Thursday, July 23, 2009

Gotta get it off my chest!

Okay, I don't usually post on our blog, but I have something I need to get off my chest. Some of you may know that I have been working a second job (Selling Pest Control door-to-door) in the evenings from 6-9pm. Now I sold for 4 summers during college and didn't mind it. I swore I would never knock another door again, but here I am! Anyways, Some funny stuff happens every year when I am knocking and this year was no exception.

It all started on Friday night, July 10th. I was out as usual knocking, it was hot and humid (103 @ 6:30pm) and everything was going great. I had just made a sale two doors prior to the following incident. I rang the doorbell and waited, but there was no answer. Now after a few seconds it is routine for me to then knock on the door. I did that and waited some more. I could hear people in the house, so I waited some more. Finally a man answered the door and said: "What do you want!" I said: "Hi, I am with Romney Pest Contr..." (Interrupted by the man) "I don't need it!" SLAM!!! Now this happens all of the time, so I just brushed it off and went on my way around the corner. After a few doors, I had to head back and knock the other side of the street and much to my surprise, guess who was waiting for me on his porch, Yep the guy that had just slammed the door in my face.

Now I did not say anything to him, just kept doing my thing when he walked out to the end of his driveway and started yelling at me. He was telling me how I am not allowed to solicit in his neighborhood and bla, bla, bla! I said: ''Sir, I don't know why you are attacking me, I did nothing to you. You slammed the door in my face and I left, so stop bothering me at my workplace! (you like that?!?!)" He kept threatening that if I didn't leave, he was going to call the cops. I told him to go right ahead. He pulled out his cell phone and hit a few numbers and then proceeded to give my description (which he was not very nice, I would consider myself heavy set, not fat!) anyways, this has happened to me in the past and I know that when this type of situation happens, Is all they want you to do is leave. I didn't! I just kept on knocking and basically waited for the police to arrive. They never did. (I think it was a fake call)

Well to shorten things up, I for some reason got really bugged (pardon the pun) by the whole situation. I could not let it go. I vented to my wife and a few other people, hoping someone would tell me to go back and beat the you know what out of him. No one did. The next day as we drove up to Walmart, guess who walks out with a cart full of beer? Yep, the guy. I tried to get my wife to pull over so I could have a talk with him, but she wouldn't. Good thing she is the bigger person! I let this whole thing fester over the weekend and got so worked up about it that it was all I could think about. Then Sunday rolled around and much to my dismay guess what the lesson in church was. Yep, Forgiving others.

I had been thinking of all kinds of ways to get back at this guy (My favorite was to
give his address to a spam company or egg his house) and then on Sunday I hit a crossroads. I could continue to let this affect me, cause you know he has forgotten about it and it is not affecting him, or I could move on and forgive him of his shortcoming. Well part of the purpose of me posting is so I can get it off of my chest and move on.

Final Thought:
Heavenly Father has a funny way of teaching us all the lessons we need to learn in life. You never know what the next "door" in life might bring. I hope everyone can learn from my mistake and not get worked up over the little things in life. Life is too short to let these kinds of things hold us down.

Regards,

Jed
P.S. I would still like to hear some of your thoughts on what would have been a good & legal way to get back at him. :)

6 comments:

P-SWIZZLE said...

Should have prayed for forgivness, then kicked him in the teeth! J/K. WWJD? I probably would have said, "Sorry sir, I can't understand you. I don't speak jacka$$! EEEEH AAAAH!!!" :)

The Barton Family said...

Dang! You had that good story and you didn't share on Sunday!? We shared dessert with you. I am definately going to think of something for you to do. The "legal" part is tripping me up- but I am thinking. . .

brooke romney said...

Horrid! way to go jenni for driving right on by. That's why you marry good women.

Matt said...

Good work bro. We both know what happens if you continue to be a jerk to people like that. It gets them more upset and gets us nowhere. Its not the easy thing to do, but its worth it to let it go. I am glad to see you not get so bent out of shape in your old age :-). There are always lessons to be learned. Thanks for sharing.

elizabeth scott said...

Sounds like that guy is seriously unhappy! What a sad life he has! I feel bad for his family. Can you imagine if he can treat a complete stranger like that what his family must have to deal with? He lives in his own personal hell and that is punishment enough!

kara said...

Hi Gines family. I'm blog stalking... What a great story Jed! I can only relate because my hubby knocks too. He loves it when people yell at him to get a real job. So classic. You meet the best of mankind when you knock doors huh? Good for you for forgoing the egging... :) Thanks for sharing this!

-Kara (DeGering) Gallagher