Weathered

The hunt for trash has been slowed by bad weather. There’s been a couple of snowstorms which have made the roads very hard to navigate by bike, especially with a trailer. There were also a few days where the temperature dipped to around -20. I went out on one of the freezing days, mostly to check out a “loyalty spot.” I had to spend some time in apartment lobbies just to warm up. It wasn’t a fun time, though I find the cold makes me focus more on survival rather than everyday trivialities which is a refreshing change of pace.

I went out on Monday evening (the cold day) and Wednesday (TMR). I also went out twice last night, to the Plateau and also to a part of Rosemont (east of Iberville, south of Rosemont) I hadn’t gone to in a while. This is about half of my usual summer schedule. I didn’t find much but the week wasn’t entirely devoid of finds either. I wouldn’t normally show you this bag of elastics but on a slow week I figure it’s fair to mention. I did find them in the garbage, after all, and they may come in handy! In case you’re curious, this bag of elastics and the next few finds all came from the same spot in TMR around Kenilworth and Kenaston.

I also found a bunch of trash bags, tin foil, and plastic wrap, most of which were reasonably full. This is the kind of stuff you only throw if you’re moving or clearing out a house.

There were also a couple decent pairs of ladies shoes.

The highlight of my Wednesday was probably finding this perfectly functional hair dryer. A future Christmas gift perhaps?

This was something I found last night in the Plateau. I’m not sure what it is, though it has little rubber feet which make me think that it could be a weird coaster. Regardless, it looks to be to a souvenir from East Germany.

I had energy in the night-time due partly to a longer than expected nap and decided to take a late-night run to Rosemont. I was gone from around 12-2:30am. In one spot there were these nice, barely used pots inside a black trash bag. There were a couple of others I left for others to find.

There was also this set of 5 Johnny Cash records. There’s a lot of good music here, the records are worn but still in good shape.

Last but not least is this espresso maker, which I actually found last Thursday in Rosemont. It works pretty well, the only issue is that a bit of water leaks from the side of the filter instead of going through the bottom. I did a little research online and found a couple of potential fixes, so maybe I can get it working ideally yet. Regardless, it still makes a decent cup of espresso and it’s gotten a lot of use from my room-mates and I in the last week or so. These machines aren’t cheap – this one costs around 200$.

I’ve been busier lately with selling former trash on Ebay. The things I’ve sold (where I found it in parenthesis): a “book” of white wine scents for 65$ (TMR); a silver WWII RCAF pin for 45$ (Verdun), a lot of nine different old Red Rose figurines (Rosemont and Plateau); a mic-tester for 101$ (Plateau); three old polaroids for 41$ (Rosemont, 2nd/Beaubien-ish); and a Mamiya 23 medium format camera for 163$ (Plateau). I didn’t post about a couple of things, which goes to show how there’s a lot of stuff that never makes it to the blog.

Next week is Christmas and I doubt I’ll have any time to go through trash. Just as well, I doubt many people have time to throw out cool stuff either. I’m thinking there might be some good trash after Christmas and Boxing Day as consumers replace their old things with new things. If so I’ll have some more stuff to show you before the New Year. Either way, hope you all have a good holiday season!