Nebulous Mooch

Now that we’re trying to sell a bunch of stuff on Craig’s List before the move, we get a lot of phone calls from strangers. A large portion of these strangers don’t seem to understand how to converse on the phone with someone they don’t know. Here an example of what happens:

The telephone rings and I answer it, only because I have to. I like to let my husband deal with numbers on the caller ID that I don’t recognize. “Hello,” I say.

“Hey, what’s up?” says the male caller on the other end of the phone.

How am I supposed to respond to this? I don’t know who this person is. I usually say, “Nothing. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing, nothing.” He usually repeats the word nothing. This means that there’s a whole lot of nothing going on, I guess. Then there is silent for a few seconds. During this time I continue to wonder who the heck this person is and try to figure out a way to get off the phone. Finally he’ll continue, “I’m calling about your ad on Craig’s List.”

Who are these people and who taught them how to use the telephone? Whoever did didn’t do a very good job.

On Monday a leathery man in fuzzy winter slippers came over to buy the speakers my husband advertised. This is Florida. Why does he have fuzzy winter slippers and why would he wear them out? He talked on and on about The Who and finally bought the speakers.

The parade of Craig’s List characters continues.

I love getting rid of stuff. Now that our moving date is closer we’re getting rid of all kinds of stuff. It’s crazy how many things we have that we don’t use and don’t plan on using in the foreseeable future.

It’s fun to take things to the trash–strange things that you don’t want that most other people wouldn’t want either. Here are some things we’ve taken to the trash so far: a humidifier that never worked very well but made a ton of noise, a very rusty child’s bicycle, a razor scooter (someone probably wanted that). We don’t throw these things into the dumpster. We leave them leaning against it just in case someone else who collects junk wants ours.

Selling things on Craig’s list is even better than throwing them away. Who would have thought that someone wants our old junk? And we get to meet some interesting people. They all want to stay and talk to us for about an hour. The guy who bought my massage table farted incredibly loudly and didn’t acknowledge that anything happened at all. Then he stayed and talked to us about his love for Acoustic Alchemy for a little over an hour. The guy who bought my husband’s synthesizer stayed and talked to my husband for about an hour, did some research on our internet, and shared a story about his bout with Bell’s Palsy. And let’s not forget Mrs. Cole. She bought our stove and talked and talked in the most interesting manner to me.

People are so strange. I wonder who we’ll meet next.