A couple weeks ago, Hick "gave" his wrecked trailer to his boss from the senior apartments. That's what he said, anyway. That he was "giving" him the wrecked trailer, to get rid of it, because the guy needed an axle off of it. I took Hick for his word. Other people can trust him. Why shouldn't I?
The more I thought about it, I figured it was unlike Hick just to give something away without a trade of goods or services. Especially when there were several hundred dollars we had not recouped from the payback deal with the borrower who wrecked it.
"Are you sure you just gave away your wrecked trailer? Your boss didn't pay you ANYTHING?"
"Well. He give me $175 for it. But I paid $183 to have it hauled out here! OUT OF MY POCKET!"
I can believe both. Hick never asked me for money to pay for the tow. I figured it wasn't free, even if a buddy did it. I can also believe that Hick thought he would get away with not admitting his boss paid him for the wrecked trailer. If it was actually those amounts, why wouldn't Hick bother to tell me?
So, I'm not really fired up over this hoodwinking, if Hick wasn't actually making a profit off something WE bought for him originally. But I don't appreciate the deception.
The trailer tale does not end there!
On the day Hick's boss came out to get it, I passed them in the field, trying to load the wrecked trailer onto the boss's trailer. The boss had his truck parked in the field, and was standing back away from it. Hick was on his blue tractor, with the bucket under the side of the wrecked trailer, lifting it up, to load on the boss's trailer. I gave a wave and drove on by, not offering my totally useless and un-asked-for help.
That was two weeks ago. Hick had to wait to do this transfer until he got his blue tractor back from HOS (Hick's Oldest Son), who had used it to dig a trench for a sewer line. When Hick went to fetch his tractor (on the day he was so late and his text didn't come through), his tractor wouldn't start.
"Oh. So you loaned your tractor, and now something is wrong with IT! Maybe you should stop loaning your stuff!"
"It wasn't nobody's fault, Val. HOS didn't break my tractor. He had it parked on a slope. There must have been dirt in the gas tank, and it settled wrong, and we had to get it out. I made HOS blow in the hose, though!"
Hick had told me that right after he came home from retrieving the tractor. I didn't think anything more about it. Until Hick came to the house a couple days ago, after working over at the BARn. He threw a receipt on the kitchen table. I think it was around $59.
"I had to get a part for my tractor. The hydraulics are all messed up."
"Oh. Right after you got it back from loaning it..."
"No! It has been going bad for a while. I noticed it when I tried to load the trailer for my boss. My tractor couldn't do it! It didn't have the hydraulic power to lift it. So we went down and got Neighbor with his tractor, and got it loaded."
"Good thing he was home to help out."
"Oh. And I'm going to need a check tomorrow. I went by Mick the Mechanic's shop and ordered two tires my tractor."
"Right after you got it back from loaning it!"
"They was dry-rotted, Val. And trying to lift that trailer was too much for them. It wasn't nobody's fault. It's the front tires. For $300."
This is turning into a "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" scenario!
Hick loans, Hick pays! I guess he considers the loans general wear and tear.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind us paying for repairs to the tractor. Things wear out. It's just that the timing of it is suspicious, since the tractor was fine when it was loaned.
DeleteMore annoying, Hick has a whole other tractor that is not in working condition, which he has had years to repair or sell. I only okayed the purchase of this blue tractor because Hick swore he had a buyer for the green John Deere (which was working fine at the time). That was in June, 2015!
With any "reasonable" person you could put your foot down about loaning stuff out to those who won't care for it, but I know that doesn't cover Hick. I no longer loan things to the upstairs neighbour who "forgets" to return things and when I do get them back they are damaged, some minor, not a big deal, but I lent my leaf rake which didn't get returned, so I looked for it in the lobby here and found it "hidden" between two extra wide straw brooms and the solid wood handle had been snapped off at a more convenient height for HER to use. I could see where she had cut on both sides and then snapped it. I took it home and didn't tell her.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if she was planning to keep it for her own use, or didn't want to return it because you would know she "altered" it. I also wonder why an "upstairs neighbor" would have a need for a rake. Does she rake leaves right out of the tree, heh, heh?
DeleteShe rakes the leaves from the gutter/ditch/drain in the back yard and also from the paths, but only when she htinks it necessary. Yesterday I did the leaves from my path, the path to the mailboxes and a neighbour's path from her porch, so her wheelchair wheels don't get all clogged up. But I used a broom, not a rake, so upstairs probably still doesn't know I have the rake.
DeleteAt least she's using her ill-gotten gains to do kind of a good deed, although at your expense!
DeleteI can't begin to count how many duplicate tools we have, not to mention the stupid and expensive robot mower he bought without so much as a mention to me. We have two or three power washers. He broke the handle on my little dump wagon that I used quite a bit and has since bought two more wagons while mine remains unrepaired. He swears I was privy to all of the purchases. "Don't try to gaslight me, I am smarter than you!" is what I told him. If they would just be open and honest about the state of affairs, all would be okay, but instead, mine must enjoy riling me up and putting me in investigative mode!
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem. If they'd just tell what they did at the time they did it, they'd get a little chewing out, and it would be over. Instead, they try to hide it, and add more fuel to the eventual explosion.
Delete