What Flies Behind

Last September, Hick lost his trailer.

He didn't so much LOSE IT as he found out (from two state highway patrolmen on the front porch at 11:55 p.m. on a Sunday night) that it was wrapped around a broken-off electric pole in another county, abandoned, after doing a felony worth of damage.

Hick went to the towing place to look at his trailer the next day. Both axles were bent, the tongue twisted. Hick valued the trailer at $1500. We have a $1000 deductible on the insurance, and a replacement cost for a trailer (it wasn't insured separately, it was an old trailer) of $500. Hick said it would cost more than $500 to fix the trailer, and $300 to have it hauled back home so he could salvage tires and a winch. He said it wasn't not worth it. We were just out a $1500 trailer.

Hick has been yearning for a trailer for 8 months now. He doesn't use a trailer frequently. Maybe a couple times a year. Hick likes to have one, just in case. I couldn't see forking over $1500 at Christmas time for a trailer to be parked for the winter, over by the BARn. We agreed that we would wait until tax refund time, and siphon off a health insurance premium (no excitement here about getting a refund, since it only pays future bills) so Hick could have a trailer.

Since we got our tax refund last week, Hick spent most of his waking hours scouring the internet and countryside for a trailer. He was quite excited to find one online, in Arkansas, for $1450. I told him he had no business driving to Arkansas right now. Hick went shopping locally. The same trailer he could have in Arkansas for $1450 was $2800 around here. Even with Hick showing them his Arkansas bargain, and offering cash on the spot. Sheesh! I guess these trailer dealers think the world will be beating a path to their door once Stay-At-Home-Down is lifted!

Anyhoo... The Veteran knew Hick had been looking for a trailer. He saw one online Monday morning, and sent a link to Hick. Hick got all excited, because it was what he wanted, and it was listed as "$1600 or Best Offer." He called the number at 8:00 a.m. (Hick and The Veteran are early risers), but didn't reach anyone until several hours and several calls later. It was a gal who said, "That's my dad's trailer. Here's his number."

Hick made arrangements to be in the city to look at it within 90 minutes. He rushed home to raid the safe for his cash stash, made a bologna sandwich to eat in SilverRedO, and said he was going to buy a trailer. He met the guy on a parking lot across from his office. Trailer Man is in the repossession business, but this was just a random parking lot, not where he keeps repo-ed stuff. Anyhoo, the trailer was Trailer Man's personal property, and not a repo.

Trailer Man: "I have two other guys coming to look at this."

Hick: "What will you take for it?"

Trailer Man: "What will you give me?"

Hick: "$1400."

Trailer Man: "Make that $1500, and it's a deal."

They shook hands. They hooked the trailer to SilverRedO.

Trailer Man: "Follow me to my house, and I'll get you the title. I don't want to mess with this. My daughter told me she'd put it online to sell it. I just want to be done with it."

They took off, Hick following him to a ritzy section of town, where rapper Nelly had a house that was featured on MTV Cribs. I guess the repo business is pretty lucrative. As Hick said, "He must not need that $1500 very bad. For all he knew, I'd take off another direction, pulling his trailer. I hadn't give him the money yet or nothin'. I guess he knew the license on his trailer, though."

It's a homemade duck-bill dove-tail trailer. For hauling cars and farm equipment. (I'm not even cropping out Hick unsightly hoard. Like the trailer he made from the camper shell of The Pony's truck.)

I wasn't all that impressed. Hick's other trailer had sides. Hick says this one has the holes where you can slide in the metal sides. But he likes it without sides, because then you can open up the vehicle doors when you drive a car up on it. Also, it has that drop back to drive a vehicle (like one of Hick's tractors) on. The only thing this one doesn't have is a winch, that Hick lost on his wrecked trailer.

Oh, well. Hick is happy. That $1500 has quit burning a hole in our bank account. Hick headed to the bank Tuesday morning to reimburse himself.

Let the record show that Val is not getting anything good with any of the tax money. Not even a box of Sno-Caps. Only healthcare, during a time when doctors won't even jab you in the butt on the parking lot.