There are days I shouldn't be allowed to answer the front door...

...and today was one of those days.

I've been a bad boy.

I was down at the front door, picking up the mail, when this really cute blond came up to the door, and waved to me through the glass. I didn't recognize her as one of the other tenants, so I opened the door and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Cathy. I'm going door-to-door talking to people about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Would you like a free copy of the Book of Mormon?"

Ah, a Mormon. "Nah. I already have a copy from the last missionary I scared off."

She didn't even blink at that. "Oh, that's great! Have you ever considered coming to one of our meetings?"

I looked her over as she ran through her speech; early twenties, slim, about 5'6" or so. Nice figure, and her hair color looked natural. Typical conservative blouse and skirt combo, with white sneakers. I figured she had just started her missionary work, and had come from the Midwest rather than Southwest--her skin tone was almost as pale as mine, which would be murder in Nevada or Utah.

It's been a while since I had a run-in with a Mormon missionary, so I was mentally digging through the back of my head looking for one of my old standbys to throw them off, and I was having some difficulty remembering the name of the conman who snookered their church back in the 1980's, when...

Look, this was entirely out of character for me--ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you: my biggest problem is that I'm entirely too passive--especially when it comes to women. I actually have difficulty asking women for their names, for Christ's sake!

So, what happened next, well...maybe it was the combination of the meds I took for my hypertension & hypothyroidism and the heparin they used at the doctor's office, or maybe because the doctor's visit had gone so well (the blockage at the end of my catheter seems to have dissolved--they were able to get a positive blood return when they flushed the port), or maybe it was just plain old hormones getting the upper hand....

"You know, that's a nice outfit you're wearing."

That stopped her dead in her tracks. "Oh. Umm...thank you." I saw her hand go up to brush her hair back.

"Would you like to come upstairs and see how it looks on my living room floor?"

Her hand stopped in mid-stroke, and I thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head. Myself, I could feel a blush racing up my face, and my jaw drop open over what I had just said. Part of me was bracing for a slap, but there was another part of me saying C'mon--say yes.

Well, there was no slap--she spun on her heel and speed-walked away, looking over her shoulder at me a couple of times to see if I was following her. She did stop at the end of the block and give me a long look, but she was too far for me to see what kind of expression she had. I sort of half waved at her, and she vanished around the corner. I assume that her partner (Mormon missionaries usually travel in pairs) was around the bend, because I didn't see her nearby.

I doubt she'll be back.

A return--of sorts; and a look at things to come...

First off, I owe an apology to those few who read my LiveJournal/Blogger entries; I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth--I've simply have developed the bad habit of not writing. Given the brief and instant nature of commentary on Facebook, long essays simply felt, well, long, and sloth has always been my bane. Mea culpa.

That being said, I expect to migrate to a different platform in the next year or so. I am considering a career change, and as part of that change, I will have to "press the flesh" in the electronic media that we know as the Web--and, to be quite frank, LiveJournal and Blogger simply will not fill the bill.

Not that I will be deleting said blogs--I still like to keep track of things that happen amongst my wide-flung circle of acquaintances, if for no other reason than you are all such interesting souls. You help me think outside the box, and that is a skill that I value highly--I hope others will as well.

All that being said, I would like to draw your attention to something I predicted would happen about a year ago. As I recall, John C Wright asked those who read his journal what we felt would happen in the US in the near future ("near" approximating the next 100 years). My prediction was that population density would increase in our cities, even as the overall population of our country would decrease; I based that prediction on the historical model of the Roman Empire, which (and I admit, this is pulled from my freshman history classes long ago, so the details might be off) experienced a overall population decline even as they experienced an increase in urban density, as the unprotected members of the empire--then bereft the protection of the Legions--withdrew from the rural settlements to the safety of fortified cities. Indeed, the situation grew so bad that cities themselves contracted in order to form a more defensible perimeter--Lyons of France, if I remember correctly, sub-divided and sub-divided again to shorten the length of wall they had to defend against invaders. I held a year ago (and I still feel so today) that our urban centers would experience a similar phenomenon--even if for different reasons.

This tidbit gives me reason to hold such a view: Dessert: Deconstructing Detroit.

Mayor Dave Bing is proposing to abandon large swaths of the city, move the few people remaining to more functional neighborhoods, tear down the buildings left behind and let what's left become forests, pastures and farmland.

The consolidation, aside from eliminating square miles of eyesores, would cut the cost of services like police, fire, snow removal, water and sewage.

Already people are said to hunt pheasants in abandoned neighborhoods, and Detroit-grown produce is sold in farmers markets. The markets are important because not one national grocery chain has a store in the city. Soon, if the city wants to have food, it may have to grow its own.

I remember when Detroit was still the center of our automotive industry, and the nucleus of the nation's economy. I imagine many a Roman patrician wondered at the decline of Rome and Milan, as well.

We do, indeed, live in interesting times.