Grill safety

It's interesting. Ever since I put up my e-mail address on the blog (smokingouttheneighbors at googles e-mail service dot commerce, fyi), I've been getting e-mails from various product promoters hoping for some free publicity. Which, to be fair, I've taken advantage of.

That said, many of the pitches are pretty silly. A recent one wanted me to write about grill safety, and link to a particular organization. I'm not going to do it. Rather, I'm going to give my very own, patented Bbq Dude safety tip.



Don't bbq barefoot. Take it from me. Imagine, if you will. A lovely summer day in Maryland. I'm smoking something or other (might have been a brisket, might have been some ribs). I'm tending the fire. It's the end of a reasonably long run, and some ash is starting to fall out the vent. Something on the ground catches my eye, and I step forward to check out what it is and suddenly HOLY SEARING PAIN OF FRAKKING FLAMING FEET!!!!!  &@#$^&*#%*!!!!!


Yeah, I stepped on a hot coal.  And - what had caught my eye was another hot coal.  Fortunately, I hadn't gotten close enough to picking it up.


Holy moley.  Well, I fall over backwards onto my butt on our deck.  This would be good, right?  Except, now I'm on my butt, and the coal is still stuck to my foot.  It's seared to my skin.  Time has stopped in the pain.  In what seems like slow motion, I reach over and pull the white-hot coal off my foot.

All of this resulted in a small second-degree burn, and had me limping for over a month while I tried to keep all weight off of the site.

So learn from me, kids.  Don't bbq barefoot.  Wear appropriate protective footwear.