A Writer Friend's House Sign...

 Hands down, getting to know other authors is one of the best things about being involved in a writing community. Over the years, I've met so many writers--some, I've gotten to know quite well, others, I've met only a few times. Thanks to social media, I can follow them equally. One author I met not too often was from Colorado. He was attending the Salt Lake Comic Con (if could have been FanX, though...). I remember him being a very nice person...

Not unusual for a writer.

The other day he posted a picture, which fascinated me. It was about soliciting and Jesus. And it brought back a lot of memories.

Years ago, I was on a LDS mission, basically combining both those things...soliciting and Jesus. We actually went door-to-door trying to spread the good word message. Because of the area we were in, we were not very successful, as far as actually discussing Jesus. It was hard, but it's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. It changed my life.

When I saw my friend's picture, I thought back about when I was knocking on doors on my mission. I can think of very few--if any--of the people we contacted who would have that particular sign on their door. Nope. No way. The last thing they'd hang outside their door was that sign. Just thinking about that gave me a new-found respect for my friend. Most people have "No Soliciting" signs to avoid not only door-to-door salespeople, but religious people as well. If he has that on his door, well...he's in for some discussions. I know if I saw that sign when I was serving, I'd have made a B-line to his door.

Well Played, Mr. Brown...Well Played

As I left the house this morning, I noticed someone had visited our little street. They left their calling card, or calling flyer. Ours was taped to our mailbox. I looked down the street and noticed everyone else had a similar yellow flyer taped to their mailboxes, too.

What could that be? I asked myself. For the past few weeks heavy equipment has been parked in front of our house and there's a strip of ripped up asphalt that runs the entire length of our street. Were the flyers a notice to us that the road construction needed redoing? Were they telling us to not use our water for a day or two?

What did those flyers say?

I thought these were from the city, or the construction company, but no...they were from a solicitor. Scott Brown (someone I don't know...) had paid our street a visit and let us know he had something to sell. And what he was selling was curb appeal--literally. Scott applies house number on your porch and/or curb for a price. I have to say, I loved the opening line on his flyer.

Reflective home addresses will be install, not painted, on the curbs tomorrow.

At first, I thought, "Great--we're getting new numbers." The writing had such surety, such power behind those words, it sounded like it was a service, maybe our tax dollars hard at work. Mr. Brown made me think this was not a sales pitch, but an official notice. After all, the first paragraph goes on to say how helpful and useful these house numbers are. I mean, they're visible in car headlights at night, which may help police, fire, and ambulance services find your home easily at night when most home addresses can be hard to locate and/or find.

I know this because the flyer tells me so.

But as I continued reading, I saw this is something Mr. Brown does, with the homeowner's permission, of course. I've got to pay to play. To be included, we just fill out the form, and put it in a place where it can be easily seen.

Maybe, if we do purchase, I'll tape it next to our No Soliciting sign.

No Soliciting...Unless You're Really Nice

Saturday afternoon my daughter and I were returning from our rehearsals. As we drove up to the house I saw my wife talking to a young man at the front door. Based on the way he was dressed and because I didn't recognize him, I assumed he was a door-to-door salesman.

I assumed correctly.

That's when I met Jake. "I'm Jake...you know, like Jake from State Farm." We laughed. I could tell right away I liked him; he was very personable. We started talking--I'm not sure if he started over with the sale's pitch he had already given to my wife. He told us he represented Edge Pest Control and he began to expound on the benefits of their pest control system, including the fact that their pesticides were all natural. That's something my wife and I both liked.

We told him that we usually take care of the various pests that invade our property. We mostly let them live, unless they find their way inside. If they do we try as often as we can to trap the bugs and release them outside. So far the Taylor Pest Control system's worked pretty well.

We told Jake this and he seemed surprised. He told us some of our neighbors were taking advantage of the many benefits offered by Edge Pest Control. I don't doubt this--we have kind neighbors who would like to help out a young salesman.

We too would have liked to help him out too, but since our pest control systems seems to be working fine and...well, let's face it--it was bound to be expensive. We told Jake this and also told him we would check out their product online and get back with them if we were interested. He countered by saying if we acted right then, we would get a sizable discount on their services. I didn't doubt this either.

Jake did everything he could think of to parry all of our evading thrusts, but in the end our frugality won out. He wrote his name on a card and gave it to us. We said goodbye and wished him well. If I were bold and wanted to embarrass Jake, I would have asked him if he saw the "No Soliciting" sign located just below our doorbell. But, he was such a nice guy, I just couldn't do that.