We Asked Luis About the Padres. He Talked About Compact Rollers for 20 Minutes.

A reporter from a local paper called the yard last spring. She was doing a piece on small businesses in El Paso. Wanted a couple of quotes about the season, the city, the vibe.

We handed the phone to Luis.

(In our defense, we did not know it was a baseball reporter.)

Reporter: “So Luis, how are you feeling about the Padres this year?”

Luis: “Compact rollers. You want to talk about compact rollers? Because I have opinions.”

Reporter: “…I don’t think I do, no.”

Luis: “Okay, so. Most yards are going to rent you whatever they have on the lot. Doesn’t matter if it’s the right tool. They don’t know your soil, they don’t know your job, they don’t care. They want to move iron off the lot and onto an invoice. We are not those yards. When you call here, we ask. Soil type? Lift height? Are you compacting fill, or are you trying to get a jobsite-ready surface? Each of those is a different machine. People think compaction is compaction. It’s not. Compaction is a relationship between the equipment, the soil, the moisture content, and the operator’s patience. You give me five minutes on the phone and I will tell you which machine you actually need. I will also tell you when to not rent from us, because we don’t have it, and I’ll tell you who does. That is what we do.”

Reporter: “…okay, and the Padres?”

Luis: “I don’t know what that is. Are they a band? Did you want to talk about the rollers or not?”

The story did not run.

Which is fine, because we did not start a rental yard to get profiled in the sports section. We started it to put working iron on working sites. And if you give us five minutes on the phone, we will tell you exactly which machine you need, and exactly which one you don’t, and we will not bring up the Padres unless you bring them up first. Pinky promise.

Although now that I think about it. Luis would still bring up rollers. There’s no stopping him. It’s actually kind of beautiful.