These Are a Few of My Favorite Peeves

I hate bringing this up so close to Christmas, but it is still two weeks away.  So, I feel that it is appropriate to get a few things off my chest, many of them connected to Christmas.  First, the song "My Favorite Things," which I parodied for my title this week.  I keep hearing it everywhere as if it was a Christmas song.  It is not one.  It comes from the musical and movie The Sound of Music.  It is featured in a scene where Maria (Julie Andrews in the movie) is trying to calm down the children in her care during a storm.  While the sone mentions packages, snowflakes, and winters, it does not mention Christmas at all, nor is it being sung during the Christmas season.  Therefore, why do so many people play it for Christmas.  I remember hearing it on one of my mother's Christmas albums when I was a child.  I believe it was Andy Williams.  For many years, that was the only time I heard that song connected with Christmas.  However, for the last few years I have been hearing it more and more, for no discernible reason.  It irks me almost as much as seeing penguins with polar bears at Christmas.  The two species are literally from different sides of the world.  Furthermore, penguins are only found naturally in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is summer at Christmas.  Almost no snow anywhere.  Sure, the birds are cute, but not appropriate for Christmas in the United States.  Next, nuisance snow and ice.  Not enough to prevent going out, but just enough to make me late getting out.  Add to this the problem of not wanting to use too much of anything that could damage my new car, and a nuisance can wind up making me a half hour behind schedule.  This includes deliveries.  On the one hand, I got in a delivery for my store a day or two earlier than I was expecting it, even though I was just late enough coming in that I almost missed it.  On the other hand,  two books that had been cleared to ship with this order weren't included.  I now don't know when they will get delivered.  Add to this that my local comic book store's regular orders for this month were misplaced electronically at the distributor, and now could be weeks late by the time they can be shipped out, well, it is just another nuisance.  Dueling television choices.  Hassles with computer games.  Worries over the fate of my store.  It all adds up.  Look, I don't mean to bring up so many issues right now, but I couldn't come up with a better topic this week.  I know.  Next week will be with a better topic; I know it.  I can't come up with a great ending, so I am stopping this ramble before I say something even more stupid than normal.