an offer
i received an offer from a real estate agent (with promises for a lucrative deal) in the mail about 10 days ago. it came in a white envelope, with addresses hand-written and no business cards. my first response was of course - paranoia. how did he know my name? his own address (1511 manitou ave) revealed that he lived a couple of blocks from me. this was not good. i called the assessor's office to check if they share a homeowner's name with anyone calling to enquire about property (which they do and this policy is quite disturbing). so i asked for his name, address and phone number. matched up. then figured out from his email address that he works for caldwell banker aspen realty, which made it easy to look him up online - with photo. later, i called my neighbor sarah to ask if she had received a similar offer. she had not. and worse luck, she actually took it to mean that her house was not as desirable as mine. obviously, this is a can of worms i'd rather have nothing to do with. but there you have it. as shakespeare said: there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.