The grill that wasn't

I almost snagged me a free grill yesterday. I miss not having a grill but I was never the griller at home... it was always David, so I didn't even try to ask for it when I moved. I'm scared to grill anything anyway and that's why I haven't had a steak since I moved out.

I first saw the grill driving home with Jason. It had been left out on the side of the road with the trash. I was as much excited about making this treasure mine as he was mortified that his mother would actually even consider taking it! So, for his sake, I drove on past with the intention of coming back to get it later.

When I went for my walk yesterday evening, it was still there so I got a first hand look at it. It was a gas grill, some off-brand, that was missing its gassy parts but was certainly usable for charcoal, which I prefer anyway. It had the main grill plus an upper shelf for veggies I suppose. And it had two side shelves for putting utensils on, etc. It needed a good cleaning and probably some paint but hey, it was there for the taking.

I stared at it for a few minutes pondering how I was going to get it home. I didn't want to be too obvious because there was a neighbor nearby mowing his yard. It was too big to fit in the Jeep and I would have to go back home to get the Jeep anyway. So I decided to get it on the way home from walking... I would just roll it up the street behind me.

I found another grill this way about 10 years ago. I was driving home and noticed a man wheeling a grill toward the side of the road. "I bet he's throwing that away," I thought to myself as I passed by him. "I'm gonna come back and get it after I get home." But something made me change my mind so I turned around right then and went back. I'm glad I did too because the other things he left were snatched up within an hour. I asked the man if he was throwing the grill away and he said he was and told me I could have it. It was a brand new Weber charcoal grill.. only a few months old. He explained that he had purchased it thinking he would like charcoal but hated it, so he went out and bought a gas grill.

He helped me load it into the car and I scurried home with my awesome find laughing the entire way.

I was laughing because we had just moved into this house a few months earlier and had left our grill at our previous house (it was permanently attached to the deck). David had been using our smoker as a grill which, as you can imagine, made every thing taste smoked. Well I had had enough of the smokey tasting food and told him I wanted to get a grill. He said the only way I was gonna get a new grill was to find one on the side of the road!

So as I walked I thought about my good fortune at finding this grill and about all the good foods I was going to learn to cook. I made my way back up the street and readied myself for pulling the grill behind me. But as I approached its location I noticed it was gone. Someone had snagged it before me!!! I looked around as discreetly as possible and noticed it at the neighbor's house... the same neighbor who was mowing his lawn.