It is Free, Something is Wrong With It

Or, "It is free, what is the catch?" I am shopping at a local hardware store about two miles away to buy garden hose washers. While I am there I notice a young couple looking at a wheelbarrow, but not looking like they want to pay that much for it.

I walk up to them and say, “I have an old one and it is free if you want it. I bought it used three years ago. I used it for one small project, and its been sitting since then…. The wheel on it is a little to small, so you either have to bend over a bit or drag it….You can’t put too much in it at a time, but for a small job it works fine.”

“We only have a small job too.”

“Can we pay you for it?” 

“No, I bought it for $10.00 and more than got my use out of it, you can have it for free. Here is my address…..”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, and if it does not work for you, you can come back and buy this one. I’ll be home in about twenty minutes or less.”

Two hours later and no young couple. 

I take a half sheet of paper and write on it, “Donation or Free”.

I take the wheelbarrow to the curb and tape the sign on it.

Less than ten minutes later it is gone. I do not live on a busy street.

Norwegian Wood, Truth and Fiction

When I was a young adult and still immortal, I worked in a resort town in California as a Dinner Cook. This small town had one radio station and it played the current week's top forty songs in a loop, sixteen hours a day starting Monday Morning, ending Sunday evening. It was piped through the restaurant. A new top forty loop started 08:00 on Monday morning when the radio station came back on the air to start its week.

One week, the radio station included an instrumental that I really enjoyed. I had no idea why there were no lyrics, and I didn't think it was top 40,  but it was a very pleasant song. The song I found out was by the Beatles, and its name was Norwegian Wood. Once I learned the title, I thought the song had been released some years earlier, but not being a Beatles fan, I was not really sure.

One of my co-workers, Hans, and I were talking about nothing important one afternoon when the acoustic version of the song Norwegian Wood came on over the radio.  I mentioned to Hans, I thought the song was a well done instrumental, and I wondered what the words to the song were. I asked Hans if he new the words to the song.

Hans started singing, "I'm just sitting here, here on this log, drinking my beer...."

I spent a number of years knowing only the first stanza - of an alternate version of the song, Norwegian Wood.

I learned a valuable lesson from that moment. When someone tells you something, it is not always true.