playing the fool in New Orleans



*updated 1/11/12

Considering the day, I thought I’d relate one of my more foolish mistakes. Don’t try this at home, work, or anywhere else.

I had a Toyota Tundra pickup and I didn’t have much else in the back except a sheet of ethafoam that covered the bed. While I was running some other errands, I stopped by one of my clients and picked up a tray that had been used at an event. I was in a bit of a hurry, but in the past, I’d had trays in the back without any tiedowns and hadn’t had any trouble. They usually would lay flat on the ethafoam and stay there. This time was different. I’m not sure if one end of the tray was sitting up on something, if the ethafoam got caught in the wind, or the tray suddenly sprouted wings, but almost as soon as got on the freeway, in my rearview mirror, I saw my nicest and largest Gourmet Display top tray hurtling through the air!

After a couple seconds of panic, I managed to pull off to the side of the road, and I started to back up so I could see if there was anything to salvage or any debris to clean up. To both my amazement and distress, I quickly located my tray: apparently intact, but in the center lane! There wasn’t much traffic, and several cars saw the tray and avoided it. I was beginning to think that I’d be able to get my tray back and be on my way. The only thing between me and my tray was that eighteen wheeler and I was sure that he saw it...

In the end, I was pretty impressed that a Gourmet Display tray could fly out of a vehicle, land on asphalt, and still be in one piece. Of course, I didn’t get a chance to take a close look at the tray, but it actually looked okay from a couple lanes over. I was disappointed but not surprised that being run over by a semi caused the tray to explode into many, many pieces. I remember hoping that a few tray shards made it into a couple of his tires.

The next time, I made sure to tie my tray down in the bed of the truck. I haven’t told many people this story, but today seemed like a good day. I hope you enjoyed reading about a fool, at least on that day.



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Tags: display trays, accidents, abject failures