"Don Bruder" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"wallster" wrote:

SteveB wrote in message
news:YuCHc.1361$kt.819@fed1read05...
snipped
I do.

And I can trump your story.

My daughter is a police officer. The sector beat she works surrounds
my
house. She comes over for lunch a lot, and we watch the grandbaby one
day
a
week, so she comes that day about four times.

The other day, she calls me on her cell, and gives me an address where
they
are tossing out a plastic bubble looking car that has swivelly wheels
on
it.
She asks if I would run over and get it, BECAUSE IT WON'T FIT IN THE
BACK
OF
HER SQUAD CAR! She would have picked it up herself, bit it wouldn't
fit.
I
can see her right now, Glock and all, trying to stuff a yellow and
blue
bubble car into the back of a squad car. "Now, please cooperate, or I
will
have to use force .................."

I wonder where in the world she got the habit of picking up stuff
from...............................

Well, I went and snatched it, got it home, and one of the wheels needs
attention, and it needs a powerwashing. Kyle is 13 months now, and
taking
his first steps, so he will be ready for it any time.

You bet I pick up stuff curbside. When you used to could take stuff
to
the
dump back in the fifties and sixties, we would sometimes come home
with as
much stuff as we took.

The pricks at our local dump will write you a ticket and throw you out
on your ear if they see you pick up so much as a bottle cap. "NO
SALVAGING" signs every few feet, a dozen or more "traffic cops" (not
actually cops, but they do direct traffic at the edge of the pit)
standing around acting like they're guards in a south-african diamond
mine, just waiting for somebody to try and make off with the goods.
*******s.

Had to pass up a nearly spotless "Hero-1" robot (Late 70's Heathkit toy
- BIG $$ in it's day, and even if it was trashed, probably worth a
hundred bucks or more in salvagable electronic goodies, stepper motors,
and similar) someone had dumped last time I was out there. Looked it
over, and all I could see obviously missing/damaged was the swivel-wheel
and the batteries, and one cap off the keypad. The rest of it looked
like it had been assembled, then parked in a closet until it got tossed.
Just about the time I figured out exactly what it was and that it would
probably be easily fixable, one of the traffic guys moseys over, points
at one of the signs, and says "pick it up and get yourself a thousand
dollar ticket", then kicks it over the side and down the slope. I
couldn't decide whether I wanted to punch the prick and send him down
after it, or just stand there and cry as I watched it smash itself to
worthless against what looked like an old stove

Pure "dog in the manger" bull**** is what it was all about.

--

I am saddened whenever I go to the dump. Well, it is a mechanized concrete
floor with pits, and semi trucks. Not like the old dump. I see bicycles
that could use a tube and a tweak, and rather than some kid who has no bike
getting it, it goes down the hole. And the list goes on and on and on and
on. Useful items. Things that people who don't have could use.

Sad.

Steve