After it was assembled, Chris was anxious to use it. We keep our grill in the garage and wheel it outside when we need to fire it up. It worked beautifully the first few minutes as it was pushed out of the garage. When the propane tank was attached, though, the wheels cracked and fell off.
Chris yelled, “Look at this! The wheels are a piece of junk!”
After I stopped laughing and wiped the tears off my face, I said, “Well, for $80, what can we expect?”
A few days later he had decided he would be able to create new wheels for the grill. What he soon discovered is that he could buy all of the parts for new wheels at Ace Hardware, but the wheels alone cost $20 or $30, which was 25% or more of the grill’s cost. There was no information in the owner’s manual about replacement wheels. In fact, I’m not sure it came with an owner’s manual. He went with Plan B -- frisbee wheels and a brick.
“Is it going to work?” I’d ask, through an open window.
Sometimes he’d give me the thumbs up, just like the people at NASA do right before a rocket is launched. Other times we’d throw the chicken into the oven and announce to the kids the grill didn't work when the temperature was below 50 degrees and there was a cool breeze.
One evening as the turkey burgers were almost done cooking, Chris opened the lid, and the handle broke in half. He used a pot holder until he repaired it.
I called the Public Works office to see how we could dispose of a grill that had seen its better days. The woman who answered the phone said, “Put it on the curb, and we’ll pick it up with your garbage. Just be sure you don’t have a propane tank attached.” Yeah, no sweat. There hasn’t been a propane tank attached since February when it stopped working, we put our pork chops back in the fridge, and we ordered a pizza.
It’s being picked up today, unless some unsuspecting soul loads it into a truck, thinking a wheel-less grill with duct tape wrapped around the handle is a perfect (albeit late) Father’s Day gift. Frisbee wheels not included.