a sticky on the trash can

I was in the back yard and a guy came up and pasted a flyer on the top of our trash cans.

What's that?, I said.

Just a flyer, he said. For painting your home, but it looks like you guys don't need it.

How come you're putting it on the trash can?, I said.

It's better, he said. People see it the same amount and I don't have to horseshoe up the street to each front door.

It was a nice day out and I could see why a man wouldn't mind wandering the alleys advertising his business but still it didn't seem like the most efficient use of his time.

Why don't you send postcards out? I said.

Well we do, he said, but it's been pricy. Like two dollars a postcard.

That's how much USPS charges?, I said

Not that much, but once you factor in the design and the printing and all that, it adds up, he said. And it's only like a two to five percent of people responding.

Then he said, I used to buy these junk homes. I'd just wander some neighborhoods and I'd see some homes that could use some work. I do construction. I'd just put a note in their mailbox saying hey I want to buy this home - are you interested?

The thing is, he continued, the thing is in Minnesota they don't respond so much to names that sound foreign. They don't like the outsiders I think.

Tell me about it, I said.

Well, I'm preaching to the choir here, he said. My name is Dax with an x and when I signed my name Dax, barely anyone would respond. So I started putting down my middle name - Mike - and that got a lot more responses.

Mike sounds trustworthy, I said.

It does, he said.

He left soon after.