Pretty Good Deal!

Have you ever had a friend or relative that you have trouble talking to? It's never anything they say or do, but somehow you feel slightly inferior or maybe not as smart as they are. You are always trying to impress them and you always try too hard. So when you talk to them, you feel the need to either exaggerate or to use bigger words than you are used to. As a result, you end up talking at chipmunk speed or very slow and deliberate. Either way, the wrong thing comes out and you end up feeling dumber than you already thought he thinks you are... well, you know what I mean.

I'll get back to that part of the story later.

If you've been reading my posts, you know that I live at a resort. Being a gated community we are, by nature, a fairly close and tight knit group. You end up helping each other with household projects. You know what people are selling before a garage sale and you know what they are looking for. As a result there are some pretty sweet deals to be made.

I was building a deck last year and my wife wanted me to get a hot tub for it. Hot tubs don't have great resale value but most of them are built pretty well. So if you can find the right brand, at the right age, you can get a very good hot tub at a fifth of the cost of a new one. When I got my place a couple of years ago I inherited a lot of stuff from the previous owner. A riding mower (I like push mowers better) and power tools I'd never use (arc welders, etc.) or tools I already had. So you can see where this is going. I had a neighbor who was looking to buy a newer hot tub. I needed a good used hot tub and I had some guy stuff in my garage that he was interested in.

So, now, all the work is done. My wife is in the hot tub and my friend who gets me tongue-tied stops by for a rare visit. We say our long-time-no-sees and he looks around and asks where my wife is? Excitedly, I put my arm around his shoulder and steer him toward the new deck, saying, wait'll you see this! I got a hot tub for Nina last fall and it was the best trade I ever made!