do a favor

Yesterday Nancy posted a piece about the dumb things people say to her, and her anger about some of them.

I want to continue a bit that direction!

Miriam and I have a friend I’ll call Louise. She is a consummate good person, seeking out people she can help, doing too much every where she goes and being just a little too eager along the way.

But she is a good person, and you cannot help but like her.

Yesterday she called. “How is Miriam doing?” That sort of thing. She was sincere in her questions, I have no doubt. “When are you going to move?” was another question we jostled with.

Then, came the point of the call.

“I have a favor to ask of you.” I have a pickup and I do a lot of repair around the church, so often favors are related to that. This time it was different. Louise sells vacuum cleaners in her “spare” time and she needed to demonstrate one of the infernal things so another friend could get points for something they don’t need either. Is that complex enough?

She told me how I didn’t have to buy from her (I can’t and won’t), but that she just needed to polish her skills etc. (Our floors are all ceramic tile, we’ll see how the demo goes!)

I told her that I considered vacuum salesmen and amway dealers in the same way and that I had little use for either, but that I would agree to letting her do her demo (she can’t bug me again, I figure), but that this would use up a LOT of friendship points, maybe most of the pile.

So, I am going to sit through a 1 or 2 hour demo of a machine I don’t want, can’t afford so Jerry can get a gizmo he won’t use.

The whole thing is nuts. I’ll sit in my recliner, but I can’t go to sleep.

Drats.