Gardnr
Recycles dryer sheets
Did you say "friend?" With friends like that...
My thought exactly. Doing anything other is reinforcing bad behavior. And we have enough of this going around in both society and government.Unplug the cable before they pick it up.
Banana in the tailpipe?
Problem is, it is not one of Al's friends but a very good friend of his wife. If refusing to return it is going to upset his wife, then give it back. (could loosen a few screws - ideally it will break shortly after it is returned).
DH had a similar situation in our last house. We had a lawn tractor but did not have a cart for it. A neighbor saw us moving around mulch with a wheelbarrow and said he had a cart in his garage that he no longer needed as he got rid of his lawn tractor. We offered to pay for it but he refused to accept.
Over the next three or four years, we used the tractor and cart and even helped this neighbor move garden stuff with our tractor and the cart.
Fast forward nearly five years after neighbor gave us the cart. His wife comes over one day, mad as hell, and demands the cart back, saying that she wanted to give it to her brother -- and "oh, by the way, when we loaned it to you it was in excellent shape and now I see it's all scratched up."
DH decided that (1) he was glad that he wasn't married to that woman; (2) the neighbor was probably mortified that his wife demanded the damn trailer back; and (3) DH would be the better neighbor in this case. So, rather than returning the now well-used trailer, he went to Tractor Supply and bought a brand new one and delivered it to the neighbor, complete with a huge bow on it.
After that, every time we ran into neighbor woman, her discomfort was obvious and priceless. (And her husband thanked us more times than I can count!) Glad DH handled it the way it did.
wow. that's an interesting way to handle it.
and she was worried about scratches on a garden trailer....why?? lol
Banana in the tailpipe?
DH had a similar situation in our last house. We had a lawn tractor but did not have a cart for it. A neighbor saw us moving around mulch with a wheelbarrow and said he had a cart in his garage that he no longer needed as he got rid of his lawn tractor. We offered to pay for it but he refused to accept.
Over the next three or four years, we used the tractor and cart and even helped this neighbor move garden stuff with our tractor and the cart.
Fast forward nearly five years after neighbor gave us the cart. His wife comes over one day, mad as hell, and demands the cart back, saying that she wanted to give it to her brother -- and "oh, by the way, when we loaned it to you it was in excellent shape and now I see it's all scratched up."
DH decided that (1) he was glad that he wasn't married to that woman; (2) the neighbor was probably mortified that his wife demanded the damn trailer back; and (3) DH would be the better neighbor in this case. So, rather than returning the now well-used trailer, he went to Tractor Supply and bought a brand new one and delivered it to the neighbor, complete with a huge bow on it.
After that, every time we ran into neighbor woman, her discomfort was obvious and priceless. (And her husband thanked us more times than I can count!) Glad DH handled it the way it did.
I think the daughter is a fattie, and that's why her mom is desperate to get her the treadmill.
Two years ago, one of DW's best friends tells us: "We got a new treadmill. The old one doesn't work, but you can have it -- maybe you can fix it."
We take it home (Weslo Cadence 340), and I futz around with it, and find a cable that is loose. I plug it back in, and the treadmill works fine. I've used it regularly since then, when it's too wet to run outside.
Recently, the friend tells DW that she'd like the treadmill back to give to her daughter.
I don't plan to say anything, although I'm not going help them take it down the stairs (very heavy). I can find one that's just as good on Craigslist for about $50. But I'm curious as to what others would do.
If I were to say something, it would go something like this: "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm only charging you $58 for the repair. The bad news is that the $1/day storage charge comes to $912."
Car's tailpipe?
Careful, I did that to a teacher once in school and caused $500 in damage to the emmissions system.
As for the neighbor's wife and her comments about the cart, well, you'd just have to take my word for it...she was weird! Once she made her husband get up on the garage roof WITH THE SNOWBLOWER!!!! to remove the snow off the roof because she didn't want the risk of snow sliding off the roof onto her car. Nevermind that her husband had a bad back & was in his late 60s at the time...like I said, weird!!
Ditto on similar sitation...I cleaned houses for extra cash when I was fresh out of college. My (now ex) MIL decided she wanted me to clean her house, too. She totally underpaid me, $20 for 8 hours work. But she did give me 2 unframed watercolor paintings she had done. They were laying around her basement art room floor with a bunch of other unframed works she had done.
I had both professionally matted and framed. They looked fabulous. When visiting, she remarked that she wanted them back now so she could enter them in an art show. Her attitude was they were loaned. I knew they were given.
I would not let her use my marriage to her son as an excuse to bully me.
I still have those paintings.
I think Al's DW's best friend (that's a keyboard full) is a particular personality type who believe they retain some sort of ownership rights in any 'gift' of one of their possessions to a friend or relative.She probably thinks she is "special" in your eyes as much as she is in your wife's.