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I should have known that a stranger walking by wouldn't be engaging in casual conversation with me just to be polite or friendly.
I was raking outside the fence, and a not-unpleasant-looking guy walking down the street said hi and something else to me (don't remember, must have been about raking) and instead of replying in my usual curt manner, I decided to be friendly and mentioned good-naturedly about how I had been intending to rake inside the yard, but that I got carried away with doing the outside part. Next thing I know, I've agreed to pay him $7 to quickly do the inside part (only one corner of the yard; the whole yard didn't need raking). He was supposed to finish the small rest of the outside part too, but I'm not sure if he did. It was too dark by then to see well. He had said he wanted the money for cab fare to get back home from his job where he was walking from.
The reason I got talked into it instead of simply saying "no thanks, I prefer to do my raking myself", is that I've occasionally considered that it wouldn't be a bad thing to pay other people to do some raking, when I'm tired or busy with other stuff. They get money that they need, I get some extra time... But that wasn't taking into consideration how uncomfortable it makes me feel to have a stranger in my yard, and having to pay them, and feeling that they're trying to take advantage of me, and having to keep an eye on them (non-obtrusively) to make sure they're doing the job as opposed to being up to no good. I mean really, if I feel that I have to keep an eye on them, that doesn't free up any extra time for myself anyway.
He even did try to talk the price up. I didn't put up with that and said that no, I'd just do it myself if he wanted more money. So he did it for the original price.
But no. Next time I'll stick to my guns and not get talked into paying someone else to do what I was planning on doing myself.
I was raking outside the fence, and a not-unpleasant-looking guy walking down the street said hi and something else to me (don't remember, must have been about raking) and instead of replying in my usual curt manner, I decided to be friendly and mentioned good-naturedly about how I had been intending to rake inside the yard, but that I got carried away with doing the outside part. Next thing I know, I've agreed to pay him $7 to quickly do the inside part (only one corner of the yard; the whole yard didn't need raking). He was supposed to finish the small rest of the outside part too, but I'm not sure if he did. It was too dark by then to see well. He had said he wanted the money for cab fare to get back home from his job where he was walking from.
The reason I got talked into it instead of simply saying "no thanks, I prefer to do my raking myself", is that I've occasionally considered that it wouldn't be a bad thing to pay other people to do some raking, when I'm tired or busy with other stuff. They get money that they need, I get some extra time... But that wasn't taking into consideration how uncomfortable it makes me feel to have a stranger in my yard, and having to pay them, and feeling that they're trying to take advantage of me, and having to keep an eye on them (non-obtrusively) to make sure they're doing the job as opposed to being up to no good. I mean really, if I feel that I have to keep an eye on them, that doesn't free up any extra time for myself anyway.
He even did try to talk the price up. I didn't put up with that and said that no, I'd just do it myself if he wanted more money. So he did it for the original price.
But no. Next time I'll stick to my guns and not get talked into paying someone else to do what I was planning on doing myself.