Has anyone asked you to do a really big favor for them lately? It happened to me two weeks ago.

Seriously? Can I keep my four hours and just give you 20 bucks? You can keep the change.

A couple of weeks ago, my uncle Steve called me and asked, "Will you help me..."

I didn't even let him finish the question. I was in. I would help my uncle Steve do anything.

Luckily for me, he didn't finish the request with "get rid of a dead body?"

I probably would have had to do it. Steve is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. I know for a fact that if I asked the same question he asked, he too would not even let me finish. He would immediately say "yes"... and probably bring along a twelve pack for good measure. Which is awesome unless your request ends with, "supervise a 3rd grade trip to an Amish village?"

For you young people, this is from Billy Madison. It is a movie made in the very brief period of human history when Adam Sandler was funny.

Steve is an electrician and has helped me with many electrical problems in my home (some of them weren't even caused by me!) He has picked me up from the airport, helped me fix my stairs, and volunteered his son to be the ring bearer in my wedding.

When I was a kid, he took me water skiing with his teenage friends. Actually now that I think about it, Steve is the one who taught me to ride a bike.

And Steve does this for everyone in his life. He is "that guy". He is the one that everyone can count on.

So when Steve needed help moving to a new house, it was no surprise that ten of us dropped everything and showed up to help do the absolute last thing any of us wanted to do. Moving sucks! But it was Steve so we all came.

In most cases I think I'd rather make new friends than help my current ones move.

The first part of the move was simple enough. He rented a huge 26-foot truck. Although we carried an almost endless stream of boxes and furniture to that truck, with ten of us working, we finished incredibly quickly.

But half the truck was still empty. Steve is not a dumb man. He is also very thrifty (oh wait you will see how thrifty very shortly). There is no way he would waste that much space.

I asked, "Did you miscalculate? Is the extra 13 feet for 1000 twelve packs?"

He smiled.

Oh I've got a surprise for you...

Oh crap! I did not like that smile. Most smiles are intended to express joy and happiness. This smile was intended to be a shield. I could practically read my uncle's mind, "If I keep smiling when I say this, it won't sound so bad. In addition, no one would ever punch a smiling guy in the mouth."

Through his Joker-like grin, Steve said, "We need the space for the bricks."

Bricks? What bricks? Whose bricks? Does he think he's one of the freaking three little pigs?

Then he showed us.

He had a pile of about 3000 bricks next to his house. Remember when I said he was thrifty? He had been given these bricks ten years earlier... for free. He had planned on building a patio with them. But then he moved FOUR times. Each time he brought them with him.

This is not the actual pile of bricks... the real one was much larger.

Although he wasn't joking, I decided I should. Well at least half-joke. I chuckled and said, "How about we all take up a collection to buy you some brand new bricks and have them delivered to your new house?"

Even though several members of the group thought this was a brilliant idea, Steve thought this would be a huge waste. After all, he had already invested FOUR days of work into moving them before.

Because it was Steve, and we all owed him favors, we formed a line between the pile of bricks and the truck. One by one we passed the bricks down the line and into the truck. Approximately 90 minutes in, I became convinced that someone was unloading the bricks as fast as we could load them and was running around the other side of the house to secretly add them back into the pile. It was like a cartoon. The pile never seemed to get any smaller!

This is obviously not us. These people are smiling. By the way, check out what buildon.org does. It's pretty cool.

Finally, three and a half hours after we had started loading the pile of irreplaceable bricks, mercifully, we finished.

A couple of hours ago, I returned from the doctor. Apparently, there is a problem with my sciatic nerve. Hmmmmmm I wonder how that happened?!

Oh so that is why it hurts so bad. There is an explosion in my lower back. Yep that is pretty much what it feels like.

Curse you Steve for being so damn nice that no one can say "no" to you!!!!!

Now it is your turn. What is the dumbest favor you have ever done for someone?

Images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7