General Sorts of Stuff

Ugh, the weather

It’s downright disheartening to see everyone’s sunny Spring photos on Facebook and Instagram when our forecast looks like this:

A screencap of cloudy, chilly, rainy weather for the next 10 days.
Sigh.
Image description: a screencap from my weather app that shows no sunshine for the next 10 days, windy weather from now until Monday with temperatures ranging from -1 to 5, cloudy weather on Tuesday and Wednesday with temperatures from 0 to 10, and rainy weather on Thursday and Friday with temperatures from 2-10 and possible lightning on Friday.

I could handle the lack of sun if the temperatures were warmer. I could handle the chilliness if the sun would come out.

This though? This is no fun.

I’m just trying to focus on the fact that the temperatures are trending upward.

For four days next week, the temperature won’t drop below zero.

Let’s see that as a reason for hope, hey?

I don’t buy stuff at my door

Ok, that’s not strictly true.

I will buy chocolates or raffle tickets from neighbourhood kids.

I’m not a monster.

Well, not that kind of monster anyway.

But I’m always baffled by how big companies will send people door to door to try and sell their services.

I guess enough people must buy stuff so it is worth the company’s while but I hate the idea.

Yesterday, I was working when someone knocked at my door. Khalee was going bananas, barking and running around,

I was expecting a friend to be dropping something off so I assumed she was just letting me know it was there and I went down to collect it from the mailbox.

Instead, I see some guy standing in my doorstep with a tablet in hand. He says ‘Sorry, I didn’t see your sign about the barky dog until I had already knocked.’

I’m not a complete jerk so I stepped out (in the rain! ) onto the steps to talk to him. Holding the door open wasn’t an option because Khalee would keep freaking out.

He’s wearing a company lanyard and I say that I already deal with that company. He replies that that’s why he’s here and that he was shipped in from Nova Scotia to talk to existing customers.

That seems weird but big companies do weird stuff sometimes.

Then he starts on his spiel.

“I’m here to get you set up with our home security system, get you a break on your insurance. We’ll put the camera up here…”

Now, this is the worst thing you could possibly do if you are trying to sell me something. If you start your pitch as if I have already made up my mind, I am going to say no.

I mean, I already have a policy against buying anything major at the door – I need time to consider my purchases and that’s not possible at the door- but I will double down on my “No.” if I feel like you are being scammy.

And that kind of spiel may result in sales but it’s scammy and slimy.

It’s a way to reduce people’s resistance, to ease past their objections.

If you just want sales, I guess it’s a helpful technique.

But if you want happy, engaged customers, it’s just gross.

So, I said “No camera. I don’t want one.“ and grabbed the door handle to go back inside.

“How about an alarm system?”

“Got one.”

“With what company?”

“I’m not discussing this. I don’t want to change services. I’m going back inside. Good luck out there.”

And I go back inside.

I felt bad for this young guy. Maybe this is the only job he could get and it was definitely no fun traipsing around in the chilly rain yesterday.

But I am not signing up for a security system at my front door because ai pity him.

I don’t buy stuff at my door.

I definitely don’t buy scammy-feeling stuff at my front door…or ever.

PS – I do believe he was working for the company he said he was working for, it didn’t feel like that kind of scam. It was the technique, not the product, that felt scammy.

Not quite spring

Last summer I bought myself this delightful disk swing so I could sit in it and listen to music, meditate or read.

Last fall, I decided to leave it out in case I could still use it sometimes over the winter.

And since we had very little snow for the majority of the winter I used it a fair bit.

Then we had a series of bad snowstorms and I took it down to protect it from the weight of the snow.

With the springish weather lately I decided it was time to hang it up again.

It’s not quite time to use it yet but that time is coming soon.

A circular swing hangs from a bare tree, it’s just a few inches above the above snow covered ground
I took this photo this sunny afternoon while standing on my patio. Image description: My circular swing with a green trim hangs from a bare tree in my backyard. The base of the swing is just a few inches above the snow that covers everything in the yard.

On creating order

We painted our living room this weekend and amidst the tidying and rearranging, I somehow awoke a need to move through the entire house in a flurry, creating order, adding intention, tidying things up.

Just like most people’s houses, ours is rather cluttered. It’s filled with stuff we love and stuff we used to love, and all of the equipment for the people we hoped we’d be (or that we were for a while.)

I’d love to be able to just forge ahead, working all day for weeks in a row to get rid of stuff, organize stuff, find the right place for everything.

Alas, I have other priorities too so I have to squeeze in the organizing a little bit at a time.

My brain just hates that but I am going to keep trying to convince it that working that way will, eventually, help me get all of the stuff done.

Let’s see how it goes.

Not philosophical, just fun

My friends and I had an outdoor fire at our retreat tonight.

I could spend this whole post waxing philosophical about the appeal of sitting around a fire.

I could get anthropological or psychological about the needs that are met by sitting with friends around the flames.

But really, the whole point is that it was fun and relaxing to sit there chatting while the fire crackled, being grateful that things like this are possible again.

A campfire burns, enclosed by a circle of rocks and dirt.?
Image description: a campfire burns, enclosed by a circle of rocks and dirt.