Last Tuesday I took a quick trip to Kamloops to pick up a mini bulk bag of hog feed. In the truck Hubby put a tarp, tie down strap, and a bit of baler twine “just in case it rained.” And RAIN it did! But as I stood in the box of the truck holding onto the tie down strap, with the howling wind and stinging rain pelting my face I wondered “how on earth does this thing work?” Actually those weren’t quite the words I was thinking but I really can’t post my exact sentiments here on my family friendly blog.
I tossed the neatly gathered strap on the floor of the pickup box and settled on the baler twine. Having no knife, I weaved it in and out of the grommets of the flying helplessly in the wind (matching my hair) tarp, tying it alongside the truck rack where I thought it would be secure. Okay… everything tied down… I’m back in the truck and on my way, I’ve got just over an hour left to drive and then I’m home.
About 20 minutes later I’m watching in my rear view mirror as the tarp twists and turns beating the sides of the pick up box, darnit! I pull over at Venables Valley Road, a small turnout where three weeks ago Hubby had just finished working. Climbing up into the back of the truck I see the tarp has lost all it’s grommets and they are now floating freely up and down the baler twine. One side of the vinyl tarp has pretty much turned into what I would consider shredded wheat and there isn’t much strength left to it.
I again grab the tie down and try as I might I cannot figure the darn thing out! Why does my Hubby assume I know these things? When I get home I should hand him a ball of wool and a pair of knitting needles and say “knit me up a sweater.”
Standing there I’m thinking what the heck can I do to get this tarp to stay over the top of the hog feed? I decide to search the glove box and find a roll of black electrical tape, and the bonus was finding a small pocket knife that I could use to cut the baler twine. I wrap the tarp with the tape, cut the baler twine, tie everywhere I can with most of the grommets missing on one side, add some more tape, and hope that will do, besides the rain was starting to die down.
The “Farmer” look. In my next life I’m going to drive a Corvette!
Things are not looking good here.
Now ya’ll think this is where I’m supposed to say “It worked!” but unfortunately it did not and when I pulled into the driveway the tarp was lying in the back, or I should say a piece of the tarp was lying in the back, God only knows where the rest of it was? So the reason for this blog post? Well I’d like to apologize to anyone travelling Highway #1 between Venables and Lytton and also Highway 12 who was subjected to seeing any of my flying tarp, or heaven forbid, it didn’t end up across their windshield! :)
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3 comments:
I'm sorry... please forgive me but I'm busting a gut over this post. I especially liked the knitting comment. The men in my life do this to me, too. Great post!
you got a big enough bale so you won't have to go to often Thank goodness eh111111
I feel for you! We borrowed my dad's truck last summer to bring some stuff to the lake. I got the tarp to cover the box, just in case it rained. And dad had a bunch of fancy straps that were suppose to hold things down but did I know how they worked? Noooooo. thankfully there was also about 30 feet of yellow nylon rope which worked just fine, although it did take me a little longer to get everything secured.
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