That's Gratitude!!
Well, on my way home from visiting my grandpa, I decided to stop in at the mechanics and get an estimate. I was hoping that my redneck buddy's guestimate of "hmm, new bumper, remove panel to repair repaint - $700 bucks, Hill, good job . . ." was going to be a bit inflated (yes, he calls me Hill, and he calls my brother Little Hill). Sadly, the estimate was $808. Aargh. My dad can probably get a better deal somewhere . . . or hopefully he will at least not mind the shallow dents above the bumper, which would halve the price . . . I can't have it repaired this week anyways, because I need the car for work and have no other vehicle.
Anyways, I give my brother the estimate to look at too, and he is similarly horrified. But he is immediately cheered when I tell him that he doesn't have to pay for it, because it was (unfortunately) my idea, and it was an honest mistake of his. I tell him that he will have some sucking up to do . . . he has to be nice, maybe do his homework for once without me having to campaign and threaten and cajole. He immediately goes into whine mode about how his miniscule attention span for boring crap makes it so hard for him . . . a few minutes later I go "Hey, how about you take me out for ice cream, seeing as I'm going to take the fall for this?" He replies "well, I can show you where the fudgesicles are . . . " Cheapskate! What gratitude!
Of course, as soon as I swing into cheapskate ingrate recriminations, and threaten to write him up in my blog, he swears it was a joke. Uh huh. He is also peeved that he doesn't have the blog address. I'm not sure if he wants to defend himself, or gather info to own my soul if he tells Dad on me if my life ever gets interesting. Anything interesting is suspect for Dad. What do you say, should he get a chance to defend himself? For a 14 year old dude he is surprisingly literate.
As it is, and while my brother is unlikely to get a swelled head, I figure I'm going to make him drive more. Hell, if he picks up any more dents, I can say it all happened at the same time. The back bumper needs to be entirely replaced anyways, so backing into things just got a lot less expensive . . .
Anyways, I give my brother the estimate to look at too, and he is similarly horrified. But he is immediately cheered when I tell him that he doesn't have to pay for it, because it was (unfortunately) my idea, and it was an honest mistake of his. I tell him that he will have some sucking up to do . . . he has to be nice, maybe do his homework for once without me having to campaign and threaten and cajole. He immediately goes into whine mode about how his miniscule attention span for boring crap makes it so hard for him . . . a few minutes later I go "Hey, how about you take me out for ice cream, seeing as I'm going to take the fall for this?" He replies "well, I can show you where the fudgesicles are . . . " Cheapskate! What gratitude!
Of course, as soon as I swing into cheapskate ingrate recriminations, and threaten to write him up in my blog, he swears it was a joke. Uh huh. He is also peeved that he doesn't have the blog address. I'm not sure if he wants to defend himself, or gather info to own my soul if he tells Dad on me if my life ever gets interesting. Anything interesting is suspect for Dad. What do you say, should he get a chance to defend himself? For a 14 year old dude he is surprisingly literate.
As it is, and while my brother is unlikely to get a swelled head, I figure I'm going to make him drive more. Hell, if he picks up any more dents, I can say it all happened at the same time. The back bumper needs to be entirely replaced anyways, so backing into things just got a lot less expensive . . .
posted by Lu Hill at 2:48 p.m.
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