We have been to a pipe and conduit shipper in Long Beach, CA many times. Today I remembered this was the place we tarped for the very first time in the beginning. When I say we didn’t know how to tarp, I mean we really had no idea. We struggled with the tarps pulling this way, and that way, it’s a lot harder than it sounds or looks.

After an hour or so of this I saw a man and woman from our company tarping their load. I swallowed my pride and walked over and asked for help. He looked at my like I had three heads because this is the basics , after all. After he got over the shock of a flatbed truck driver my age not knowing how to tarp, he walked with me and gave us some advice. He spent about a half an hour giving us tips and basically being our hero.

We walked him back to his truck where his co-driver (wife?) was almost done tarping. He introduced us to her and I said, “Hi, sorry, we borrowed him for so long, but we really appreciate his help!”

This woman got a look on her face that would make a demon cry and said, “I don’t need him to do this I can do this shit myself. I have been doing this for years.”

There was more, but the basics were that I am a male chauvinist pig that should just stop talking. Well, I was literally in shock because I didn’t mean anything like that at all. She was throwing bungee cords and slamming head ache rack doors; I don’t know, but she was some kind of angry. I was wishing I had a Snickers bar to give her, but I didn’t. My next thought was,” maybe I should offer her a light so she can burn her bra and be done with it, then we can be friends?!?!?” But, that might have gotten me shanked.

The man who helped us shook his head and said, “She has had a pretty bad day, don’t worry about it.”

Well, if that was from a “pretty” bad day, I was thinking I need to start him a gofundme for the real bad days.

I thanked him again, and we went back to our truck to finish tarping. The first bungee cord I tried to put on, like he showed us, resulted in the hook popping off the rub rail at full stretch and popping me right below my right eye leaving a perfect little hole and welt in my face. I looked back over at the couple, and she was giving me an even more hateful look than before. I took a break and sat in the truck for a bit tending to my wound and evaluating the last hour of my life.

We eventually got that load tarped, wasn’t pretty, but good enough. That mans advice, and YouTube, eventually got us really good at tarping. Still not the fastest, and I will never thank a woman for her husband’s time again as long as I live.