Passing on a love of Junkin'

It is Junkin' Season. Actually today the city trucks should be at our house, to pick up our pile of bulky items that we can only throw out once every 6 months and that will end Junkin' for another 6 months.

Junkin' used to be a neighborhood sport. All the dads would try to outdo each other to see who could find the best treasure, like Maria, in some random pile at some stranger's curb. Then it sort of waned. Who can afford to drive all over the neighborhood for hours on end looking for treasure at $4 a gallon? I can buy new junk cheaper than that!

Plus, nowadays everyone seems to either keep their good junk or sell it on Craig's List.

RaceCar Man and I made one quick jaunt through the 'hood Sunday afternoon. Other than moving a piece of junk from my pile to his yard, and finding a few other little things, the trip was a wash.

After all of the great stuff I have found on the piles around here, a power washer, garage shelving, garden accessories and the like, I came home almost empty handed. I did find a like-new padlock WITH the keys still attached. So that is something.

But even after several poor Junkin' seasons in a row, there is hope for the future of Junkin' Sport. You see, yesterday The Princess spotted a little nightstand on a neighbor's pile. She wanted to use in her room, so we spent a couple of hours cleaning and fixing it up. Now she has declared it her "Beauty and the Beast dresser".

The Princess did all of the scrubbing and cleaning the outside of her find. I fixed a broken drawer slide and helped clean up the inside. It is already in use beside her bed.

And finally, bringing back the competitive past of Junkin', The Talker was ticked off that he had gotten nothing from Junkin' this year. That is, until he found gold! Orange and gold, actually.


At the bottom of a pile, glowing like a beacon, the boy spotted a Vortex football. He is happy with his and all is right with the Junkin' World. Plus, he didn't have to spend a lot of time cleaning his find. Though I think it did stay with him in the bed last night.

Long live Junkin'!

Trip Recap #1

I was going to work up a nice long post with excruciating detail about my road trip and camping trip in Alabama and Tennessee but now I think I'll break it up into smaller posts. Check back in a few days for the rest of the story.

I left town last Wednesday morning to head out on my road trip to Northern Alabama. Nothing too exciting happened on the road. The windshield got hit with a boulder and has two nice divots out of it now, but it never cracked. Since I was in The Boss Lady's car, so it is her problem, now!

After driving from 8 am until 9:30 pm, I stopped for the night in Meridian, Mississippi. Back on the road at about 7 am Thursday morning, it was raining like heck and the clouds were REALLY dark. Once I arrived in Huntsville, I found out that I spent most of the day driving in a tornado watch zone. THAT explains the really nasty looking clouds...

While I was cruising through Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, I kept a list of the roadkill I saw. Looks like deer are a lot smarterer than raccoons, not nearly as many of those guys on the roadside. Maybe in my next post I'll give you the full body count.

Once I hit Huntsville, Alabama I cruised around town for a while. I thought I was waiting on Rick to finish up work for the day or for Terry to arrive in town. But she was already in town and he happened to be right down the street buying the last of his camping supplies. Once we all caught up at Rick's house, the fun started pretty quickly, with Maria hanging out in the driveway with us for a few hours.

As far as the rest of the weekend, you can just use your imagination. Actually, your imagination might not be crude enough. So use my imagination to see what we did, OK?

Or you can just wait around I'll get to it sooner or later. Unless your name is George Dickel. 'Cause you aren't invited to the rest of this party, so take a flying leap, old man.

Made it to Alabama

No real excitement from the road except one rock-dinged windshield, one stepped on cigar, a pair of crappy sunglasses that flew out the sunroof and lots of rain.

So much rain that Maria stayed in the car the entire trip, so I have no good pictures of her to share. Yet.

Hanging out for a while until Rick gets finished up at work, then the fun will begin for real.

Pack this!

I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but repetition never stopped me from telling a story...

The most useful job I ever had was loading freight into the belly of airplanes. Sad, isn't it.

Anyways, loading the plane was pretty straightforward. Take the boxes and make them all fit into the plane. The trick? Trying to fit square and rectangle boxes into a space with no flat surfaces. The plane walls and floor curve. Something about aerodynamics... So you have to get creative in how you stack everything in there.

And why does this skill I learned 17 years ago help in my present day life? Because who else do you know that could pack everything needed for an almost week long road trip into the trunk of a VW Beetle? There is even space to spare, without having anything in the passenger compartment. I am the pack master. BOW TO ME!


Heck, I was able to load everything so efficiently, that I decided I had room for a co-pilot. Yeah buddy! Maria will be making this trip, too.

I have been unintentionally hoarding Maria for a while. I just haven't had a good chance to pass her back off to The Law Talking Guy since he hid her in our shower while we were gone on a weekend trip. So instead of leaving her in his yard, Maria will be making some emailed appearances at his house (and maybe his office) first. I bet he would love to have a picture of Maria crossing the Mississippi river for his wallpaper.

Let the junkin' begin

This weekend is open season on junk.

Next Monday is our once every 7th month chance to get rid of things that won't fit in our city issued trash carts. It's the only time we can have the city haul off big junk without paying a hauling fee. But it is so much more than that.

Racecar Man and I have elevated it to a sport. Junkin'. The sport of the cheapskate kings of suburbia. Last season was a big one for me. Here are some posts about my haul.

Junkin!
Best Junkin' EVER
Junkin Journey 2
I can't wait unit February

Anyways, I started my pile this afternoon. I am anxious to see how much of this stuff gets taken away by other Junkers before the trash man cometh. But I am also enjoying the fact that we did not pay full price for any of the stuff in our pile of cast-offs.

The basketball goal came from a neighbor's garage sale and we spent $8 to fix it. It is broken again. The blue chair came from last year's treasure hunt. I fixed it and then never sat in it again. The wood was all scrapped from an old retaining wall in a friend's yard. I still have lots more to use on other projects. (Full disclosure, I see two items that were birthday presents from years past, so grandma's might have paid full price for those...)

Just FYI, in the 45 minutes since I snapped the picture, ate dinner and posted wrote this entry, the blue chair has already been picked up by some early bird junker! Junk on, Dude!

So here is to a great junkin' season. Maybe this year the kings will find another Maria, so we can quit fighting over our queen. Or at least so that we can really dress up Law Talking Guy's yard.

All Hail Maria, queen of Junkers.

A surprise guest

Maria came home while The Law Talking Guy was watching the house over the weekend.

The Talker wanted to take a his bath in our tub. I send him in and he comes streaking into our bedroom and yells. "Where did you get that cool paining?"

I started cracking up and went into the bathroom to find Maria staring back at me from the shower, in all of her velvety, nekkid glory. So now that Maria is home, I have to bide my time. She needs to get back over to The Law Talking Guy's house, but not until I find the perfect time.

We really need a new house/dog sitter. Preferably one that I have not hassled with a soft porn black velvet painting.

So I now present to you, most of Maria. I gave her a nice bikini to keep this a respectable place.

Junkin!

It is that magical time of year around here, Bulky Item Collection Week! The one time every seven months that we can get rid of stuff that is too big to fit in the city issued 60 gallon rolling dumpster.

I have a pile started out front. Metal scraps form the old truck bed, old hanging plant baskets, A Zeus statue that was supposed to go to a neighbor's house as a prank - but he turned out to be way to heavy to move again, several old toys that have seen better days, a broken jogging stroller and lots of other junk.

I was going to take a picture of my pile, with Zeus guarding the stash, but someone already picked up all of the toys, the stroller AND Zeus. Maybe Racecar Man and I will find some treasures that are worthy of photography later tonight, like last time.

And for those of you who might be worried, Maria hasn't been seen in a long time. What do you bet she comes out of Law Talking Guy's storage shed soon.