junk culture : people fascinate the $*#@ out of me
once a month it's bulk trash pick-up in my neighborhood. typically the last monday of the month. most months all we have to put out front is assorted limbs, bags of leaves, maybe some scrap wood or something. this month, i got inspired and cleaned out the office. among items in the pile are two completely delapidated bookshelves, in such bad shape they won't even stand up. also: a faulty step-ladder, some old screens, and an upright wire rack, among the typical branches and bags of leaves (i can only throw so many in the compost heap, people). it's unsaid, but totally understood that whatever's on the curb is up for grabs. (hey, i'm guilty, i scored a table a hundred years ago this way.)
sitting in the dining room at the computer, i can directly see the street. this morning, no less than 10 cars and trucks (some already LOADED with junk) have stopped to look at our crap. after each vehicle leaves, i go out front to check out how the stuff rearranged and/or what's disappeared. fascinating. the good stuff clearly went fast. (i actually prefer donating annonymously the smallish-big stuff this way, rather than with free-cycle.) check this: someone took the screen frames. not the screen themselves in their intact perfection, but the frames. the screens and the rubber trim are in a neat pile. bizarre. wonder what they're gonna do with them.
