No good deed goes unpunished

[rims421]

I helped a friend in need this weekend and paid the price.
My buddy cross town hurt his back and was unable to do much
around the house. I offered to help him out with my machine.
I loaded the tractor with rotary cutter onto the trailer. Drove cross town 8 miles or so . He had some brush and small tree's in the back he wanted removed. I figured no problem a few hours work at the most. Got out the chainsaw cut the bigger stuff down dug out a few good size briars with the FEL and ran the cutter over the rest. So far so good he was very happy and I was glad to help out. Thats when things started to go downhill. I loaded the tractor back onto the trailer and noticed that the front axle had a large hole on the top (rubber fill plug for front axle) with nothing in it but debris from the field I just cut down. It was late Sunday afternoon nothing I could do about it till Monday. I have to back the trailer out of his driveway make a very sharp jacknife turn onto the road.
My buddy is directing me back waiving me on telling me "you got it come on, come on" till the truck stops due to a rock right into my left rear tailight of the trailer. Okay things are starting to add up now. I decide its time to get out of there before I say something I later regret. I waive goodbye and head down the road. We are going by the supermarket so I figure why not stop in and pickup a few things. Go to the store
when we return I notice that the lights on the truck were on I dont know why / how they got turned on but they were on and you guessed it the battery was to run down to start the truck. I try to call the wife to come by with my jumper cables but she has the phone surgically attached to her ear and for 45min. get a busy signal. Its getting dark now so i decide to remove the battery from the tractor and put it in the truck to get home. The battery hold down bolt is pretty rusty and when I put he wrench to it guess what it snaps off and I cut the back of my hand on the fender. Okay we get the truck running and have to drive about 3 miles to get home. I am feeling pretty confident that I might make it home. Well not just yet one of the boys in blue is behind me now and and of course I am missing a tailight on the trailer. On come the flashing lights I am less than a mile from my house now and thinking about just driving home parking the rig and running into the woods. But I have my son with me and that would set a bad example. I pull over explain the light was just broken and promise to fix it before I venture out on the road again.
I think he feels sorry for my greased up sorry excuse for a human and lets me go. I pull into my driveway to find my wife standing is the garage arms crossed tapping her foot on the floor with a not very happy look on her face. What happened to you she says? I didnt know where to start.
So lets see what did my good deed cost me
1) plug for front axle $17.00
2) new tailight $11.00
3) 4 quarts 90 weight $10.00 (had to change axle lube)
4) new battery hold down ? havent fixed that yet
5) fuel (deisel and gas) $10.00 or so
6) several hours of my time to effect above repairs
7) Mad as wet hen wife ( hard to attache a dollar figure)
I learned a valuble lesson.Next time the tractor comes out on a"mission of mercy" their will be some monetary compensation involved.

 

[Bird]

Sounds like a normal day to me. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( she has the phone surgically attached to her ear and for 45min. get a busy signal )</font>

As much as I hate the thing, I learned years ago that the "call waiting" feature is an absolute necessity on our phone because that's the only way I'd be able to call home if I needed to.

 

[grainger12002]

Hey Rims: I also am near eastern Ct,send me a pm . Sounds like a great deal for your friend,not a great deal for you.

 

[PineRidge]

Rims421 it sounds to me like a classic bad day syndrome. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif If it makes you feel any better we all have them from time to time. I take care of my elderly neighbors mowing and snow removal and never asked or received a nickel for it. I just feel good about helping him out.

Things always seem to look better tomorrow. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Junkman before you ask, the answer is no. I'm not mowing your grass or plowing your drive, period. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[bigpete]

That sounds like a bit of a rough stretch, but it's only a bad day if your friend forgets about your extra effort and expense to help. It might not feel like it right now, but ultimately it is worth doing again for a "true" friend in need. You are right to ask what the friend can afford to offer in trade--even if it's a beer or a burger on the grill at the end of a hard day. ("Will work for Food...."). I have a friend who needs some landscaping help from time to time, and he is a little tight on funds. I just tell him to feed me after the work or trade out watching my house and dog while I'm on vacation. Typically, that makes the friend feel better about the whole thing, too.

Unless, of course, they really do not qualify as a friend....I also have a neighbor down the road with good cash flow who is simply lazy. His jobs have a price. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[EastTexFrank]

("Will work for Food....").

That seems to be the same deal I've had for working on my 85 year old mother-in-law's farm for years. I work over there a couple of days a week, depending on what needs doing, and she feeds me when I'm finished. Ofcourse, it helps that the ol' gal still makes the best fried chicken and chicken fried steak in 5 counties. My wife has had me on a diet for 10 years and those two items don't appear on the menu at our house very often but since it's HER mother ... she can't say a thing. Seems like a win-win situation to me.

 

[JerryT]

This will be on your record when you reach the "Pearly Gates".

 

[JazzDad]

Hey, rims421. I agree with Jerry, AND these things also seem to come around this side of those gates, too. Your son may not realize it today, but you have set a good example for him in that kind deed, and then how you handled the adversity that followed it!

 

[MGnnr24]

I remember coming home a few years back and almost rearending a lady who had a flat tire, her car was pulled off on the foot wide shoulder and hanging out in the road. For who knows what reason I decide I'll be a nice guy and give her a hand. Well it's 90 degrees outside with normal Missouri humidity and I can't get the hub cap off the wheel to save my butt. The thing wound up having a center cap on the hub cap that I didn't know existed and the hub cap is actually bolted to the wheel somehow. After uncountable curse words under my breath I finally managed to get her and her kids on there way. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif Doesn't sound too bad, huh. Well I managed to sweat till I didn't think I could sweat anymore. combine this with the fact i walked through some poison ivy, makes for a bad day. I had gotten the poison ivy on my legs, that would be bad enough, but no, I guess while changing the tire my legs touch my arms and hands which wipe the sweat from my forehead, you guessed it, eyes swelled shut the next day /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif I'm sure I will sooner or later but I don't think I stopped to help a stranded stranger since /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Youare]

I guess most of us can say "been there done that" at some point in our lives. The intresting thing is most all those things you could have had happen at home.

The satisfaction of a job done well can't be taken from you even if getting back was an experience. I know the feeling of having a string of tough going only to come home late to an unsimpathetic wife.

Some day the good deed you did for someone else will come back to you. Some times when I help someone out of a jam and they offer to conpensate me some how I tell them I just hope you never have to return the favor. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

The old adage is true "what you sow you will aslo reap" just remember you never reap in the same season in which you sow.

Randy