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I have a no soliciting sign on my front door. Despite that, some people still knock and that is what happened this morning. I answered the door to find a late 20's man who had backed halfway up my walk away from the door who immediately began his speech. I cut him off, pointed to the sign on my door and stated, "I assume you can read?". He became very nervous and flustered and tried to apologize I guess but the door was shut just as fast as it opened.

His nervousness and lack of respect for my no soliciting sign kind of bugged me a bit. It went out front a few minutes later to see if he was still in the neighborhood and possibly call the local PD non emergency line to check him out and see if he had the required permits. As I was looking down the street for him I spotted him way down the block and also his supervisor sitting in his car watching out for him right next to my house. I approached the vehicle and asked if they had a permit and explained my agitation at the situation.

And that is when I said the stupidest thing I have ever said in my life. I told his supervisor that my kids are home and that a guy just got arrested a couple days ago across the street trying to break into people houses (which really did just happen) and that his buddy is going to get himself shot. I was a little more colorful. I immediately dawned on me that I had vaguely just threatened someone while carrying. I can't believe I said something so monumentally stupid. I have been such a conscientious carrier and have carried for 10 years now and have always vowed I would never do something that moronic but here we are.

I can rationalize it all I want but frankly there is nothing good that could have possibly come from that statement. I doubt anything will come of it and I'm assuming his supervisor went and collected his buddy with a warning about ignoring door signs and perhaps a nervous..."Dude...that guy was irritated!"

Anywho...never again. Can't believe I even did it once.

At least you recognized and learned from your mistake... I've got almost 60 years of that and I am still learning from them... Old ones and ones I haven't made yet....

Before I read you post and just the subject line I thought Yep.. this is going to be something he said to SWMBO.

I think that the better lesson is to think about how we speak to each other carefully, and that the consideration of how our words reflect on who we are and want to be stops our language well short of something that could be construed as a threat. I'm working on thinking of what I want to get from an interaction or conversation before I say anything, and trying to factor in how the audience will perceive it and me. Sometimes that leads me to saying exactly what's on my mind with no filter, sometimes it tells me that the right answer is to keep my mouth shut, and sometimes it tells me to phrase what I wanted to say differently.

I can't always do that, I don't always do it when I could or should, and I'm not always right when I go through the whole exercise. But I think it helps and I'm trying to practice getting better at it.

When I first saw the thread title I said to myself, I don't remember starting this thread.

That is definitely a wake up call to remind ourselves that we have to be vigilant to be careful of our language around strangers and even amongst some of our friends.

AndyC wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 1:04 pm Lesson learned.

A few years back I flipped someone the bird while driving (yeah, they were driving hugely irresponsibly and it made me livid) - then I immediately realized that it was the most stupid thing to have done and it wouldn't have taken much for the whole event to have gone sideways.

I cringe remembering it, but yep - I can't take it back but lesson learned too.

I'll spare everyone the details, but in Jan 1995 I ended up with two guys at my truck window, one pointing a two tone semi-auto at me from two feet away, while the other one worked on the left side of my head and face with his fists. That's the day I vowed to never teach someone how to drive with my horn.

That's why I take 19 pills a day for my PTSD so I can be sociable. I used to go off like a gun in heat. But now my psychiatrist says I'm normal now. Whatever. At least the world is safe. I try to not say anti sociable things so I can keep them fooled and keep the pills coming so I can be normal as necessary to survive with some of these lunatics walking around. In other words my attitude depends on your actions. I promise I'm a likeable guy.

One Saturday morning I was cleaning the gutters, my wife was puttering around the front garden. Two guys came up my driveway and were being friendly until they started their selling talk. I told them there was no soliciting in the community, signs are posted when entering. The older of the two said they had permission, when I insisted they leave the younger one had noticed my gun. I was purposely turned so they wouldn't notice it but he did. Then the younger one says "we better leave before he shoots us". I contacted hoa on Monday and of course they said they never give permission and that we shouldn't buy anything from door to door sellers to discourage them.

striker55 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:24 am One Saturday morning I was cleaning the gutters, my wife was puttering around the front garden. Two guys came up my driveway and were being friendly until they started their selling talk. I told them there was no soliciting in the community, signs are posted when entering. The older of the two said they had permission, when I insisted they leave the younger one had noticed my gun. I was purposely turned so they wouldn't notice it but he did. Then the younger one says "we better leave before he shoots us". I contacted hoa on Monday and of course they said they never give permission and that we shouldn't buy anything from door to door sellers to discourage them.

I’d have been tempted to ask who gave them permission, and then phone that person right then and there, while they waited and squirmed. But I can be a real jerk sometimes.

Several years ago I made the same dumb move in a different way. Standing in a long line at the grocery store, the lady checking out in front of me was arguing with the checker over an expired coupon. It was for .75 cents or so. After what seemed like an eternity, I said to the checker, "Jesus Christ, I will give you the .75 if she will just leave.". Oh boy! The lady turned her anger at me. LOL... I through up my hands and just said, "sorry. I was just trying to help.". Admittedly it probably sound more like I was being a smart mouth the way I said it. I won't make that mistake again.

Back in 1993 I lived in Ogden UT. I was on my way to Midas to have my muffler replaced. I had to make a right onto a road with 4 lanes going my way, and a couple going the other way. I had a clear path into the first lane, but was waiting for a car to pass that would give me the second lane. I needed to make a left into the parking lot in a half of a block. The blazer behind me was loosing his mind, blaring his horn and screaming out the window Stuff that's not within the forum rules to post. Mind you, I waited maybe 60-70 seconds for the oncoming vehicle to pass. When I pulled into the Midas parking lot, the blazer whipped in behind me, sped across the lot and parked about 7 spots down from where I had parked. He got out of the blazer and was screaming at the top of his lungs about how he had told me to turn, and a lot of other colorful stuff. I replied two words... (imitating charades, First word. starts with F) and started and turned to walk towards the door. I saw him pull a long knife out of the blazer (looked like the cheap survival knives with a compass in the handle that was so popular at the time) and head towards me. My very young kids and my wife at the time were with me. So I headed towards him, closing the distance. This was many years before I had a LTC. And Utah at the time was a state you had to prove a need to get the license. But I didn't want him coming close to my family. If there was going to be a problem I wanted it to be away from them and give them space to get into the door of the store. Apparently he thought better of it when he saw a 6'7" guy in pretty good shape heading towards him. So he stepped back to the blazer and got a golf club instead. When I kept coming, he threw that in the blazer and drove off, having to drive past me to get out. He spat in my direction when he passed. That's the day I learned that many of those vehicles must have plexiglass for the rear side windows, because it bowed instead of breaking with a full force punch as it went by.

Long story to say that when I was 21 I was a hot head too and said/did stupid things. The good thing from the story was that the crew at Midas got a great laugh that day. Two shook my hand. There was a lot of gang activity going on around the area and they figured he was part of it. And after a call from to the cops, they found the guy. They asked if I wanted to press charges. I asked if anything would happen if I did, they said probably not. So I didn't. But the guy was missing a knife and his golf bag was short a club as the police kept those items.

A solicitor knocked on my grandfather's door while he was massaging 'hair preservative' in his hair. As a result his hair was standing straight up. Grandpa was not happy.

The fast talking guy said, 'My name is Jones and Im here to give you this book absolutely free!' Before the guy could get 3 more words out, grandpa reached out, took the book, quickly perused it, said thank you and slam the door in the astonished guys face. The guy banged on the door for a long time while grandpa leaned against the wall giggling like a lunatic. Grandma said he would break out in hysterics all evening and she had to threatened him to shut up and go to sleep.

I miss my grandfather. He was 84 years old, and a widower when someone broke into his house one night. He fought and they beat him and stole many items, including his Browning 45 and a beautiful Browning SA 22 cal. rifle.

He laid on the floor for about 3 days, before he died. My uncle found him covered in clothes he had pulled over him for warmth. The bad guys got away.

I too have a no soliciting sign as well as a no trespassing sign. The occasional sales person that disregards them is generally told if they are to stupid to read then they are to stupid to get my business

RPBrown wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:15 pm I too have a no soliciting sign as well as a no trespassing sign. The occasional sales person that disregards them is generally told if they are to stupid to read then they are to stupid to get my business

I don't even bother with a sign. If I'm not expecting someone, I don't answer the door. I sit there like nobody is knocking.

03Lightningrocks wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:40 am

RPBrown wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:15 pm I too have a no soliciting sign as well as a no trespassing sign. The occasional sales person that disregards them is generally told if they are to stupid to read then they are to stupid to get my business

I don't even bother with a sign. If I'm not expecting someone, I don't answer the door. I sit there like nobody is knocking.

I don't usually answer the door but will answer the doorbell since my wife is on a first name basis with all of the delivery folks.