It was Saturday and we were standing next to a flatbed trailer with 3 HUGE industrial air conditioning units sitting on top. Our task was to tie them down… to fasten them to the trailer so they would not fly off the back when the truck pulled them down the highway at 65 miles an hour. You use heavy chains to do this. Filthy metal chains that is, with metal fastening contraptions to hold the chains taut.

Next time you see a flatbed truck, check it out. Just imagine you have to insure a machine setting on top does not fly off into traffic as the truck moves down the road, killing whoever happens to be in it’s path. It’s eye-opening, I promise.

Everything about the job is heavy metal and clanky. It’s a pure Mars Saturn situation. It’s man’s work. It is hard work and people who have been reading awhile know how much I like to work. I would fare very well on a chain gang, for example. Matter of fact, I would be in my element. I was attracted to Howard Roark in the quarry but that is because I am Howard Roark in a quarry. I am almost embarrassed by how much I enjoy I physical work so I had no problem acclimating.

Matter of fact I wasn’t on the job 10 minutes before I was offering the soldier advice on how to streamline. I had a pair of pliers and had pulled the pin from a hook at the end of a chain so I could thread it through the machine. Once threaded, I had to replace the pin which was mangled. Good luck to me trying to straighten the pin out.

‘I’m wasting my life over here,” I said. “This is stupid. Look at this situation. Look at these big machines and what all this costs and I am sitting here fumbling around for 10 minutes so I can get an end back on a chain. Is this smart? What do these pins cost? 4 cents? I think you ought to get out here with a pocket full of new shiny ones, each and every time. Like there isn’t enough real work to do, I’ve got to make work of messing with this kind of thing.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“I know. I’m smart as hell,” I said with a smirk. “Yeah, I’m brainy all right and I think I’ll get you some of these for Christmas. Here. Here are some metal bits; they will change your life.”

“You already got me my Christmas present.”

“Yeah I did but you may get some of these anyway,” I said, dropping the chain onto the bed of the trailer because I’d finally gotten it back together. It made a big clank. “You may get some or it may just be a threat, I’m not sure.”

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