Packing the Gear

Green Bay, Wisconsin

After fourteen years working from a full size pickup truck, hauling the equipment cases in the bed, protected by a high cap, working out of a small wagon now takes some getting used to. I keep refining the packing, but don't have it quite right yet. Decades ago, commercial work as a location specialist taught me to have absolutely rigid rules about packing—where everything goes in each case, where each case goes in a vehicle—in order to keep track of all the equipment. One real change is that with the pickup, I was isolated, up front in the cabin, from any minor noises, shakes and rattles, of the gear in back. Now that it's all in the small car with me, all those shakes and rattles are very annoying. I'm sensitive to noise. All day today I've been trying to chase down a persistent rattling, metal-on-metal noise that I just couldn't find. Then I noticed the weird hinges on the aluminum-clad box the 7x17 rides in. There's ancient, rotted-away, duct tape wrapping the hinge loops. I put it there, around 1988, to stop the rattling noise when the case was riding in my Isuzu Trooper II. With any luck, when I, right now, go replace that with some Gaffer Tape, I'll find the rattling noise gone tomorrow.