OldTimer Tarp Story

Not much u can do about something like that. Tell him that he should have come out there and helped you tarp it then. 1 man can only do so much.

 

worst tarp experience i had was a winter or two ago when i picked up a load of baled hay in kansas. it was stored out in an open shed at 7 Fahrenheit, and went on the truck with no hassles. i delivered someplace in the east, also around 7 F, and then went to philadelphia to load steel pipe. loaded those inside the building with the heaters on, and while i was under my tarps straightening them out i smelled something familiar. couldn't figure it out, but the tarps were damp underneath and i smelled just the same when i was done. unloaded the steel someplace else, rolled my smelly tarps up and wondered what that wet stuff was that we both smelled like. no place to take a shower.

a day or so later i finally recognized the smell: mouse piss. the hay bales were all covered in frozen mouse piss crystals, and so were the undersides of my tarps. i couldn't smell any of it until it thawed in the heated warehouse, and by that time my clothes and me were all covered with the stuff, except that it wasn't frozen anymore.

still no place to take a shower, so i used every baby wipe i had and made sure to lose those tarps on a relay right away.

 

Im never taking a load of hay... lol I do have a good reason to refuse, Im highly allergic to hay.

 

Now this goes way off topic for tarps but this dump truck had a tarp on it. Wrecker company across the street also did some light mechanical repairs. F700 needed a clutch. We are tided up, do you want this job? Yes and we put it in the shop. It was 10 degrees F outside. We got the transmission out and it started draining blood water. It was full of guts from a packing house. That was one of the fastest clutch jobs ever done in history. Lets you Know who your friends really are.

 

I was delivering some Sheetrock once upon a time to a little construction outfit way out in the middle of nowhere Montana. Early in the morning, the place had a locked gate on a long driveway that kinda cut through an old hay field. I figured I'd yank the tarps off and let them dry out a little bit in the field.
When I started to fold them up I heard this strange buzzing sound coming from underneath. I started feeling around on top the tarp and felt something move underneath.
I about went into orbit when I realized I was grabbing ahold of a rattlesnake under the tarp...
They got drug up on the road and flipped over multiple times before getting rolled up after that!!!

 

I'd been working driving A-triple road trains in the north of Australia and decided to head down south to visit old friends. 2 mates at the same company had the same idea and were heading back home to Victoria. They offered me a lift and off we went. We parked for the night in the desert and slept in the dust in our sleeping bags. The next morning, which was very cold as usual, I climbed out of my bag and upended it to give it a shake before rolling it up as my *mathilda* to put back in the car.

Imagine my surprise when a snake dropped out, it must have slithered in for the warmth as I settled down last evening, I had been sleeping with a friend.
I didn't ask for ID before he/she slithered away without a backward glance. I felt so used.

*mathilda*, as in Waltzing Mathilda, the bedroll wrapped in a piece of old tarp, carried on the back in the bush.