Some guy just stood out in our driveway yelling "Hello? Hello?" I looked out the window and said "Yeah?" He asked me if we wanted to have our trees trimmed. Since we just had it done about two months ago, I think that insulted our friend Mark the tree surgeon. I told him "No thanks," and off he went.
But what the hell? You can't be bothered to come ring the doorbell or knock on the door trying to sell your services? It's enough just to stand out on the sidewalk?
Weird.
Posted by Linkmeister at December 9, 2009 01:47 PM | TrackBackThey do that with us because when Morgen starts barking, they think the hounds of Hell are going to come after them. He's very loud, very big (you can see him in the door from the street), and very persistent until we tell him to be quiet. We have very few problems with those kinds of itinerant workers at our house. He does his job of protecting the pack and den very well.
Posted by: Illanoy Gal at December 10, 2009 10:23 AMI never saw such a thing in either Washington, DC (where I grew up) or in San Francisco (where I lived for about 17 years).
But I've found this kind of solicitation to be quite the norm here in Hawaii. (Been here since 1992.)
Some folks come in through the gate and bang on the side of the house. Then they go back out to the yard beyond the fence and shout, "HOO-EEE," until I go out to see what they want. Some don't bother to come in and bang at all, preferring to just shout out in the yard or the street. (Hawaiian thing? Local thing? Samoan thing? Don't know for sure.
This is quite common, especially during mango season when strangers come by and want to strip our tree of fruit. Afterwards come the guys who want to get a gig trimming the tree.
The only folks who ever come up and knock on the door are the religious proselytizers trying to get me to go Mormon or get square with Jesus.
It's a toss-up which group is the most annoying.
Posted by: Rob_in_Hawaii at December 11, 2009 05:36 PMI dunno, Rob. Most of the tree-trimmers we get ring the doorbell; some of them even have business cards. Few have contractors' licenses, though.
Lately we've been getting driveway-pavers, and every once in a while a guy selling bulk meat shows up with a refrigerated truck.
Posted by: Linkmeister at December 11, 2009 08:00 PM