I am beginning to think that I have been magically trapped in a “Mr. Bean” episode.
First I drive 30 miles for an appointment with my accountant, and he forgets about it. Then I am invited to lunch at a law firm, and when I arrive, the office is deserted, with computers on and lights blazing. The next week, I do a live/Zoom seminar that is going swimmingly when the whole system breaks down, leaving me soundless and video-less.
Yesterday, a neighbor invites me to “a little neighborhood gathering” celebrating Cinco de Mayo (it’s Greek Easter among my relatives) between 1 and 3 today. There will be food, I am told. I have not been invited to any neighborhood social gathering for at least ten years, so I resolve to show up, though that’s Spuds walking time and the Red Sox are playing the Twins.
I intended to drop by just to be neighborly and appreciative around 1:30, but I get a phone call from an old friend offering condolences, and I don’t reach the neighbor’s place until 2:30. When I come in the door, I see that everyone is listening to a presentation about…solar panels. I don’t know anyone, and no one is talking except the solar panel pitch man. I see a table with food, and I’m starving, but it’s in the middle of the room with the solar panel lecture. This goes on for 15 minutes, as I stand near the door watching the pitch for something holding no interest for me. Solar panels are a Cinco de Mayo thing, I surmise. Good to know. My hostess left me shortly after letting me in the door and got involved in the solar panel-fest. Spuds was waiting for a walk, the baseball game has started, and I was hungry.
The neighbor’s young son came in the door from playing outside, and I went out of it. I walked back home.
Was that wrong?
Ethics Alarms 
“The neighbor’s young son came in the door from playing outside, and I went out of it. I walked back home.
Was that wrong?”
Not wrong.
Wrong of the neighbor to invite you to a sales presentation deceptively disguised as a neighborhood social gathering.
Jon wrote, “Wrong of the neighbor to invite you to a sales presentation deceptively disguised as a neighborhood social gathering.”
Exactly!!!
I would have walked out as soon as I knew it was a sales presentation and I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Furthermore, If there is a next time for a “a little neighborhood gathering” I would openly question if it was going to be another sales trap setup.
Agreed. It’s the AMWAY sales trap
jvb
No, the neighbor deceived you into believing that your presence was wanted for social reasons. I’ve been duped into attending these schemes-disguised-as-parties before and it’s never appreciated. At least, sometimes I’m given a warning that there will be a “business opportunity” presented. It doesn’t seem like you were.
It’s a staple of multilevel marketing promotion to get people to these things under any ruse necessary. Our church flyer once instructed that the church’s name was not to be used in conjunction with any member’s personal business after a couple involved in Amway invited people to a “Bible Study” that turned into a sales pitch.
I’m sorry this happened to you. You did nothing wrong.
Now I’m ticked off. Isn’t there some innocent explanation? This neighbor, expressing her concern after my wife dies, spontaneously invited me to party so she could trap me into a solar energy pitch? Who does that? That’s a bit cruel. don’t you think? I thought it would be an opportunity to meet some people, since I am suddenly alone talking to my dog and the walls. Really? That’s what this was?
Yep. Super dirty trick. I guess the solar people are resorting to Tupperware parties. At least women knew full well what they were getting into when they were invited to a Tupperware party. Inexcusable. Bad neighbor.
Well, they are bordering on being a scam. I don’t mean that they don’t deliver a product, I mean that they are vastly overcharging and underdelivering. I have talked to a few of these people. Typically, they tell me that they can install ~2200 W of panels and a grid-intertie inverter (no batteries) for ~$20,000. I helped my brother in-law install a system I ‘designed’ (by ordering parts off Amazon) for $3000. It had 1200 W of panels, a 3 kW, name-brand inverter, and 4 kWh of batteries in an off-grid system. It took 2 hours for the 2 of us to install. He uses it to run his deep freeze and refrigerator in his garage and for more during power failures. We could have done $2000 W for $5000 easy. A 300% markup is not reasonable. Their systems often don’t work or if they do, support is nonexistent when they break. My system is 1400 W stand alone that I put in for ~$3000. It runs 2 window A/C units in the summer and more stuff during emergencies.
Oh, when you hook it up to the grid now, you have to pay a monthly fee to the electric company for the privilege of getting a $35 dollar credit on the electricity you purchased.
Unless one of the guests brought the presentation along and sprung it on the host and the other guests who were all weenies and didn’t feel they could politely decline, there’s no innocent explanation.
Your neighbor took advantage of a captive audience that had been deceived into attending what they thought was a party.
You should have made yourself a sandwich on the way out.
skimming.
did you miss the drubbing the Red Sox Put on the Twins?
-Jut
Saw most of it. I was distracted dealing with Bob Ghery…
missed all of it. Twins did better in the series than what was expected.
after beating up the White Sox for a bunch of games, it was good to see them be competitive against a decent team.
-Jut
The first two games were very close, basically where the balls bounced.
yeah, but that’s baseball.
it is really hard to pull out a winning streak because you have to rotate pitchers. No other sport has that built-in dynamic.
on the one hand, it makes it hard to put together a winning streak; on the other hand, the game can turn on a few plays.
the Red Sox were favored for the ones they lost, I believe, and not for the one they won. All it takes to turn things are a few bad plays or lucky bounces
in a 162 game season, you want to win those close games.
but, how unlucky are those White Sox? They can’t be this bad for a whole season. It’s never been done before
-Jut
White Sox and Marlins are the ’24 disaster areas. Hate to see the Chisox in such a state; Miami has never had a solid fan base and is just an ongoing disaster.
Surprising given the Cuban and Venezuelan populations and their love for beisbal. Maybe that’s been lost over the last one or two generations? I guess Luis Tiant’s dad was a long time ago.
No not wrong.
https://x.com/althistcody/status/1787146445675438455?s=46&t=hYBRdyKc75ixaD6bBbzJZw