front you waiting to be served then realising that they have to pay, fannying about in their handbags for their purse after being served, just why?

I predict this won’t go well

Fair, but it's certainly not the case for the couple in their early 40s across the road, or their two teenage sons.

Or most of my other neighbours.

I don’t understand why people have no shame going to the supermarket in their PJs. I saw this just yesterday and it’s just such an awful look.

I also don’t understand why our neighbours - who are wonderful in all other ways - choose to put their bibs out between 11.30pm/midnight every week. They are so lovely and considerate in general, it doesn’t fit. Wakes me up every bloody time!

Lots of parents go to work abroad . What about those in the Armed forces? Does he have leave to come home, or could the kids fly out for a holiday to see him?
If hes abroad earning shit loads more than he would here, why not? Maybe hes actually doing to make sure the kids have a good life!!

Why do some people go to the bother of lifting their dog's poo, neatly tie it into a special little poo bag and then hang the poo bag on a bush or tree?
I'm with you on the people who walk about having conversations on speakerphone - very odd indeed. No explanations yet, either!

Can you not put their bins back in their gardens instead? They'd soon stop doing it if they miss a collection.

Eh?

163 replies and it's gone swimmingly.

Why the 'prediction'?

It's called Flocking. 😆
Every time it happens I just roll my eyes and think, "stupid flockers."

We never do ours before 10am but I have to say, lawn mowing is one of my favourite sounds ever. It just makes me think of warm days and lazy weekends in the sun.. it’s also one of those sounds from childhood that you still hear regularly now and it means the exact same thing - that it’s going to be a nice day!
If I’m lying in bed on a weekend and am woken up by lawn mowing it always puts me in a happy mood to start the day.

People who interrupt “famous” people going about their everyday business/are desperate to meet famous people

People who obsess over their corporate job

people who do everything with their partner

People who dress their family in matching outfits

People who plaster their lives over SM

Because we're human and the world has-and always will-turn this way.

Hooray!

Ahah!

Thanks.

My bag often already has things in. Even if it's empty, it's heavy enough to confuse the till - so I need to wait for someone to approve it, and then if I shift it at all to actually put something in it the till goes haywire and I have to wait again. Or I have 2 bags and want chilled things in one and non-chilled in the other and the little bag stand won't hold both.

I'd love to pack straight into bags but it's much quicker not to.

Religion in general. I don’t understand how intelligent, rational friends follow religious edicts that have a detrimental impact on what they wear/eat/do. Not looking to open a debate here, but I find it baffling.

People who stand in the middle of paths, in the middle of gates, blocking entrances and exits.

After school when I am trying to get in and pick up my child, there are always some parents standing in the middle of the path where there is a bend having a chat as if because they have their children, forget everyone else trying to get theirs. No situational awareness while their children are moving around them. They rather people go through the grass when they could stand in the grass or have a chat somewhere else than being in the way of others trying to collect their own children. So much better when it was Covid and they couldn’t do it anymore and everyone just had to queue up and be handed their child.

One of my former neighbours would drive to the very local shop, and coincidentally (or so I thought!) my (pre-recycling era) bin was always filled with a random person's Gregg's wrappers, pop cans and cigarette packets before I took my rubbish out on bin night. 🧐

One bin night I happened to be awake in the early hours and saw the neighbour in question emptying wrappers into my bin from his van before returning to his very frilly curtained well-kept home, and realised his wife probably had no idea and would have looked down on his little vices. He was an otherwise very pleasant semi-retired man so I decided to carry on without ever mentioning it.😂

But why would you insist on being right on top of somebody else? What is the mentality of going out of your way to make somebody else uncomfortable?