Under the radar
Jul 27, 2009 1:57 PM, Jeff Ryan
Good thing we were on a lightly traveled two-lane road because Billy was laughing too hard to negotiate a lot of traffic. When he finally got himself together, he began the interrogation. “The Expert! What in the ______ are you doin’ way the ______ out here today? I see you didn’t want to overload it, huh? Ya know, it’s gonna take a long time to move all your inventory one bale at a time.”
Yeah, yeah. I filled him in on my agenda for the day. When I told him I almost had to take two bales and would have hooked the flatbed on for that rather than create a potential traffic hazard stacking two bales in the back of the truck, his opinion of me went up slightly. Then I told him that the price I was getting for this load left me plenty of margin for delivery costs. Not enough to hire a guy like him with a fancy semi, but enough for a guy like me in a poor dirt farmer’s truck.
Not to be outdone, I mentioned our little blue friend and his adventures in gravel a few miles back. Billy was empty at the time, but he was still going to keep an eye out for dirty blue cars.
I made my delivery to the pet food manufacturing facility where half of my team of two forklift buddies, Lenny and Carl, got me unloaded as usual. It was Carl working solo today. I noticed that Carl has apparently been spending all of his disposable income at the tattoo parlor. This being January in Iowa, he was in a lovely sleeveless number. On a guy with artwork like his, that works. On a pasty college intern nerd like some of his coworkers, not so much.
We got the cargo unloaded and I dropped the invoice off at the front office. They already had a check waiting for me. I hopped back into my decidedly non-urban, less-than-spotless vehicle and took a spin down the main drag of this metropolis. Hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles were on the city streets. Not one of them was dirty. Well, except for one. “I saw him, officer. Filthy looking truck. Big screamin’ diesel. He had chaff spilling out everywhere, too. Can you arrest him for something?”
I have some business to do in Minneapolis soon. Perhaps I’ll take the truck, but hit the car wash on my way up there. Then I’ll stick my giant magnetic Two Guys Farming signs on the sides of the truck. Think I should put a bale in the back just in case someone with a horse drives by? I mean, for marketing reasons, you can’t fly under the radar all the time.
Maybe I’ll be discreet. I’ll take the buggy.
Guy No. 2
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