Do not call me before 6 p.m.

Okay, who was it exactly that decided it was all right for phone solicitors and whoever to start calling people at 8 a.m.? Seems to me that it is a rather unreasonable time in the morning to be calling when not everyone is awake that early. Yes, I can understand that they want to have the best chance of catching you and that a lot of people are getting kids off to school or getting ready to head for a 9-5 job, but then there are the rest of us.

There are some days when I don't get a chance to get to sleep until somewhere between 4 and 7 in the morning and then some moron calls me up at 8:05 a.m. and expects me to be civil? I don't think so. They do this one more time and I'll just take the phone off the hook until after noon. Anyone that matters knows how to reach me if they need me, so the "Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?" crew can just stop pestering me.

I had a guy ask me for my phone number a while back (he pestered me three times for it before I gave in), then he called me up at 5:20 in the morning. :::pounds head on desk::: I'd only got to sleep at around 4:30, so I was not in a very alert or forgiving state of mind. I told him "Never call me before 6 p.m.". Which is actually just as good a time as 8 a.m. Most people are getting home from work to change into standard clothes so they can go do other things, people are home fixing dinner etc. Yeah, there's a percentage that are not home at 6 p.m., but I think it's probably about the same percentage of us that are trying to sleep that early.

Maybe they'll get the hint when I send them a bill from my doctor for treating my poor health because of lack of sleep?