hung up wet

[unpakwon]

Please help me understand the following in bold. Italics are my questions.

1. One January I was in Kansas City. It had been one of those weeks. As we'd say down home, "I've been drove hard and hung up wet!" I wasn't just whipped---I was whupped! (Is this the same as saying "I had to work so hard and was totally exhausted. I wasn't just tired---I was very very tired?") And there is a difference. (Does this refer to the difference between whipped and whupped?) That particular morning I had a lengthy recording session..... That morning for four solid hours the session was wide open, full speed ahead, no holds barred. (I speak at about 280 words a minute with gusts up to 450.)

2. It's a fact that you can't tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations before they arise.

Thank you.

[Ouisch]

Usually the expression is "rode hard and put away wet," but there are variations on it. You are supposed to rub a horse down after a hard ride. A horse can work up a "lather" or a type of sweat, and if you don't curry him before bedding him for the night, he'll be very uncomfortable.
A person who feels like they'd been rode hard and put up wet is completely, bone-crushingly exhausted and weary.


I wasn't just whipped---I was whupped! (Is this the same as saying "I had to work so hard and was totally exhausted. I wasn't just tired---I was very very tired?") And there is a difference. (Does this refer to the difference between whipped and whupped?)

Yes and yes. "Whupped" is simply a matter of pronouncing "whipped" with a distinct southern or "cowboy" accent for emphasis. Feeling "whipped" is feeling exhausted; feeling "whupped" is exhausted to the point of collapse.

wide open, full speed ahead, no holds barred.

All three expressions are different ways of saying the person was working very intensely at full capacity.

(I speak at about 280 words a minute with gusts up to 450.)
He's making a joke about how fast he speaks; the "gusts up to XXX" is a phrase often used by weather broadcasters on television. So this man is saying he talks rapidly as a rule, but sometimes he increases his speed and talks even faster!