Thursday, July 22, 2010

Lawnmower Man

Yesterday afternoon I was going about my day in a normal fashion. I was keeping an eye on the trial on TruTv, emailing & phone calling friends, spending time on Facebook, riding my exercise bike. I usually spend a fair amount of time on Google every day so it's possible I was looking up ipad insurance.

I was on my laptop in the dining room which is my favorite computer to use these days instead of my desktop in my pc room.. which is now called the dungeon room. It's darkish in there and I much prefer the lighter, brighter dining room where I also get a good view of the neighborhood.

I noticed Jeff mowing part of the yard across the street. Jeff is a man who walks the trailer park with his lawnmower talking to whatever voices are talking to him. Sometimes people will hire him. It didn't seem like he'd had time to mow the whole yard, not that I gave it much thought at the time, when I saw him walking past my side window and went to the trailer behind me. He started the lawnmower up and mowed the front of their yard. I know they mow their own grass so I started paying more attention.

Soon I saw he was mowing part of MY yard. Right out one of the windows where I have the blinds open and I notice he has a new lawnmower. I figure he's trying it out or giving people free samples of his work, much like newspapers will give people a free week of delivery. Mr. Skittles had just mowed our yard last Sunday and it didn't really need it, but I figured whatever floats his boat and went back to putting my attention on the computer and the things I was doing there.

I'm not sure how much time passed.. not much.. when I heard the doorbell ring. Now, with my anxiety and panic attacks, I never ever answer my door. NEVER. My dog started barking and running around. I figured it was Jeff, but I didn't want to talk to him and thought I could ignore him and he'd go away. He didn't. Doorbell rings again. He knocks. My panic starts escalating. I run back to my dungeon room to hide. The blinds are open where I was sitting, remember?

Back in my room, which is closer to the door he's at, I hear him trying the doorknob! Thank goodness it was locked!!! By then I have a friend on the phone and when it appears Jeff has gone away she tells me to see where he's gone. He was pacing in the road kind of in front of my trailer. Then he comes back. More doorbell ringing, more door knocking. When he again leaves I sneak out and close the blinds and engage the dead bolt on the door. I was hoping he was gone for good, but he wasn't.

Somewhere in all this time I called Mr. Skittles and left him a voice mail. He called me back and said to stay away from the door and he'd be home later. He couldn't get out early. In fact he might have to work late. *sigh* About 30 minutes later he called back and said he was out of work early (yay) and was on his way home.

Jeff was just leaving my porch again when Mr. Skittles got home. They had a talk. Jeff said I'd called him to come do our yard and Mr. Skittles assured him I did not, would not, ever call him to do that. That we have our own mower, etc etc etc. Jeff left.

All in all, before Mr. Skittles got home, Jeff was here around an HOUR. For that hour Hannah was barking like crazy. For that hour I was hiding, listening to him ringing the doorbell and knocking. For that hour I was in extreme panic.

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I will add one minute to my exercise bike time every day for each comment I get on this post. One comment per person please. The added time will remain until it resets with a new post.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

we have a lawnmower guy in our neighborhood with very similar problems...are you sure you're not my neighbor? :) Wow, scary situation!

Misty DawnS said...

OMG! I would have been absolutely freaking out! I'm so glad you didn't answer the door!!!

Vivian said...

he has problems...much larger then the ones you suffer from. please pray for him.

Mike said...

Hopefully I set him straight and he won't bother us anymore.

Mom Knows Everything said...

That would freak me right out too! On a side note guess what I'm getting Johnny to do tomorrow? Hehe that's right mow our lawn.

Rose said...

that was weird. i can seewhy you would getupset. it's good that you called your husband. more bike time.

Nikki Neurotic said...

That would definitely scare me too. Hopefully he will not be back, though, if he does come back when Mr. Skittles is away-call the police.

Erika Jean said...

Kinda creepy! I think I would be hiding out too. We never answer our door... even if it's out neighbors ;-)