The holidays are over: decorations are coming down, Christmas carols are getting lost into new playlists on the radio, kiddos are lining up at bus stops to go back to school, and everyone is throwing away....stuff. Yes, people are throwing away tons and tons of stuff!
Yesterday I went on a walk/run with my mom's and my dog. We took a slightly different-then-usual route, cutting through the neighborhood rather than all the way around, this way we could hit the big hill. Anytime I ran I was practically dragging both of my furry friends since they're much more out of shape than I, making me feel better about myself in a pathetic way.
We started down a street I always forget the name of and saw that every single house had sitting on the curb at least one overflowing trash can with a pile of things that didn't fit neatly (for the most part) stacked beside it. Not only was it garbage day, but also recycling day, meaning that each house also had beside the garbage can, a recycling can, also filled to the brim. Normally I wouldn't care except that instead of running on the sidewalk, I'd have to run in the street, but this time, I couldn't help but take notice, both dogs as well, that rather than mounds of filth, as would be the norm, these were mountains of buried treasure.
I've never before truly rummaged through people's home trash- only at CBC and MSU at the end of the semesters- but this time looked promising just from a glance. First, a small (about 4 foot) Christmas tree caught my attention. It was a fake, but it had those little fiberoptic thingies on the branches that change color when turned on, so I investigated. When I looked more closely, I saw that it also had a strand of white lights wrapped around it, indicating that the fiberoptics probably didn't work. Other than that it looked perfect. I noted it in my brain and carried on. A few houses down I spotted a huge box of books all to be carelessly thrown away. I began to rummage through and found that most of them were in nearly-new condition. Others had obviously been read more than once, but were still in good condition, I began setting apart which ones looked interesting and others that didn't, but then I heard a loud rumble rumble screeeeeeech!!! I looked up- so did the dogs- and saw the garbage truck resting in front of a house with a garbage can lifting into the air above it and roughly shaking loose its contents. I jumped up from a squatting position, noticed that the truck was a couple blocks down yet and on the opposite side of the street. Yes, I have time.
The dogs and I took off at a quick run up the slight incline and towards Mom's house, both the tubby pups blissfully ignorant to the reason behind the scurry, both too concentrated on not collapsing from too sudden of a fat run.
We reached the house and my plan was to let them inside, hop in my car, and hury back to my unclaimed treasures. To my dismay; however, I realized that I'd lost the garage door opener somewhere along the walk! This was my only key to getting inside. My solution: put the dogs in the back yard and hope they don't jump the fence. I sprinted back to the garbage pile just as the truck was rounding the corner after the treasure house. The pile was still there. The garbage man was likely coming back to that side of the road after his perimeter sweep. I grabbed the entire box of books, scooped up the Christmas tree, and started back to Mom's. At first, my confidence had me powerwalking with a slight bounce- as much a bounce as pounds of books and Christmas foliage would allow, but as I cleared the block, I suddenly because sore as invisible needles shot into my biceps all at once, revealing the true strength, or lack thereof of my upper body. I paused and shifted weight, then continued on. Determined to make it back with enough time to get changed for work which was in 45 minutes, I paused only briefly each time I felt I would drop something. This was too good a find to pass up. Fortunately I found the garage door opener on the way back.
When I reached the house, the dogs were eager to see what I brought back. They sniffed everything so that I'm sure there's still a layer of snot on every book. I tested the Christmas tree: the fibers were out but the light strand was perfect. All in all, my plunder consisted of one 4' Christmas tree, 20 devotional/Bible study books, two still-wrapped-yet-recycled newspapers, a journal of Bible notes, 22 novels, and a receipt for an AGCU bank deposit. Now that's a find! We plan to keep all the devotional and study books, but the novels (all war histories) we plan to sell. Perhaps it'll make a dent in my textbook costs for school.
Need another bookshelf.
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