We purchased a $99 gas grill from Home Depot 10 years ago. The grill resided in the garage for those 10 years and was used to regularly to cook hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, brats, and other delicacies. It was beginning to show its age and so my wife, Jean, decided the grill would be replaced as a birthday gift for me by May 7th, my birthday.
The grill was to me like an old friend. It had its quirks but it always worked. The grill had two plastic pieces fitted into legs in the front of the grill and two wheels connected by an axel in the back. One of the plastic pieces broke and would always fall off while moving the grill. Consequently the plastic pieces always had a free ride in the grill unto I pulled it to its next working location. The grill would also collect massive amounts of grease. After the grease collected to a certain amount, the grill would then stage a notable grease fire. The grease fire could only be extinguished with large amounts of water. In order to avoid the grease conflagration, I would scrape the grease from the grill after every other use. Despite the grease clean-up, the grill would find new grease deposits and flare up between uses. We also washed the grill after every use to keep the grease down and make sure tastes from prior meals did not interfere with the taste of the current meal.
I protested the current grill was good enough and keep going another ten years but to no avail. I was getting a new grill.
I was able to stem the tide on a new grill for two months. We first checked Menards and then Home Depot and visited them each a second time. The new grills were either too large or too expensive. Finally we found a Char-Broil grill which was small and was about the right price at Menards.
The Char-Broil grill came from the Menard’s storage location in one huge box. The box said it was made in China. The packing material was larger than the grill. After forcing the new grill’s pieces from the box, we constructed it. I should say Jean constructed it. Jean reads the instruction sent with the product. Me, I more or less free lance and most of the time I put a part in a wrong place which requires the people constructing the product to start over. Jean follows the included instruction by the book and does not allow any divergence from the printed instructions. She took the rein for the new grill while carefully following the instructions and did not allow me to deviate. We put the grill together in 1.5 hours. If I would have been in charge, it would have taken three hours at a minimum. Her way is much more efficient than mine but my way allows for a lot more provocative words.
The Char-Broil grill is something called an infrared grill. It is supposed to be more heat efficient than my old grill. After two meals, it does not appear to generate as much fire from grease as my old grill. The new grill also cooks faster but requires one to clean the grill by setting it to the highest level for 15 minutes so it can vaporize the residual fat and grease. It does not appear to be as susceptible to grease fires as the old grill.
Because the Char-Boil replaced my old grill, the old grill had to go. I was going to reluctantly set it on the curb for the Madison collection crew. My next door neighbor’s wife said her husband might be interested in assuming ownership. I waited for two days and there appeared to be no interest from next door. The next day was trash day and I went to put our trash cans and the old grill out to the curb. To my surprise, the old grill was no longer there but I could see it on the neighbor’s porch. My neighbor’s husband came over, grabbed the grill, fixed the plastic part, and purchased a new LP gas cylinder with LP gas. He said it worked perfectly and could not understand why we would part with such a good grill.
I shook my head and responded, “It was my birthday present!”
He said he now understood.
I can now take some solace in I can now watch the neighbor use my old grill while I try to figure out how to use the new grill.
