Days 62 & 63: Walk and Talk

I made more than $60 Friday and more than $40 Saturday. Friday had a memorable Walk. Saturday had a memorable Talk. Let’s start with Friday.

Night had already fallen. I’m not sure what time it was. I clocked out another order and got the bag ready. It was a cash receipt so the clipboard stayed in my apron pocket.

I put the bag in the passenger seat of my car as I loaded up. I shut the door tight and turned on the dome light. The Lady in my Phone started directing me as soon as I put the address in and hit “Go.”

It was 60 yards away.

I checked the GPS again. Sure enough, the address was 60 yards away. I looked in the direction of the address and knew the exact building it referred do.

Out I got. Bag in hand and phone stowed, I started walking. The door to the apartment building was guarded by a Phone Golem. I called the customer instead of tempting fate.

“H-h-h-hullo?”

“Hi there. This is RI with that one pizza restaurant.”

“Yeah?”

I paused. Did I have the right customer?

“I am right outside. Do you have a code that I should key in or would you like to meet me down here?”

“Oh. Yeah. The code is 216.”

The signal was garbled. The lady sounded nice enough. At least I thought it was a lady. The name was very feminine on the receipt and she had answered to the name, but she sounded like a man that had just woke up.

I told her I would try the code. I hung up. I tried the code. The golem didn’t budge. I dialed the customer again.

“Yes, ma’am? The code 216 didn’t work.”

“Oh the code is-,” ( s)he said, giving me the numbers. I kept her on the phone as I tried it. Just as she mumbled something about coming down, the door opened.

“It worked. I’ll be right up,” I said. I went up the staircase and met my customer at the top.

She was a she. The slowness of speech wasn’t just on the phone. She was smiling, but a bit confused.

“Wow, that’s a lot of pizza,” she said.

“Like, too much pizza?” I said. Something in her tone sounded like honest disbelief.

“Yeah,” she said. Then she sat down on the stairs as I handed her the bag with the drinks. It was odd. She just sat down on the stairs while I was situating her food. She gave me the money and I gave her the change. She just kept sitting there.

Judging by the aroma – and the fact that she just kept sitting there after I was on my way back down the stairs – I’d say she was making her way through a purple haze. Too much pizza, too little time.

Chalk that one up as the first pizza delivered on foot.

Now, the Talk.

Kathy works on Saturday. Her name isn’t really Kathy. She’s just chatty. It’s nice, too. I also enjoy chatting. Single mom. Two daughters. Husband on an extended vacation. She is making ends meet and trying to become a biologist. She really does talk a lot. Again, not complaining. It’s just a defining trait.

As the conversation usually does, it flew from Chromecast to Smart TVs, to technology, to TV shows. She wanted to know the difference between a Smart TV and a regular one. I told her I wouldn’t know, that our family didn’t have much experience with it. I mentioned how we don’t have a lot of money and our TV was a Christmas gift.

“I thought you guys would be doing really well,” she said.

“We do,” I said. “Can’t complain, we’re just working to get out of debt.”

That got her started on a lot of things, but collections dominated the conversation. I got a chance to explain how collections companies make money, and thus how she can work to get out of her mess.

Time passed. She came back from a delivery some time later.

“I called my mom, and she said you were right,” she said.

“About which part?” I said.

“Everything you were talking about,” she said.

I thought that was swell. Kathy’s mom gave my collections advice her stamp of approval.

I’m grateful to talk with others about those topics. Some people don’t have a clue how collections work. Even more people have no idea how credit works or how they calculate your score.

Quoting Dave Ramsey:

Your FICO score is an I-love-debt score, isn’t it? Does it factor in your income—or, even better, your debt-to-income ratio? Nope. Does it factor in your savings accounts, net worth—anything other than debt? Absolutely not.

The only way to have a good credit score is to go into debt, stay in debt, and continually pay your accounts perfectly—without adding too much debt or paying too much off. In other words, stay in debt for as long as you can. How ridiculous is that?

Pretty ridiculous, Dave. Ridonkulous. Pterodactyl-ous. The borrower is slave to the lender. Your credit score is your slave score. Let’s keep that baby up!

No thanks. Time to walk the walk and talk the talk.

ROE INTENSE