On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:39:26 -0500, "DanG" wrote:


You've not ever said what you are calling a dumpster. I think
most of us are thinking 20 / 30 / 40 cubic yard. 40's have really
tall side walls (about 8'), great for skid steers or roof
tearoffs. a bit tougher to load from the ground.

I want to tell a dumpster story.

Once, drving down First Avenue in NYC, I saw a dumpster next to the
curb, maybe 15 or 20 feet long, 5 feet high, and as wide as they
usually are, wide enough to fit in a parallel parking space and be
only a little farther into the street than a car.

There were people in it so I stopped to look. It was full of books,
hardback books with no dust covers, and the people in it were
gathering books. I got in, and in a half hour got about 20 books that
I was interested in. Two or three people would stand outside and
point to books they were interested in, but without dust covers, I
think it was pretty hard to tell which was which. I made a point to
come back 2 days later and the book level had gone from 4 to 5 feet
down to 2 to 3 feet. It was summer weather and I suspect they were
adding more books daily but that it was occupied 20 hours a day by
people taking books.

I went back 2 or 3 days after that and the people were still at it,
but I had my thirst for books quenched at that point, iirc. Maybe I
got one or two more.

A lot of acadmic books, non-fiction, serious works, some prayer books.
1st avenue and about 25st. I think it was too big to be a personal
library, and they could have put the dumpster closer if they were
emptying a house. I think they were cleaning out some kind of
warehouse.