What are some things you’ve gotten that you didn’t necessarily ask for or earn, but instead were given to you out of nowhere, or you found, or whatever.
The most obvious answer for me would be my house. We were renting it, and then my mother in law came into a shit ton of money that she had to get rid of, else she’d lose some government benefit of some kind. She bought our house and then turned over the deed to us. Her own house will go to her other kid, my brother in law, when she dies. So effectively we got our inheritance early.
Bringing it down a few notches, a couple of Christmases ago my mother in law’s brother bought very nice pellet smokers for each of his sisters. My MIL belongs to the Hank Hill school of barbecuing (“taste the meat, not the heat”), so she decided she’d stick with her propane grill. So I have a $400 pellet smoker simply because the original recipient didn’t want it.
What about you Dopers? Gotten anything nice for free, through inheritance, gifting, finding it somewhere, etc.?
It’s sort of a monkey’s paw wish though. Lots of expenses involved in owning a plane, even a little Cessna. Friend already has a pilot license, but there’s hangar space, maintenance, fuel, insurance…
I found an old wallet full of hundreds and nothing else burried in the gravel of a parking lot. Been gifted a car from family when I was on hard times. Been rescued in various ways by friends and family multiple times.
But the best was a cold abandoned bottle of Kokanee beer sitting in the Kootenay river where I went to fill up my water bottle. Had just reached the road after mountain biking over a remote pass in Banff. Was a little more rugged than planned for. Pretty much carried my bike for two days out of three. Day one I had a bad spill and so had road rash all down one side. It was hard. That beer was AMAZING.
Insurance?? For an airplane?? If an aircraft collides with another it’s unlikely that either pilot is going to live to tell about it. Likely if you damage anything on the ground the pilot and aircraft are also going to be total losses.
Aside from the fact that there are survivors of plenty of general aviation accidents, insurance is valuable even if the pilot/owner does die in an accident. An airplane may cause losses to others on the ground (crashing into a house or a vehicle for example) or non-family members flying as passengers in the plane. If the pilot/owner has a spouse or children, the insurance policy can pay out for those losses instead of them having to come out of the pilot/owner’s estate.
As a couple of posters already noted, many (most, actually) incidents and accidents involving bent airplane metal do not result in fatalities. Often no injuries either. Mid-air collisions are also pretty far down on the list of accident types. Most are takeoff and landing related.
Yeah, some people get 7 or 8 digit inheritances too.
I guess for me the best thing I got for free (depending on how you define free) is my college education. I went to an in state school so about 70% of the tuition was covered by the state government. But I was also low income so I got both federal and state grants which covered the other 30%. That education really was a good experience for me, and I didn’t have to pay for any of it (I had to pay for living expenses, but the education itself was free).
About 20 years ago, a friend left at my house a homeless kitten, which I did not expect (always had dogs growing up). Didn’t think I had any need for an animal to take care of.
But in the decades since then, I have never been without from 2-7 cats living with me. Certainly not a financial gain, quite the opposite – food, litter, toys, vet care are all expensive, but the emotional gain has certainly been worthwhile.