Unannounced Visitors

Am I the only person who despises unannounced visitors? Friends are one thing but solicitors are quite another, especially when they call on you at 8 pm on a Sunday night. My true friends, God bless 'em, know better than to drop by unannounced, and most of them know better than to ring the doorbell.

My "visitor" last night repeatedly rang my doorbell, bringing Zoe and Bailey to a rather heightened hysteria while I sat motionless on my couch praying for said "visitor's" departure. In my charade of appearing to be absent from my home, I couldn't shush or soothe the dogs, so the barking went on and on.

Afterwards I crept upstairs to peer out of the guest bedroom window and sure enough, there was a van parked in the dead center of the cul-de-sac, which was obviously transporting a group of solicitors door-to-door.

When I lived in apartment complexes, I was a tad more forgiving of random knocks on my door, but there's something about owning my own house that makes me feel I have a right to less intrusion by strangers.

The last time I mistakenly peeked around the curtains blocking the front door windows to see who was waiting (I was expecting a package and thought there would be nothing on the porch but a brown box) I found a twenty-something male ready to make a sales pitch. Without even opening the door, I waved my hands at him in a "no thank you" way and left it at that.

I suppose that is what in part makes me so irritated with solicitors. I feel I can only deal with them by being rude, which makes me feel bad, therefore I'd rather they just stay away.

It is ironic that I have a snoopy-like metal dog figure on my porch holding a "welcome" sign when that is really so far from the truth. I should replace the dog's sign with one that says, "NO SOLICITORS." I've considered this many times in the past few years because the "No Solicitors" sign at the entrance of my neighborhood is obviously doing nothing for me or my neighbors.