The view from the dumpster--Knowing when to hold and when to fold

The view from the dumpster-- Knowing when to hold and when to fold

I woke up this morning, which I always find to be a good sign and stumbled out of our room. Found my glasses and my tooth. Once I had my glasses on I noticed that the bathroom door was open, the light was off, which to me meant that I had a good shot at it. I took full advantage of that opportunity. I looked in the mirror and scared the hell out of myself, hairbrush fixed that problem. Stepped on the scale and it blinked and blinked and it blinked and I thought I was going to fall asleep, damn digital scale takes forever or maybe it was just hesitant, afraid that I would accuse it of lying and throw it out the window. Finally it proffered a number and I smiled, down 10 pounds, the scale will survive for another day. I'll even think about giving it some new batteries for its gracious support.

I loaded all of those things that go into my pockets, and strapped on my brain which was already pinging me with messages. They can wait. I couldn't find my lighter, so I lifted up a cat's ass and there it was, nice and warm. On I go to get my coffee. Coffee that Oliver made. I went outside for my morning commune with nature and sipped my coffee. All of the hairs on my chest stood at attention, this staff was more potent than a defibrillator. After that, I posted my “good morning” picture, which today was a picture of a weed in its final moments, because everything has a season. The weed was particularly spectacular, as have been all of the weeds that we've grown this year as have been the mushrooms. After I took the picture, I determined that the season was indeed over for this weed.

On to morning chores, and dog walking. In the morning I walk Loki, I'm her seeing eye person. She sniffs everything, knows the path we're taking, says good morning to the cats that she can smell, and then steps on them. From there, we start the day officially. I was working on the deck pulling plants and getting out for sale, Deb was working on a new garden bed that we've been working on for 4 months, attacking all of the weeds that thought they had the upper hand but are now residing in the compost bin. Customers came and went. The day went along smoothly and felt like things were being accomplished, which is a good feeling, accomplishment leads to 'em dolphins being released which really makes you feel good.

As we got to the afternoon, it was time for me to make my appointed rounds, stores to check for bargains, dumpsters that needed to be assessed for potential mining and of course, I was low on beer. I got in to the car, and somebody had changed the station. No Willie's Roadhouse, they replaced it with an all vinyl station. The first song that came up was “house in New Orleans”, well, all right then, I can listen to that and apologize to Willie later. Then the next song came on and I was enjoying it, I was smiling and I never changed it. If you know me, you know that I truly don't smile, too bad you weren't in the car with me. And of course, if you know me, you know that if I find it on the ground, in the dumpster or in a parking lot, it's fair game. But today was different. Today, what I found, made my smile fade away, not even my mask could hide the sadness on my face.

As I cruised one parking lot, I spotted the bin in the picture. Ordinarily, that bin would have been gone in less than 60 seconds. But I checked out the contents and decided to leave it behind. The best description that I could give was that this was someone's closet or dresser, it contained articles of clothing, personal items and hygiene items. On the other side of where I was parked, there's a walled in area that contains the store's dumpsters, set back against a tree covered hill, leaving an area behind it for temporary residence and even an occasional quickie. I checked behind there and found no one, but it was obvious that someone had been there. How their closet got out into the parking lot, I don't know. All I know is that this pitiful bin was of value to someone who had little else. It was not for me to deprive them of their belongings, especially after they had already been deprived of their dignity.

I got my beer, went home, met with a customer. But I had a hard time getting back that smile, that moment of happiness while thinking of someone else who couldn't listen to those tunes coming from a radio, someone who had to rely on the soundtrack of their minds because all they had left was memorie