How Not To Buy a BBQ

The other day, I was at Canadian Tire with Don, my husband, who wanted to buy a replacement bulb for our security light. I said I would wait in the car. That was my first mistake, letting him into Canadian Tire on his own. After all, he is a man, and Canadian Tire has hardware and neat tools (although I could never see anything neat about looking at tools and car stuff – definitely a man thing).

Anyway, after I had almost finished reading the car manual, he reappeared, bulb in one hand and a very nice looking aluminum suitcase in the other hand.

“Look what I bought”, he announced with some satisfaction. “The regular price was $49.95 and I got it for only $14.95”. It really was a nice set of BBQ tools and accessories but the thing is we don’t have a BBQ, but what the heck, it was on sale!

Our son Dan and his girlfriend, Candace came over for the weekend. Don showed Dan this neat tool set he bought for a ‘song’. Dan asked him if he was going to buy a BBQ.

“Yes one day”, said Don.

I should mention here that we got rid of our old BBQ many years ago because Don ‘really didn’t like BBQing’. Why he suddenly liked the idea again, enough to buy a set of BBQ tools, I have no idea. Perhaps it was the BBQed wieners he kept saying were so good when BBQed at the model airplane field. If wieners were what Don had in mind, a Hibachi would have worked just as well.

Dan suggested that Dad should buy the BBQ now so that he could help him get it home. Off they went and, of course, they found another deal. Father and son came home with this humongous BBQ. Bearing in mind there is just the two of us, this thing has six burners, with a hot plate on one side, to boil the kettle I suppose. On the other side is a pull up shelf, and a bottle opener. Do they even make bottles any more that aren’t screw top? But, hey, just in case they do, Don is ready.

He informs me he will do all the cooking and he even went out and paid full price for a BBQ cookbook. So far we have had two salmon steaks and a couple of pieces of chicken and, of course, zucchinis. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any sauce I like, so I made my own BBQ sauce which is excellent; it contains alcohol. I now have many different kinds of spices etc, because the book says you have to use them. Funny thing, though, Don doesn’t like steak and I thought that was what a BBQ was all about.

One last thing, our old BBQ had a rotisserie on which I used to BBQ roasts, chickens and turkey, etc. This monster has a place to put a rotisserie, but we can’t find one long enough that will fit from end to end. That’s probably why this monstrosity was so cheap. Not to be outdone, Don phoned the manufacturer back east and for $100 they will send him a rotisserie. This BBQ is definitely not the bargain he thought it was.

There has to be a moral to this story somewhere! Maybe it is ‘never let your husband shop at Canadian Tire alone! Ah well, until the next time.

Biddy Jean