Grill Happenings – Late last year, I got rid of my Weber grill because we were looking at upgrading, and someone said they might have a line on some good deals. There were good deals, but nothing that made me want to put more money down. Plus, I hadn’t been smoking much, so it didn’t seem to be worth laying out cash.

Well, now we have some events coming up where I have been asked to smoke some ribs and other meats. After discussion with The Wife, we ended up picking up essentially my old grill, but this one was built into a little cart with a folding table. After doing some comparisons, we bought it on Home Depot for delivery to Ward Manor.

Monday morning comes and Home Depot says they delivered to my house. Great, but the cameras didn’t pick up anyone delivering anything. I go check their tracking and look at the helpful pictures. It was not my house. It was not my subdivision. It wasn’t even close to my street number. Jump on customer service chat – because Derek hates talking on the phone. The chat associate was helpful to a point. They offered a refund, and I asked if they could refund and reorder. After alll, I still needed my grill. No problem. Except it was kind of like I got disconnected in the middle of the chat. Essentially, I had to restart the ticket again. Second associate joins the chat. Nope, refund not processed, reorder not placed. Hey, do you mind if I contact the warehouse and see if they can arrange for a redelivery? Sure. After all, I still need my grill. While the associate was talking with the warehouse, they must have realized their mistake because, magically, my order appeared on my driveway.

Tuesday night, The Wife, MIL, and I put the grill together. It wasn’t as bad as some of the assemblies we’ve done, but still not the most helpful. I also sacrificed to the Assembly Gods when tightening a nut, and the drill spun the little piece of metal. A nice little chunk of my thumb was removed near the knuckle. It was one of those, “oh I guess it wasn’t that bad” until The Wife mentioned I was bleeding. Then the pain hit. Not enough to go to urgent care, but enough to be annoying. And bloody.

But I have a functioning grill that will get consecrated this weekend for Father’s Day.