Suddenly Single Journey

Crazies and Craigslist?

Author: thenicknick

This is the kind of story that is bound to make you rethink using Craigslist altogether.  Shoot, my last few dating tales from Craigslist probably had the same result…the not-a-date, the elimidate.  And still, I felt those experiences merely empowered me and provided me the necessary fodder to compile into my first ebook.  (I do what I can with what I’ve got.)

So, we’ve been using Craigslist again with…more mixed results.  On the one hand, we quite easily sold the hot tub, which resulted in the money to remodel the room and still come out waaaaay in the black.  And now…we have used it once more to sell the pool.  I know, after all the trouble we went through to get the thing, and set it up, you would think that we’d have kept it longer, right?

Well, here’s the thing with pools.  Sometimes that particular pool is simply not the right fit.  Yeah.  Like a pool on a lumpy unlevel lawn, not good.  We watched as it threatened to collapse, leaning further each day for a long time.  We found we didn’t use it as much as we thought we would, given that it was too hot most of the time to even get in.  And we grew a bit bored with it.

Therefor, we sold the pool.  It took two ads to do it, but I did it.  Yup.  The first ad resulted in a woman who came over…later than promised, and told us she’d pick it up on Thursday.  Well, on Thursday she called with a tale of financial woe and had to pass on the pool.

No worries.  I stuck another ad on Craigslist.  If there is anything people want in Charlotte right now, where the heat index is at a sweltering 110 degrees, it’s a pool.  So, there was a man who called HIM before we left for the birthday party on Saturday.  The plan was that he would come over to see the pool upon our return that evening.

Only…we didn’t return until it was getting dark.  No showing until Sunday.  We didn’t actually speak to the man, but left him a message to that effect.  Once that task was completed, we stayed up late into the night talking and planning for the home show.  And we went to bed, fully expecting to be able to sleep in at least a little bit.

Right.

Of course, I didn’t expect Rachel to wake me and need me.  Completely understandable.  And we didn’t expect this guy to start calling at the late late hour of 8:30am.  ON A SUNDAY.  Well, HE was not impressed.  And then when Rachel and I prepared to leave for the grocery store, I found an email from the guy.

IT WAS WRITTEN ENTIRELY IN CAPS.

We all know that is the equivalent of yelling.  And since I had heard the phone ring at least twice more in the bedroom, I decided to call him and try to put him off for a bit.  I was nice and polite, mostly explaining that HE would call once he had finished getting ready for the day.  Pretty non-specific, but it did let him know he wasn’t forgotten or being ignored.  I thought.

So you can imagine my surprise when the guy called my phone while we were in the store.  I didn’t answer.  I didn’t want to be involved in any haggling.  It wasn’t my place.  It wasn’t my plan.

I returned home and checked my email again.  This time the guy had left a really nasty email.  He claimed to be an upper middle class home owner who would never use our company since we had ignored him and were so rude.  Ummm, seriously?  It’s been less than an hour.  This guy needed to chillax.

HE was up and showering.  We spoke about the situation.  He was less than impressed that the man was so…aggressive.

HIM: I don’t even want to sell it to him now.  He shouldn’t be emailing like that or blowing up our phones.  What should we do?

me: Clearly he’s a special kind of crazy.  We can’t afford to anger him.  God only knows what kind of lies he could spread online to devastate us.  Call him.  Explain.

And so while I was working on bacon, HE called him.

HIM: Seriously man, the way you’ve been acting, I don’t feel comfortable having you come to my house.  You’ve been emailing and calling my fiancee.  You’ve been calling me non-stop.  And we have kids.

Now you know what I heard, right, as I floated around the kitchen, completely high on life.  We’re a family.  We’re really a family.  Ahhhh.

Oh, and about that pool…

There were two more calls to my phone, so HE answered.  There was a crazy trying to convince HIM that he was perfectly normal and harmless.  There was indecision and second thoughts.  There was a super public pool drop organized, since there would be no home visit.  And we struggled to load the heavy bulky smelling thing alone, since despite his assurances that he was harmless, his pronouncement that he was also a big strapping guy cinched our decision to keep him at bay.  I would have chosen San Francisco Bay, or maybe the Bay of Pigs.  Too far?

Then HE went off alone.  And he didn’t call and he didn’t call and he didn’t call.  The crazy had called his fiancee more than he had!

So, like the concerned almost wife I am, I called him.

me: Did you deliver the package?

HIM: Yeah.  It’s done.

We’ve since had three more calls, which we have diligently answered.  No sense in poking the bear.  But after this, Craig and I are going to have to take a breather.  And the crazy is not going to be our new BFF.  I hope to take a breather from him, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 1:05 am and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.