Dumpster Diving is a form of Tithing

Snacks

Since I am no longer involved in organized religion and go to church regularly, I consider dumpster diving a form of tithing and helping mother earth.

In my truck for delivery tomorrow is a huge box of food, toys, books and other goodies I’ll never use. God will not send me new stuff if the old stuff is still here. Clutter is stuck energy and since I’m a person of light and love, I like to keep things clean and simple.

Those toys could help a poor child or a single mom with children who can barely put food on the table. Little children or even grade school children feel compelled to fit in. Sometimes a new blouse or a new purse can make all the difference in the world.

The cosmetics could give a middle-aged woman who has lost her job and is barely making it a shot of self-confidence. Sometimes a little bit of blush and lipstick can make a gal feel all the more better. Our society tends to minimize middle-aged women. So many middle-aged women I talk to feel invisible. That’s really sad. I go out of my way to engage with middle aged women and men. These baby boomers are the ones who received a huge hit in this economic depression.

Last Friday we found all these snacks in the dumpster, the vendor threw them out I believe. We have given some away and some my husband will take to the office to let others enjoy them as well.

Nature abhors a vacuum, if your life is full of things you do not need (that can also include relationship as well as “stuff”), you won’t have the room to receive the good stuff.

Dumpster Diving is Hard and Dirty Work

The title above says it all. Especially if you get a good haul quite often like we do. Hauling heavy items out of the dumpster, loading them up in your truck, hauling them into your garage or carport, sorting them, takes HOURS. I was up until 2am sorting and putting stuff away. I was so tired my husband insisted I go to bed, so I did. So I’m back at it tonight sorting and putting stuff away.

We first went out to one side of town. Pictures are included. Products too numerous to mention. I’ve been having problems with dry itchy scalp. I had planned on going to the doctor for my scalp, which he would probably prescribe a T-gel coal tar shampoo. Found 4 bottles of high end coal tar shampoo for dry itchy scalp (talk about manifestation). Used some this morning and the difference was amazing.

My truck was full on the first run. We decided to come back home and reload. I fixed my hubby a vegan supper and we were off again running. I’m not a full vegan but I do enjoy an occasional vegan meal. We had steamed rice with Braggs Aminos (soy sauce) and yakisoba noodles with vegetables. Costco sells a yakisoba noodle meal that you heat up in the microwave. It’s very healthy and delicious.

It’s very difficult to get my husband to eat salads. So I made him one last night that he liked and I think my readers would like. Shredded romaine lettuce, a couple of tablespoons of bacon bits, 1 tablespoon pine nuts, 1 tablespoon dried cranberries and ranch dressing. He loved it. I sometimes substitute a TB of either cut up pecans or walnuts, good for fiber and protein. Nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, partially vegan meals, rice and beans, lots of water and tea to me are the good tenets of healthy eating. You find a lot of junk food (chips and chocolate) dumpster diving, so one has to have a healthy balance of eating.

As typical dumpster diving junkies, we went back out. Found a huge bucket of alcohol; Mai Tai mixes, wine, vodka, chocolate martini mix, beer and wine coolers. We hit the jackpot again.

Today we went to the local state fair and just hung out and had fun, but we’re both still pretty tired and sore.

In fact I’ve injured and hurt myself many times diving. In the past I did not have health insurance, so I let things go. Now the former injuries and muscle aches are starting to become cumulative and now I have to see the chiropractor. I’m a big fan of chiropractors and holistic health. So this week UDD is getting an adjustment, an hour long massage and some time on the TENS unit. If I’m not in my peak health, I will end up injuring myself and then can’t dive at all.

Was getting low on conditioner and shower gel. Found 3 new containers of shower gel (manifestation again).

There is a good book written by Esther and Abraham Hicks about manifestation and getting what you want. Creative visualization by Shakti Gawain is another good book that I read many years ago that helped. I’m also a big feng shui devotee and believe in the power of affirmations, prayer, Sanskrit chanting and many other spiritual philosophies that help us dig deep and access our own inner core power.

So boys and girls, what great things are going on in your life?

Frappucino For Thursday Night

Had to take my car in today for an oil change. With all the driving, stopping and starting, it’s important to take good care of my truck. It’s an older car, but it runs good, that’s all that matters.

Decided to go daytime diving. No one in the back alleys, which was good for me. Found:

2 skeins of yard
1 box of chocolate cherries
7 bottles of vanilla frappucino
1 new container of shower gel (a gal’s gotta smell good right?)
1 plastic basket with handles. At first I thought something was wrong with it. Nope just dirty. Cleaned it off with hot soapy water and it’s lovely.
1 plastic rake and shovel for pets.
2 pairs of underwear
1 container of new headphones

Last but not least, found tons of patterns, but they were all soaked. I don’t know if it rained in that part of the state but they were ruined. What a bummer, I could have retrieved those and gave those away to the Salvation Army or the Goodwill.

Eggnog after the Holidays – Slashed Wedding Dresses

Between dental visits and visits to the chiropractor, I’ve not had that much time to dive. Tonight I am recovering from a full dental scaling, so eating solid food was not an option. Going the dentist is very traumatic for me. I get very nervous being in the dental chair.

After having a shake at the local Sonic we decided to cruise some new stores.

My hubby and I went out tonight and found the following:

7 1/2 gallons of eggnog (recently thrown out, in date and cold). I mix a little bit of eggnog, some liquer like Baileys or Drambuie (which I found NYE) and have an adult latte.

One blue tall lamp – it’s simply beautiful – just needs a new lamp shade.

3 plastic storage containers which will come in real handy for storage (new).

1 bottle of olive juice for dirty martinis (new and sealed).

1 bottle of Gatorade (unopened, brand new)

There was a bridal store in the east coast that went out of business. Instead of donating the wedding dresses the male employees were instructed to spray paint in red to destroy the dresses.

Why? Why couldn’t those dresses be donated to the community? Some of those dresses were from the designer Vera Wang, who makes a lovely wedding dress.

It’s easier to throw things out than to have a plan to give to those who could need it. That’s OK, there are plenty of divers like myself who are all too happy to take and give to others.

Team Diving for a Happy New Year

On December 31 at approximately 4pm my husband and I decided to go team diving. We were rested and with an empty truck, with empty containers, off we went for an adventure.

First stop we found 3 bags of men clothes in the dumpster. This included blue jeans, T-shirts, underwear, socks, 1 robe, one throw and a beautiful knitted throw (with the cable stitch).

After we left the first dumpster I saw one big lizard eating food from a fast food container (pics attached). At first I thought it was a huge plastic toy then my husband pointed it was real. The daddy lizard slithered off into the pond after I got out of my car. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I’d never ever seen a lizard that big in person before. You see all kinds of creatures when you leave the city.

Second stop was BBQ’ville. Found at least 10 cases of BBQ sauce, in the cases, intact, unbroken. My hubby jumped in and hauled a few out but they were so heavy, we couldn’t get them all. An older gentleman passed by and started talking to us, so we gave him a couple of bottles. He joked and told us he was too fat to jump in the dumpster, he’d be afraid he couldn’t get back out! BTW, the BBQ sauce is good, real good.

Next stop, Margaritaville. Found at LEAST $500 worth of booze. Liquor, beer, wine, vodka, tequila, high end liquor, no cheap stuff. Needless to say, we had a few nice cocktails for NYE. Found a humidor for cigars and the attachments for it.

Last stop, Bookville. 3 boxes of toys and books brand new. Some of them had a few flaws so instead of putting them on clearance, they were tossed. A neighbor came by last night and her 3 and 4 year old will be the beneficiary of several toys. Our local school will be the beneficiary of the rest of the stuff.

It took about 2 hours to unload my truck and put out the spread and as you can see from the pictures a good spread indeed. May 2012 be a more prosperous year for all of us.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,700 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Energy Bars and Random Acts of Kindness

Found a dozen energy bars tonight, intact. Haven’t been finding much lately. There has been so much auto traffic with Christmas shoppers, it’s a real hassle to dumpster dive right now.

My husband has a good heart and sometimes too good. Tonight a young lady approached us and asked us if we had some money for gas. The lady immediately left our space and went away from the gas station. I yelled hey! Your car is over there (she was walking towards the bar). Now I wonder if she was looking for booze money. Hard to say. Had my husband not been hungry (we were on our way to the local bookstore to get a bagel) I would have followed her into the bar and gave her a tongue lashing for taking advantage of people’s kindness.

Many times I’m leery of beggars as I don’t know their motive. When I lived in CA, I had a young lady approach me for money for gas. I said OK (thinking this is a scam), I have no money on me, but if you’ll pull over at the gas station across the street, I’ll be more than happy to fill up your tank. She himmed and hawed and said oh no, that’s ok. So she was full of it.

My husband learned his lesson. I told him from now on, if someone approaches you for money for food or gas, offer to buy them gas or a meal. If they say no, they’re scamming you. It’s sad that it has come to this, but this is how our world is right now.

I told my hubby tonight (who’s exhausted from work) that we’re not diving for the rest of the year. We need to get rid of the some of the stuff we now have either to charity or people we know. We also need to be a couple and have bonfires in our backyard and reconnect to our Celtic roots through the ritual of fire. He’s a heathen pagan and I’m a Hindu (religion not race) so ritual fires and winter solstice is important to us. There is way too much traffic out right now to do any good diving. There will be plenty of Christmas goods and returns after the beginning of the year.

My husband has a few people he knows who have no family here. They’re both men in their 50′s and up. They need a good friend and my hubby could be one for them. One of them I’ve invited over for a holiday dinner, so we’ll see if he actually decides to come over. Since I’m a naturally friendly person, I make friends easy. We have a huge backyard and grill. Since I’m a good cook and entertainer this will start the year off right by having people over for food and conversation.

Tonight we were in a mall buying Christmas gifts for each other. My hubby gave me a robe, gown and slipper. He wanted this huge book so I indulged him. That was our gift exchange. I loathe malls and only go if I have to. The crowds, the lighting makes me very nervous. PLUS I feel like a rat in a cage, surrounded by tons and tons of advertising, buy this and you’ll be successful, buy this and you’ll be the envy of your girlfriends. Please.

Our values have been shaped by what we buy, not by what who we are and our character. That’s completely upside down. Our ancestors lived a simpler happy life. So for me, it will be making quilts and crocheting blankets, reading a good book and making time for my fitness and health goals.

In 2012 I vow to make more friends, have people over for food, conversation and bonfires and less time thinking about the lousy economy. If we continue to focus on this lousy economy we’ll lose years of fun and laughter that we’re supposed to have.

Home for the Holidays

I recently came back from a road trip visiting family. Traveled 3,000 miles in 3 weeks. I’m done with driving. I’m home for the holidays. If I do any driving it’s to the local grocery store or local dumpster diving.

Traveled through east Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama.

While in Alabama came upon an older lady (probably in her 70′s) who was dumpster diving behind a spot I’d frequented. The DD rules are simple, who is there first, gets the goods first. We talked a little. I asked her what she found and she showed me. Lots of crackers, food and odds and ends. I asked her if she did this a lot and she said, “this is how I survive”.

Isn’t this sad? THIS boys and girls is the face of America. Older seniors dumpster diving for food. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again, your politicians do not give a damn about you. Neither do most of these non-profit agencies OR the churches. The people who do need their help, i.e the disenfranchised, the homeless, the mentally ill are simply left behind and many of them die without family knowing it. Many homeless people and runaways are dead years before their family find out.

While traveling found some good stuff; paper plates, another Keurig coffee maker, a lovely memory foam neck pillow (perfect for sitting on the recliner typing on my laptop), a couple of glass tumblers (the kind with the straw into the hole of the lid), shelves for my husband’s storage shed, 15 containers of sweet tea, strainer for the kitchen sink, food, bags of fruit (only one apple had a bruise), vitamins (brand new in box), new magazines and paperback books, nutritional supplements and energy drinks, Christmas ornaments (one was broken, they threw the entire box out), bunch of boxes and bubble wrap (no need to buy bubble wrap and boxes to ship Christmas gifts, there are tons in the dumpster).

It was good to see my family, real good.

Metal Scrapping and Physical Labor

I think we all know by now that the days of the white collar middle manager jobs for many of our men are long gone. Our ancestors tilled the soil and worked hard all day doing physical labor for money. Our generation has become soft and filled with junk food, electronic garbage and excessive talking and gabbing.

The last 2 months I was in California last year I spent a lot of time in silence. I was busy cleaning my apartment so that I would get all my security deposit back. I did a lot of scrubbing and cleaning as I’d lived in the same apartment almost 14 years. That’s a long time to live somewhere. I cancelled my cable and internet as I knew my days were numbered there and I didn’t need the distraction. I spent a lot of time in silence and a lot of great clarity came my way.

Especially in the areas of male/female relationships. I kept attracting the same type of man over and over again. I finally realized the common denominator in all these relationships was me! Eureka! I had to take full responsibility for my financial affairs, my past relationships with the opposite sex and relations with my family, some of which were strained.

I was very judgemental about some of my family members. Now I deeply regret it. I have to remember to walk in other people’s shoes and not judge or blame others. We all have to find our way. That was a hard pill to swallow.

Getting back to metal – scrapping and the above commentary will become apparent as I go on. I had found some cords that I clipped off of old electronics. Inside those cords is copper. Copper sells for about $3-4 a pound. It’s better than nothing and a pound of copper could buy some food. It takes some time to scrape the cord from the copper. I use a potato peeler, works like a charm. A scalpel would be better but I’m afraid I’d cut myself!

So if a young man or even a middle-aged man wanted to earn some extra money scrapping would be the way to do it. Many people will be upset that the illegals are scrapping copper and metals to make money. Well maybe some Americans could get off of their butt and do the same. I won’t go into the pro/cons of illegal immigration, this blog is about dumpster diving. But maybe our men could learn something from these people and be a little more inventive on how we make money.

Copper and metal scrapping is long and tedious work. But I think that’s a good thing. Our ancestors did a lot of tedious work and they were OK. Maybe some tedious copper scrapping, some periods of introspective silence while scraping away would do a lot of us a world of good. I myself need to unplug from the internet, TV, my MP3 player and just be there. It’s amazing the things you’ll hear and the insights you’ll have.

Copper and metal scrapping has 2 good things going for it. Number one you make some money and number two you keep the metals out of our landfills which could possibly contaminate the ground water.

Coffee and Windchimes

Decided to go to the local planetarium to watch a laser light show. When I asked my husband what he thought, he said oh it’s OK. I reminded him he was singing along with the songs in the show! He said, oh well, I liked it a lot.

On the way home, we decided to stop at a few places where we usually score and tonight we were not disappointed.

Found 6 intact containers of coffee (expired this summer) but as far as I know coffee really doesn’t go stale unless it’s opened. So for now, we have enough coffee for about a year. We had found 4 containers at this same locale a week ago.

Found about a half dozen wind chimes. Most of them are all tangled but I’ll untangle them tomorrow and hang them on our carport. Two were OK so they’re hanging up now. I love the way wind chimes sound in the wind.

Also recovered 6 boxes of trisket crackers. I love those things. They’re especially handy with dip if we have company over OR if we want a quick snack of fruit, cheese, deli meat and crackers. Goes good with wine.

4 wash cloths. Those do not go bad and they only wear out. Since I’m a neat and tidy freak, the more cloths and cleaners, the better.

Since my inventory is high and space is tight, I’m only getting things out of the dumpster I can immediately use or give to my neighbors. With space of the essence, I can’t get everything. What I have been doing is taking the stuff I cannot use and neatly setting it to the side. That way another diver can get it and use it.

It’s a lovely moonlight night tonight. The breeze blowing on my face feels wonderful!