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Headlight cleaning for $7/light at eleven-freakin'-thirty?!
This just barely happened about fifteen minutes ago from this post.
The whole 'having to smoke outside' thing may have just tipped me off about something that might happen later. Given the fact that this neighborhood is full of gang-bangers, drunks, stoners, asshole cyclists (I should hasten to add that I don't think all cyclists are assholes, just the ones in this neighborhood), and a rather vulgar, chain-smoking bouncer, does this guy really want to do what I suspect he's doing right now?
About a half-hour ago, I'm taking a break and standing on my front porch smoking a cigarette. I notice this one guy across the street, walking towards the street but looking right at our side of the street (not just our house, but their house as well, and all points west from us). Doesn't say anything to me at all, but keeps walking. I shrug it off, but make a note of it just in case.
Almost a half-hour later, I go back outside to finish my cigarette and there he goes again. This time, he actually tells me this, verbatim:
"Excuse me, sir. I'm just walking around looking to see if anyone needs their headlights cleaned, like when they start to turn yellow and stuff? I clean them up to like they were new. I just charge $7 a headlight--"
I tell him politely that we're not interested and that we clean our own car, and do just as good a job as a full-service car wash.
"It's only $7 a--"
I wave him off.
Yeah. Someone just tipped me off to the slight, yet nagging possibility that they were casing the neighborhood and just thought the bullshit story up off the top of his head. Now, I'm not really all that worried. I'm normally wide awake during nighttime hours, and as often as I step outside for a smoke at this time of night, I'll know if he sets foot on the property. And beyond our immediate neighbors, we have people who, like I said, are gang members. Then again, this being the time of year I've been seeing more 'idiot burglar' reports on the news, I should keep the rifle and bullets nearby.
The whole 'having to smoke outside' thing may have just tipped me off about something that might happen later. Given the fact that this neighborhood is full of gang-bangers, drunks, stoners, asshole cyclists (I should hasten to add that I don't think all cyclists are assholes, just the ones in this neighborhood), and a rather vulgar, chain-smoking bouncer, does this guy really want to do what I suspect he's doing right now?
About a half-hour ago, I'm taking a break and standing on my front porch smoking a cigarette. I notice this one guy across the street, walking towards the street but looking right at our side of the street (not just our house, but their house as well, and all points west from us). Doesn't say anything to me at all, but keeps walking. I shrug it off, but make a note of it just in case.
Almost a half-hour later, I go back outside to finish my cigarette and there he goes again. This time, he actually tells me this, verbatim:
"Excuse me, sir. I'm just walking around looking to see if anyone needs their headlights cleaned, like when they start to turn yellow and stuff? I clean them up to like they were new. I just charge $7 a headlight--"
I tell him politely that we're not interested and that we clean our own car, and do just as good a job as a full-service car wash.
"It's only $7 a--"
I wave him off.
Yeah. Someone just tipped me off to the slight, yet nagging possibility that they were casing the neighborhood and just thought the bullshit story up off the top of his head. Now, I'm not really all that worried. I'm normally wide awake during nighttime hours, and as often as I step outside for a smoke at this time of night, I'll know if he sets foot on the property. And beyond our immediate neighbors, we have people who, like I said, are gang members. Then again, this being the time of year I've been seeing more 'idiot burglar' reports on the news, I should keep the rifle and bullets nearby.
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