My wife just answered the door to an old man who wanted to read the gas meter. He got the reading, wrote it down on a form on a clipboard, thanked her very politely, and left.

The guy from my energy utility came last week, took the gas and electricity readings, inputting them into one of those proper hand-held meter-reading machines. My bill with those readings arrived the other day.

So I don't know who this old guy is, but it's not looking good. Nobody reads meters and uses clipboards these days. Casing the joint?