There's a sauna in my building. I have lived here only a few months, and a few days ago I decided to try it for the first time, as I was cold from being outside.
As I entered, I noticed an older (70-something*) man using the pool table in the adjoining community room, and we exchanged hellos in passing. The heat in the sauna was off, so I turned it on, but since I had nothing else to do down there, I just got in there right away (in my swimsuit) and figured I could just let it heat up while I was in there.
It was JUST starting to get to a comfortable temperature (but not sauna-toasty yet) when the man I'd said hello to in the rec room knocked and opened the door. He then stood in the doorway with the door open and said, "Hi, I was just wondering how long this sauna takes to heat up." I replied that I didn't know, since this was my first time using it, but that it was starting to get warm now. He then continued, while standing in the open doorway, saying he and his visitors had been discussing it a few days prior to that, thinking they should try it out and wondering how long it took to heat it up. While he was talking I could feel a cold draft coming in the open door and I really wanted it to get warm.
I wanted to say, "A lot longer when somebody's holding the door wide open!!!" But I didn't know how to politely request that he shut the door, so I just cheerfully answered his questions and hoped he'd either come in or leave.
He ended it by saying, "Thanks!! I was just curious as I have never used it. I wasn't just coming in here to take a look!" (That final statement indicated to me that he was).
(*I mention his age only because I'm trying to portray him as a harmless older man who thinks a 40-something woman with figure flaws (me) looks pretty good, but not creepy at all.)
What would e-hellions have done? "Excuse me, can you shut the door?" It seems kind of abrupt.
