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September 30, 2007
No Sale....
Imagine if the world really worked the way my neighbor thinks it should, unemployment would cease to exist. I could show up at your home, landscape, paint, re-roof, or do whatever I wanted to, without giving you a chance to say "No", and send you a bill for my services, which you would be obligated to pay. Or I could take an unannounced sabatical from work, show up weeks or months later and resume my previously held position as if I'd never been absent, and my boss would be powerless to stop me. Ok, writing it out sounds more like extortion than sound economic policy.
I'm happy to report a rare moment of clarity yesterday when I realized I did not get to where I am by delegating management of my home or finances to a third party. No reasonable person would feel obligated to pay for services they did not request. Especially when those services were intentionally provided at a time they were not available to decline them, specifically because they HAD made their intent to decline such services known. I'm hoping the rules of behavior modification will hold true and refusal to reward the past unwanted mowing will prevent any future unwanted mowings.
Or I'll get sued, wouldn't that be fun?
Posted by Anna at 4:10 PM | Comments (1)
September 28, 2007
This is m-m-m-my house, I want you to m-m-m-move out...
Have you seen the episode of Winnie-the-Pooh where Tigger takes over Piglets house and Piglet is too nervous to tell him off? How DO you politely tell your neighbor "quit mowing my yard"? Especially when the whole thing has me wondering if I've been transported into some psycho parrallel universe.
It all started innocently enough, hiring a teenage neighbor boy to mow the yard for me, and it went quite well until July when he stopped mowing it. Just stopped. His mother mowed it once for me when she did her lawn, and I paid her what I would have paid him. Most of the month of August no one showed up to mow it, so Labor Day weekend I decided to buy a riding lawnmower and take care of the chore myself from there on out, applying what I was paying to have it mowed to paying off the mower.
As I started to mow, my neighbor came over and asked me if I wanted her to do the mowing, I assured her I could take care of it, but offered the use of my mower for her lawn, because she did not own a riding mower. A week later I noticed she had a new bright yellow riding lawnmower. A few days later I returned from work in the early hours of the morning and noticed someone had mowed my lawn while I was gone. She came by and told me her son had decided it needed mowing, despite knowing I had my own means to mow. I decided to let that one slide since it would have been one more thing to fit into a very busy weekend, and I paid "him".
Just over a week later, a few days before I would have mowed it again, I pulled into my driveway at o'dark thirty, and noticed my yard was, again, freshly mowed. I did nothing, made no mention of it, and two days later returned home to find a note on my door, claiming to be written by her son and male cousin, but in very suspicious feminine looking handwriting saying they mowed my yard, and I could just give her the money, and by the way, they'd cleaned my gutters too.
I'm really not sure my gutters needed cleaning since my trees haven't lost a lot of leaves yet, and I just had them cleaned in June. I don't have a ladder right now to climb up and inspect them, but I'm thinking, this is my house, I should be the person who decides what services it needs, when it needs them and who should perform those services.
Am I crazy?
Posted by Anna at 6:08 PM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2007
I never imagined I'd be asked to reach the high shelf...
I grew six inches today when a tiny Latina woman at my laundrymat very politely asked me if I would put soap into her washing machine. The poor thing couldn't see, much less reach the detergent compartment on top of the triple loading machine.
Posted by Anna at 4:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2007
9/11
Six years ago today the world stood still.
Five years ago today the world paused in remembrance.
Four years ago today most of the world paused to reflect.
Today a few people reflect, while most of us go on with our lives.
I wonder, how long will it be before 9/11 is relegated to the same status as veterans day or pearl harbor day, significant for some, but largely ignored.
Posted by Anna at 1:17 PM | Comments (3)
September 3, 2007
Ice Coke....
I didn't leave anything out, I'm talking about the Coke I placed in the freezer yesterday morning and promptly forgot about until this morning. Even after hearing it explode as I laid in the dark last night, wondering what on earth that sound was. I could tell it was something in the refrigerator, but couldn't remember anything setting precariously enough to fall like that. C'est la vie.
In other news, I provided endless entertainment for the neighbors this morning as I learned how to operate my new riding lawnmower, that folks, is something money can't buy. I hope I don't have tan lines now.
Posted by Anna at 12:56 PM | Comments (1)
September 1, 2007
It's a dancing dress.....
Is it wrong to go into a store with the intention of buying a riding lawnmower, and leave with a new nightie instead, just because you didn't like the salesman's tactics? I really don't know why I bother with Sears anymore, I've had so many bad experiences with their sales staff in the past few months. The funny thing is he ALMOST had me upsold, I was ready to tell him to go ahead with the sale, even though he had not listened to one single thing I said the entire time. I decided I wanted a little more time to process before I made a decision, and wandered out of the lawn and garden department, fully intending to go back and make the purchase. But I left with a periwinkle blue nightie instead, went to Lowe's bought their version of the same lawnmower, for the same price, from a salesman who spent 20 seconds listening to what I need from my lawnmower instead of telling me how cheap the lawnmower I'd decided to buy was and why I should really move up one more level. (Though he did try to upsell me, he never once let on the one I said I wanted would be a bad choice.) AND he even got me to do part of his job because I can type better and faster than his "hunt-and-peck" style.
And I spent the rest of the day in my new nightie, because the lawnmower is not being delivered until tomorrow afternoon.
Posted by Anna at 7:32 PM | Comments (1)