Is it just me?

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ACME SS

ACME SS

Well-Known Member
Joined
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Location
Emmett, Idaho
A while back I tossed a stack of about 50 business cards that my neighbor down the street gave me. You see I would be welding a quarter panel on a car and he would stop by to give me "his welders" card (meaning the guy he pays to weld things for him). Totally ignoring that I told him I used to train nuclear power plant welders and certify boilermakers. If I was prepping a car for paint I would get his body mans card, he would ignore the collage of cars I painted in the early 80's posted on my wall from when I had a small body shop in college. This goes on CONSTANTLY no matter what I am working on with this guy. I could be down to the last wheelbarrow of landscape rock and I get his landscapers card! Is this his way of trying to fit in or something? Am I the only one who this happens to? Gotta be a guy thing of some sort?
 
The next time he hands you a card, just say, "Do I look like I need help welding?????" Then don't take the card.
 
Hire him. Persistence is a virtue. Actually in the early 90s I was scheduled for a night welding course at our local Tech College. Was $600 for 148 hr 6 week course from a master welder showing every thing from thin metal tig to underwater arc. I had to withdraw due to my last child born in that time frame. The course was never offered again. And classes separately would have ran into the thousands.

I think of that blown opportunity to this day when dragging my car to my welder guy.☹️
 
RustyRatRod said:
Punch him in the face next time.
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Yeah....Then make terrible insults about his mother, then his dog in that order.
Tell him that he pees sitting down.


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I'd have fun with it and volley it back to him. "Whoever your friend is, he's not as good as me" and then proceed to melt his ears off for 10 minutes with your qualifications and talents. I can't believe that this guy isn't intentionally throwing out some kind of "dig" at your abilities.
 
It's his way of saying if he was the president of an HOA, your type of hobby work would NOT be permitted in HIS neighborhood because HE does not want to see it.

And never ask him if you can fix anything for him. He'll never be satisfied with the outcome and everything that breaks later will all be your fault.
 
On a related note - When we moved to the country, by Northern MD standards (LOL), it was mid-July. Although we are a few hundred feet off the road, you can see that I have a project or 2 in the works at any given time. When school started in the fall and my wife takes our son to the bus stop at the nearest assigned stop by the county, she and another woman naturally start talking. Turns out her husband owns a small garage/shop in the next town over, so she, being a good supporter of her husband's business, hands my wife his business card. My wife politely accepted it. The next day the other woman told her that she told her husband she did so and said he told her thanks, but to look at my driveway.....

Same type of story when I leveled out and started building the shed. One of our daughter's new friends a mile down the road - Her father is in construction. His wife offered his info to my wife in the event that we need anything done around the house. My wife once again politely acknowledged the offer.

All that was 3 and a half years ago. We still keep just enough communication going, in the event I do get in a serious jam....
 
Almost worth getting a bunch of business cards made up for all the things that you do yourself, rather than paying someone else to do, and hading him one of those for whatever the subject at hand is.

Could even get ones with a "fill in the blank" for the subject skill.

Of course you certainly don't have to accept any "work" he might try to get you to do.

Could also get cards with "Super Genius" on them.

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...or just collect business cards from any local business bulletin boards you come across, and start handing him random cards for anything you see him doing or that looks like it might need done around his house.
 
I've got a couple neighbors who used to bug me like that. One of them got the hint after I constantly ignored him, and the other doesn't seem to want to talk to me anymore after the "wheelbarrow incident."

I agree that he probably doesn't have any skills of his own, so he's got a guy for everything he needs done. I'd bet money that's how his father was, too. Some people just can't comprehend that others can have multiple skillsets outside of their current profession.
 
YY1 said:
Could even get ones with a "fill in the blank" for the subject skill.
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This actually might be the most fun.

As he's handing you the card, stop him, reach into your card stack, pull out a "blank" card, fill in the skill, and then hand it to him saying something like- "Thanks, but I've already got a guy".
 
YY1 said:
...or just collect business cards from any local business bulletin boards you come across, and start handing him random cards for anything you see him doing or that looks like it might need done around his house.
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If the OP hits an unattended car in a parking lot, he could leave one of these business cards on the damaged car.
 
I live on 20 acres, and all of the other properties on my road are at least 5 acres, but the largest one is 80. If we all want to interact with each other, you have to either take a long walk, or drive to each other's properties. My wife walks our dogs about a mile each way down the road in the morning, and so she gets to say hi to a few of the neighbors while doing that. I let my wife be the neighborhood ambassador, while I remain a Sasquatch-type character that the neighbors aren't quite sure they have actually seen or heard. NOBODY comes to my shop to harass me or ask me about my cars.
 
Take the card walk over to the bench take a pen write your number on the back of it then hand it back to him and say ..."yeah if your guy needs any help or advice, have him give me a call..."
 
YY1 said:
Almost worth getting a bunch of business cards made up for all the things that you do yourself, rather than paying someone else to do, and hading him one of those for whatever the subject at hand is.

Could even get ones with a "fill in the blank" for the subject skill.

Of course you certainly don't have to accept any "work" he might try to get you to do.

Could also get cards with "Super Genius" on them.

[ATTACH
YY1 said:
Print ACME SS DIYer since . . . Cards and better yet a sign proclaiming same along with No Trespassing or Soliciting. Violators Will be prosecuted. Post on driveway entry, outside of shop and have a good time with the next visit.

I'd spend some time talking to the guy to find what makes him tick and then decide how to proceed if any further contact is warranted or cut off completely.

Some folks are just too obnoxious to waste any time on understandably.
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It's gonna be One Of Those Days I think.

8:18 a.m., I stumble to the kitchen and pour my first cup of coffee.

A big white GMC rolls past the kitchen window on its way to the back.

You gotta be kidding me.

It's the guy who promised to be here before 6:30 last night after dropping off swing arm covers and an air filter lid for a Rush Job. And didn't show up or even call. I waited til 7 and closed up.

Knowing its ring is imminent, it lights up "incoming call" and I answer before it wakes up Billy.

"I'm here to pick up those parts."

"Seriously? I'm in my pajamas and have been out of bed not even 10 minutes yet. I work late, remember? The shop opens at 10:00. What's your schedule later?"

< pause >

"Whaddya mean, LATER? I'm here right now. If your shop is open I can just go grab them and leave the money on your bench."

I'm thinking, 'Like hell you will.'

"Give me a minute to put my shoes on."

I do not change out of my Muppets Animal pajama pants or the 3x Garfield t shirt, or even brush my bedhead hair. As a one-time customer before, he already knows my schedule and needs a reminder. A big one.

Too bright to look east at the crack of my dawn, I walk to the shop waving him in as I pass the truck.

And then sit there ... while he finishes a phone call.

He exits the truck and hits the ALARM, immediately waking up Billy's Doberman still asleep in the house .... as if my rural 5 1/2 acre yard has furtive thieves hiding in the trees over there or something.

He doesn't even open the wrapping to look at the finished parts. "Here's the cash. I appreciate you busting them out so fast."

"I appreciate your business!"

And vrooommmm, he's gone.

My coffee was cold without even a sip.
 
I swear, the more I get to know people, the more I love my cats.
 
Its not that I am anti social, BUT if my nearest neighbor was a little more than 10 miles away and see them once a year, and IF my dogs like my face and my wife never cusses me out... all is good.
 
CudaChick1968 said:
It's gonna be One Of Those Days I think.

8:18 a.m., I stumble to the kitchen and pour my first cup of coffee.

A big white GMC rolls past the kitchen window on its way to the back.

You gotta be kidding me.

It's the guy who promised to be here before 6:30 last night after dropping off swing arm covers and an air filter lid for a Rush Job. And didn't show up or even call. I waited til 7 and closed up.

Knowing its ring is imminent, it lights up "incoming call" and I answer before it wakes up Billy.

"I'm here to pick up those parts."

"Seriously? I'm in my pajamas and have been out of bed not even 10 minutes yet. I work late, remember? The shop opens at 10:00. What's your schedule later?"

< pause >

"Whaddya mean, LATER? I'm here right now. If your shop is open I can just go grab them and leave the money on your bench."

I'm thinking, 'Like hell you will.'

"Give me a minute to put my shoes on."

I do not change out of my Muppets Animal pajama pants or the 3x Garfield t shirt, or even brush my bedhead hair. As a one-time customer before, he already knows my schedule and needs a reminder. A big one.

Too bright to look east at the crack of my dawn, I walk to the shop waving him in as I pass the truck.

And then sit there ... while he finishes a phone call.

He exits the truck and hits the ALARM, immediately waking up Billy's Doberman still asleep in the house .... as if my rural 5 1/2 acre yard has furtive thieves hiding in the trees over there or something.

He doesn't even open the wrapping to look at the finished parts. "Here's the cash. I appreciate you busting them out so fast."

"I appreciate your business!"

And vrooommmm, he's gone.

My coffee was cold without even a sip.
 
I swear, the more I get to know people, the more I love my cats.
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WOW! That’s pretty rude and without care or concern. Dang, a good show of a lack of much! No class fool. Charge him double next time. LMAO! Just kidding….
 
I won't deny being completely anti social. I don't want to be bothered when I'm working, or working on my own stuff. I live on a busy county road and my shop faces the road. I like the doors open to enjoy the weather. People just randomly pull in and start walking around my shop asking me about my cars. Last spring I planted 80 trees and about 20 directly in front of my shop.

As far as the business cards... I'd seriously pull a lighter out and burn it in front of him while I looked directly at him.
 
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