2454. Not for sale

This story goes with the picture, so if you haven’t got a picture you won’t know what I’m trying to say.

This is a photo of my vehicle. I’m very proud of it and enjoy using it. The other day I was at the service station to put air in the tires and a mechanic came straight up to me and asked if I wanted to sell it. I said I wasn’t keen to sell it because they weren’t that easy to come by these days and I use it for collecting firewood and stuff.

He said he’d offer a good price, but I said I’d like the money but I don’t want to freeze my butt off in winter. So it’s not for sale. He didn’t seem to mind that much, and in fact helped me to put air in the tires.

I said to him that I didn’t have a clue what pressure the air should be in the tires but he seemed to know. He said it wasn’t uncommon for people to come in and get air for the tires for similar things. I couldn’t help but think if there were so many “similar” vehicles why on earth was he that keen to buy mine?

Incidentally the ugly white pick-up belongs to a friend of mine. Mine is the cute little red one to the right.

1485. Ned’s old truck

Ned Grinter had an old truck. Some might call the old truck a pick-up and some might call it a ute. It was once white, and a bit battered. It was Ned’s pride and joy, although he didn’t use it much – mainly several times a year to gather firewood for the winter. The rest of the time he used his car. He would polish the truck’s tires, and even polish the black cover that stretched over the back of the truck. Some might call the back of the truck a deck and some might call it a tray.

Ned was out collecting firewood in the forest with his wife, Barbara. He was chucking the firewood haphazardly onto the back of the truck. He was doing mighty fine loading wood when Barbara suggested that if he packed the wood nicely he’d be able to fit more on.

He didn’t have time to pack things nicely. They could come back and get a second load. It was quicker not to be fussy.

Things developed into an argument and then Ned, firewood only half loaded, took off in his truck for back home. And when he got home he stretched the cover over the back of the truck and said, Stuff it; stuff the firewood; his wife could freeze through the winter for all he cared.

So Ned’s old truck stayed unused throughout the cold winter, parked behind the back of the garden shed. Come the end of winter and Ned needed to use his truck to pick up a beer fridge he’d bought online. He unloaded the firewood. But he didn’t have a clue what to do with his wife’s decomposing corpse.