Cynicism

I'm a complete cynic. I've always thought the absolute worst about people and tend to analyze every single thing they say/do; always looking for something that I can say, "Aha! Caught you!" about. I think this is the main reason I don't have many girlfriends. I'm somewhat a loner (by my choice) and hate feeling obligated to keep in touch with girlfriends lest they think I'm mad at them. It's so petty. And I choose to stay away from it. But I also think that I've never allowed myself to become really close with that many people specifically because I'm so cynical.

There's never really been any value, in my mind, in my cynicism, until we started sending feelers out for a roofing contractor. It just goes to show that it pays to do detailed research and expect the worst about these guys. We've had many different characters, shall we say, to the house. One simply measured the front of the house and then drove away; another didn't climb on the roof and walked along the sidewalk instead; then we had one who even climbed into the attic to look at the under side of the sheathing. We still have a few more quotes to get but my instincts have been right on as far as who's shady and who's not. The one guy who simply walked along the sidewalk has had multiple businesses with multiple telephone numbers in the past 7 years or so. All that tells me is that he keeps changing his business name to run away from people who are after him. I had a bad feeling about him as soon as he walked into the house and after some probing questions I learned about the other businesses. Of course, he had every excuse why that business is no longer around but, bottom line, if he changed his business name and phone number there must be something about the previous one he doesn't want following him. Reputation, bad references, lawsuits; I don't want to find out.

Hopefully this will all be sorted out within the next couple of weeks. I'm waiting to choose and book a contractor before going shopping! That way I know how much I have to spend!!