Pasco: Sometimes sweating the small stuff is all we have

Sometimes sweating the small stuff is all we have

By DOUGLAS SPANGLER

There is a national best-selling book that urges us all not to sweat the small stuff, yet sometimes in our daily lives that, fortunately, is the only thing we do have to concern ourselves about.

Few of us will have to solve some big national or international problem, but most of us become concerned over life's little irritations.

And sometimes the little problems have implications that lead to bigger things.

For instance:

Recently in a Pasco supermarket, I was banged into by a young woman obviously in a hurry with her grocery cart. Fortunately, I was quick enough to get out of her way and was only brushed by her careening cart. She mumbled something that sounded like a reluctant apology and careened onward. Knowing the reputation of Pasco drivers as well as Florida drivers at large, I just wondered if the young woman drove her car like that.

I think it is reasonable to surmise that she probably does. I also wondered if we now will have to be nearly as alert in store aisles as we have to be on Pasco roads if enough people transfer their aggressive driving habits to supermarket aisles.

Whoever invented double doors for use in public buildings must be very disappointed that his/her invention is coming to ruin. Many businesses in Pasco County (usually small ones) keep one of a set of double doors locked all of the time. It is usually the one you use to exit the store. This is a minor irritation of daily life, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if there were a fire in a store that had one of those doors locked.

I also wonder how much work there is to locking and unlocking both doors each day -- it just doesn't seem that much work for the convenience and safety of customers.

After a visit to Jacksonville, I got to thinking about our libraries. Our county libraries are long on quality but somewhat short on hours. The Jacksonville libraries had big banners in front of them saying "Always Free -- Longer Hours." I read in the Times that it would take only about $170,000 a year to extend the hours of our wonderful libraries. I wonder why a county that is willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on studies of various kinds can't find the extra money for our libraries. It is one of those things I think a lot of people wonder about.

There is a tremendous bottleneck at the end of Little Road between old highway 54 and new State Road 54, and they are now preparing to do something about it. However, as you drive down that magnificent road (Little) and see the wide parkway and see how it even makes the businesses adjacent to it look better, you wonder why they did not take care of that bottleneck when they built the rest of the road. Did it take a rocket scientist or a road scientist to say, "Let's do this all at once?"

Reading some of the headlines connected with this drought we are having, it is easy to come to the conclusion that we seem to admire liars and cheats more than we do those who turn them in. I am referring to some of the stories about neighbors who turn in those cheating by watering their lawns against regulations. Some of the stories use words like "snitch" and "spying." There are also references to the "water police." It makes you wonder whether we really take one of the worst droughts in Florida history seriously or whether we are all back on the playground yelling tattletale at our fellow playmates.

Finally, with the plethora of complaints we hear about the daily trash that is on TV, it makes you wonder why more people don't mention that there are redeeming things on TV. Since our Pasco cable companies provide us with some 40 or 50 channels from which to choose, we should remember that nearly always there is something on that is worthy, if not uplifting. So for those who are lamenting that only Jerry Springer-type shows are on all day, take a good look at your TV book. You don't have to watch PBS to find something that is okay. For those who complain and still watch the trash shows, there is one piece of advice: read a book.

For the want of a horse, the kingdom was lost, so the poet wrote. Let's hope that in most of our lives we continue to have to worry only about the horse and not the kingdom.

- Douglas Spangler, a writer and former university administrator, lives in New Port Richey. Guest columnists write their own views on subjects they choose, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.