Trust people but always check their work

Today was gravel day.   The rut in my driveway has been that way since I bought my house a long time ago.
I always meant to do something about it, I never did.  Mud filled in the holes, one year I had a cooking your bliss party, people came into the kitchen ankle deep in mud. 

Today is the day it gets fixed.

I started out with two bags of gravel from Lowes.  One was pea gravel.  The other just plain old gravel.

Two bags.  Just to start.  It was like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. 

I went to the local hardware store.   ( Why is it the women at those stores are always the strong, silent types that know everything!)  I asked a young guy about buying gravel. He began describing the ways it gets sold, and delivery, etc.  I told him I bought some gravel, it didn't do much.  "Pea gravel," the smart dark haired woman with her back toward us said.   "That won't do anything."

 We discussed prices, he said he could bring the gravel right away.  A quick save. My kind of action.
Immediate.
And pay someone else to do the job.
Ha !
It cost more than I thought, about one hundred dollars, including delivery.

We zipped along to my house, he was right behind me in his truck.
He looked at the driveway, saw the gullies.
Then dumped, yes, dumped the gravel all in one place !

"Well, you'll have to smooth it out with a rake," he said.  Smooth it out, it's a lump of gravel, before I had two small gullies, now I have a pile of gravel which you have to drive over and not bust your shocks when you do it.

"You'll need a shovel," he revised his advice.

Yes, I needed a shovel, oh hardware boy.  And more than a smoothing out, I was on the chain gang wielding a heavy shovel and throwing the gravel over my shoulder toward the gullies.  Sometimes I aimed well, other time, missed the mark and flung the gravel away from the driveway.

In tweny minutes I was tired.

Hardware boy shoveled two shovelfuls to show me.  I stopped him. Would he expect a tip if he shoveled more?  Do I have to tip someone for bad work ?  I didn't want to tip him.  He dumped the gravel where I didn't want it to go.  Why didn't I stop him?  I thought he knew what he was doing.   Mistake.

At the risk of sounding dumb and being humiliated, ask questions, and stop people from doing dumb things, even when they tell you they know what they are doing.  Why is this so hard to grasp ?

How old do I have to be before I get it ?

I hope not too much older, we're losing daylight !