This is for Friday I need to paint a couple of houses and I need an airless paint sprayer and a pressure washer. I can afford one of the other.
I spend a lot of time checking Craigslist. Was looking at the "free" stuff on impulse.
Hmm... someone is giving away a high quality pressure washer... that works
I need a pressure washer so I hit reply and sent an email. It's a very long shot. I've given stuff away on CL so I know how fast people respond when something free is offered.
Five min later the ad is deleted...awww it's gone I was disappointed even tho I knew the odds of getting a sweet deal like that in a city this size weren't good. On impulse I sent an email saying that I know the washer is gone and not to bother telling me because I know there was a ton of responses and I always send a short "sorry, it's gone" message to the first 10 or so emails.
A few minutes later I get a call and a lady said (Hi Michael... you sent an email about a pressure washer. I thought oh how nice to call me and say sorry you missed it but no...she said all the responses were either rude/short or wanted to know if anything extra came with and what was the model and and how well did it work etc etc... she was frustrated and slightly disgusted with their reaction to something free. She said she appreciated my politeness and if I'd like the pressure washer to come and get it I would and I did and met two very nice old people in the process. There's no moral to this story unless maybe it's that sometimes the unexpected happens and it's good.