On Tue, 03 Sep 2013 17:37:41 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 9/3/2013 3:16 PM, micky wrote:
On 3 Sep 2013 17:24:13 GMT, KenK wrote:

My short garden hose has five kinks in it. Annoying. I'm too cheap to
replace it - and besides, the new hose will quickly do the same thing.
Buying hose splices would work but is rather expensive - though I could
save them for reuse when I discard the hose. Maybe s short piece of
something thick - like ~six-inch lengths of the free paint stirrers you get
with paint - and duct tape then on the hose at the kink points? I suspect
that wouldn't last.

Suggestions?

TIA

Been here 30 years, never bought a hose. Two of them came with the
house, then I found 3 others in the trash. None has had kinks, So
far only one has even leaked (the hose itself). And I leave two of
them outside in the sun much of the summer, lying on the grass or
bushes. (I move it once in a while if it's on the grass.)

My latest find is one of those little tables with a hose rolled up
inside. One of the two hoses in that lies flat when it shouldn't and
doesn't roll up right, but I can't separate it from the table yet.
When I do, I'll throw it away. But I've unrolled it and even it
doesn't kink.


Are you a dumpster diver too?

I used to be, and I would be again if I saw something good. In
Brooklyn, one day I found enough stranded one-conductor wire to last
me about 20 years. Another day I found hammers and some other hand
tools, a chalk line with dispenser, etc.

Here in Baltimore, I had an empty wrapper that had held an ice-cream
bar, iirc, and I was in the parking lot of a Black and Decker repair
store. I went to the dumpster to throw my wrapper away and saw lots
of garden tools inside. I think I had gone there after work so it was
almost 6 and they were going home in a couple minutes. Over the
next few visits I got weed wackers, 2 blower/sucker/leaf choppers, 2
edgers, a belt sander iirc, a beautiful variable speed sabre saw,
iirc, all of which work fine (the weed wackers might have needed new
main tubes. Sometimes they break the things they throw away so
dumpster divers will leave them alone, but I found replacing the tube
to be fun.) I stopped doing this when I no longer found things I
didn't have. They had very few actual tools like drills . I found
loads of coffee makers (not even counting the ones they knocked holes
in) and a couple pots, but I don't drink coffee. I gave one to a
friend and the rest to Goodwill.

Sometimes I would go there with a 3-step ladder, so I could climb
inside instead of struggling to reach things. You tie a weight to it
with a 5 foot rope, and first throw the weight inside, then climb up
the ladder and go in the dumpster. Then when you want to get out, you
pulll up the ladder and set it up inside the dumpster. throw the
weight out, climb out, and use the rope to retrieve the ladder. It's
the closest I'll ever get to Topkapi.

I never leave the slightest mess, because that would be wrong, and I
think having to clean up is one of the big reasons they don't want
divers. They don't even know I've been there.

Someone who hates to see perfectly
serviceable or repairable items thrown away? ^_^

Definitely.

In my own n'hood there is an apartment building nearby with maybe 150
units. 10 years or so ago, they moved the dumpster away from the
building to a place where I would see it when I came home. The first
year, the day after Xmas, I found vcr's and tv's, that either worked
or I could fix. But I forgot to look quite a few years, and the three
years I've remembered, there has been practically nothing. Across
the whole year, there is much less than there used to be. Maybe it's
the recession.

I never leave the slightest mess, and when I take something I later
decide I don't want, I throw it away elsewhere. I don't live there
and I don't want to be seen dropping my trash there, even if it came
from them in the first place.

Once I found two or three very big garbage bags of women's clothes,
all just washed and clean. Nothing sexy. I gave that to Goodwill.
And maybe that same day I found 25 pair of shoes that looked new or
almost new, some with the original boxes. Maybe cheap shoes, not
sure, but I gave them to another store that sold used stuff and raised
money for a good charity, that sold all 25 pair in 2 weeks, for 3 or 4
dollars a pair.


This is the place I found the electric wheel chair. A guy I knew who
had had a business selling such things said it was worth 1000 dollars
in the condition I found it. 3000 new. Also one of those devices
with legs under the bed, that hangs over the bed, to pulll oneself up
to a sitting position when he's stuck in bed. I think I "knew" the
guy who owned these things, well, just enough to wave as I drove by.
In good weather he often sat outside in his chair, often with another
guy in a wheelchair, and I think he died, and rather than find out
where to donate the stuff, the people at the apartment building just
put it next to the dumpster for their carter to throw away. So sad.

The guy I knew told me to call the Multiple Sclerosis or Muscular
Dystrophy (i forget which) organization and give the stuff to them,
and I did. They do long term loans to people who need the stuff. It
just needed some repair where the cover had worn out and the foam
rubber underneath was not complete.

I couldn't manage to push the chair home, so I rode it and it went
pretty darn fast, even over a grassy not-very-flat area, and worked
fine (a joystick to go and turn etc., a gauge to show how much was in
the battery, and a couple indicator lights.) It had a cord to plug
in and charge it, but without doing that It was still running fine 6
days later when they came to take it away.

TDD

Another place I found a floor fan, one of the all-plastic ones. The
previous owner had unscreweed the bezel that held the back of the
screen to the motor, so the motor and blade were dangling half in,
half out of the (two halves of the) screen. But all the parts were
still there., and it took 5 minutes to figure it out and put it back
together. I use table fans, have no room for a floor fan, so I gave
it to goodwill.

Probably a lot of things I've forgotten.


Not a dumpster, but I was once at the counter at Black and Decker when
a guy came in for the drill he had left to be fixed. The clerk had
it in his hand and told him the tech said it was not worth the money
to fix it. He said Do you want it back or shoudl I throw it away?
The guy said throw it away, and I said, if you're going to throw it
away, can I have it? He gave it to me and when I got home that
night, it took 15 or 20 minutes to take it apart, put a washer or two
on the armature, so it woudln't wobble front to back, and it's worked
fine ever since.

My habit started in NY where people put their unwanted tv, etc. on
top of the garbage so people will see it and take it. They put it
out days before the garbage is collected, so people will have plenty
of time to get it. Once I was on my bicycle in Sheepshead Bay when I
saw a 9" B&W tv on top of the garbage, and while I was trying to
figure out how to attach it to my luggage rack, so it would stay on
for 10 miles the woman of the house came out with rope so I could tie
it on. She said she thought it only needed a tube, but it turned out
to only need a glass fuse.