Be Clear on What You Clear



Slipstream’s story about when she was a little girl and her mother asked her to spray the leaves off her prize house plant and when the rush of water didn’t do the trick, she pulled them off one by one, reminded me of a similar
misunderstanding I had awhile back.
A new tenant had just moved into our duplex. It’s an old Spanish stucco with a lovely patio that also serves as the entryway to both apartments. After a few days she asked my permission about getting a barbecue. Thinking it would be a cute little hibachi I said yes.
Well, what arrived the next day was this huge as-big-as-tank black barrel barbecue they use at festivals. I was overwhelmed when I saw it and told her, “I hate it! It’s ugly! It ruins the ambiance of the whole patio.”
“That’s too bad, she told me, I asked your permission and I’m keeping it!”
A few years later, after many smoke-filled evenings, we had a handyman who was here often, making repairs and puttering around the garden. He was extremely talented but also extremely dyslexic and on the spectrum.
So one day, she went outside and told him, “get rid of the grill. It’s dirty and I’m getting a new one.”
He thought she meant the barbecue, so he took it out to the driveway and loaded on to the very top of his junk-filled Beverly Hillsbilly type truck.
I heard this commotion right outside my kitchen window and when I went to investigate, he was loading the barbecue on to his truck. When I asked him what was going on he told me, “she said to get rid of the barbecue.”
I told him, “I can’t believe it! This is the happiest day of my life!” It was with pure joy as I watched him drive off with the barbecue. A few hours later she called me in a rage. “What have you done with my barbecue!?” “You told Larry to get rid of it,” I said.
“I told him to get rid of the grill, not the barbecue! I’m gonna sue you! I know the 2 of you conspired! I’m calling my attorney!”
I called him right away and asked if he could bring it back. He told me he didn’t have it anymore…that he had driven around for awhile and didn’t know what to do with it and finally left it on a street corner. He went back to see if it was still there but it was gone.
She never sued me, but never believed me either.
The next morning when I went out to the patio, all that was left of the barbecue was the dirty old grill.
I learned that asking more questions before you commit can save a lot of hassles later.