Don't be that guy

I'm glad to be upright and back at my desk this morning. Last week I had what I thought was a terrible allergy attack. My sneezing fits were so violent I actually pulled muscles in my back! Finally on Thursday I could take no more and went to see my doctor. He looked me over, stuck a thermometer in my mouth and matter of factly informed me that allergy attacks are rarely accompanied by a 101 degree fever. Who the heck gets the flu in summertime? I guess the answer to that is "me". Today I'm finally feeling human again but it was a bummer of a weekend. Speaking of bummers, my Wornall Homestead neighborhood picnic was Saturday. It's an event a lot of us look forward to every year. Good eats, good friends, good times. I drug myself out of bed long enough to walk down to the park and say hi to everybody, at a comfortable distance of course. I didn't want anyone to think I was blowing them off. One of the neighborhood board members jokingly approached me and warned me that there would be no politicking allowed. He said he wasn't going to let me turn a friendly gathering into an unwelcome political event. I laughingly agreed. We parted ways and I ambled back home and right back to bed. That night I received an email from a neighbor informing me that one of my opponents had shown up campaigning at the picnic! Apparently he was shaking hands, handing out literature, the usual. The thing is this guy knows that I live in the neighborhood. He also knows I've served on the board for years and would most likely have been at the picnic but for my pesky flu bug. Maybe he was trying to make me angry. Maybe he's just clueless. I don't know... The emailer thought my opponent's actions were outside the limits of good taste, these being my friends and neighbors. I myself was invited to an ice cream social in my opponent's neighborhood but politely declined because I didn't want to be "that guy". I just don't want to be the annoying political candidate trying to shove myself in my opponent's face. Maybe it's just me. What are the limits when it comes to campaigning? With my tiny budget I certainly don't want to miss a chance to meet voters, but then again I don't want my campaigning to backfire on me and have people thinking I'm an overbearing jerk. What do you think loyal blog readers? Should I be showing up to these picnics? Even if it's literally in an opponent's backyard?