What inspires people to do door to door sales in this day and age? I couldn't imagine me doing it at any point in history, but I get that it was an okay way of doing business many, many years ago. But now? How can it be anything besides a scam? I probably avoided some new and awful thing today, but only just. I had tipped over and involuntarily napped on my couch, and had only just begun to wake when I looked up and saw a young woman walk up on my porch and knock on the door. She was holding a box maybe one foot cubed. I know I have a no soliciting sign, so I thought fine, I'll open the door, and see if this is a neighbor who got something of ours by mistake. Nope. She starts a spiel about this air freshener device in the box, how it's a free gift to me, and what do we usually use to make the house smell good? All she wants is for me to let her in, plug in the device and add water to it, and give her an opinion on how it works. There is no part of this that sounds above-board. A stranger wants to come into my house and plug in an electronic device? How about never. Thank goodness Saoirse was right there with me, playing her part. I had a grasp on her collar, and she was tugging like she wanted to run out. It kind of helped me shoo this young scammer away, looking all flustered with my big, uncontrollable dog.
There have been more times than would seem normal that I have found myself in much this situation. I wake up and there is someone trying to gain entrance to my space and sell me stuff. I've even fallen for it before in my younger days, usually because when I wake after a hard afternoon nap, I'm groggy and not making good decisions. How do these people find me at just that moment? I remember clearly it happening in the dorms in college, and some guy with an English accent got me to buy magazines this way. (First question, who let him into the dorm??) I thought putting up a no soliciting sign would protect me, and every once in a while I see someone start to walk up, see it on my storm door, and turn around. But the worst ones just don't respect it. They tell me I need new windows or a roof inspection. They try to sell me meat from a truck that is "extra," so they have to let it go right away. The worst is security systems. Got one of those last week. I never feel less safe that when a guy comes by trying to sell me a security system, not because of the thinly veiled racist hints he makes about my neighbors up the street. I feel like the salesman himself is the suspicious dude.
I guess we need to make a couple of changes. We need a bigger, more emphatic no soliciting sign. And I guess I need curtains, since I spend so much time sitting in the room facing the front door. It's harder to pretend I'm not home when they can see me sitting here. Might want to consider not shushing the big dog when she barks, too. Oddly, today she let that woman get all the way to the porch without a single woof.
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