This is the time of year when a lot of the college kids that make up the bulk of the population where I live either move back home for the summer or graduate and move on with their lives. During the yearly mass-move out the kids throw away a TON of incredibly decent stuff: clothes with the tags still on them, canned goods, working appliances and stereo equipment, perfectly fixable bicycles, just about anything you could think of and a few things you probably wouldn't think of. This year I scored: --- 4 good sleeping bags. --- 2 tents --- an almost new pair of shoes --- a few canned goods --- 6 pair of brand new bicycle toe-clips (the kid must have worked at a bike shop) --- a full suspension aluminium mountain bike (in need of minor repairs) --- a few odds and ends And this is without trying very hard: a lot of the people doing the scavenging are pretty serious about the whole deal. Some families (quite a few families in fact) will actually show up with trucks, throw their kids into the dumpsters so they can rummage through and throw the good stuff over the side to the other family members , and tear everything apart to find whatever. People have found (so the rumors say) laptops, Ipods, lots and lots of used and usable cell phones, jewelry, again: just about anything you could name. I just followed in the wake of a cpl of these scavenging caravans, mostly looking for camping gear. (now here's where the magic comes in) Yesterday morning I got up and realized: I don't need any more stuff. I'd already found everything I was looking for and a lot more. The only thing in the world I could think of that I'd like to have that I didn't already have was a decent guitar, and I had to ask myself: even as unintentionally generous as these kids were being, what were the chances of actually finding a guitar in a dumpster or on top of a pile of discards on the curb? Pretty slim. So, I decided to try and exercise a little self-control and not go scavenging that day. Purposely unhooked and didn't even bring my bike trailer to help me keep my resolution. OK, so yesterday evening I headed into town to go to the coop and wavered a bit: decided to at least stop and check out a cpl dumpsters and discard piles along the way just because. . . well because I'm a compulsive scavenger, tbh. So, on the way I noticed one dumpster in a back lot off the street that didn't look like it had been layed siege to (which in itself is something of a miracle) so I went to check it out. There, on the very top of the countless piles of garbage bags, furniture, actual garbage, and whatever was. . . one of these. . . A Burswood Acoustic Guitar. Can't remember the model number but according to the Google search I did it's considered a decent mid to low end acoustic (could have been anywhere from $99 to almost $600 new). All I know is it's in one piece, it plays and sounds great, and it's obviously a gift straight from the dumpster gods *bows head*
