Ask Amy: Elder men wonder why they get ‘Sweetied’
If the greeting is from a health care worker or a clerk with whom you might have extended contact, it would behoove you to offer a gentle correction: “I’d prefer it if you called me ‘John’.”
Otherwise, I think you should acknowledge to yourself that this is an annoyance, but that it also provides an opportunity. Every time you are “Honey-ed,” say to yourself: “I sincerely hope that this is the worst thing I have to deal with today.”
(And … “Driveway Drinks?” Count me in!)
I’ll happily run suggestions from readers.
Dear Amy: I have new neighbors. I invited them over when they moved in and have tried to be friendly.
The husband, a retired engineer (now a horticulturalist), has started a huge compost heap next to where I park, so it’s the first thing people see when pulling into my driveway (invisible to him from his house).
I am an avid gardener and also have a compost pile, but it is not where anyone is obliged to look at it.
When my gardening helper mistakenly blew a few leaves (literally!) onto his compost pile, he was upset, yet I am looking at rotting pumpkins, piles of sticks, bags of leaves, a huge tree stump, etc.
It is such an eyesore right on the street. No other house in the neighborhood looks remotely like this, and the neighbor’s lot is large. His offending compost pile could be elsewhere!
I don’t see anything in the covenants to cover it.
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