"Dumpster" Diving

I decided not to post part five of my short series. I think it ended on a good note as is.

At any rate, the phenomenon of dumpster diving first came to my attention when I was in college. Friends of mine apparently decided to raid the dumpster in their apartment complex looking for God knows what. They ended up finding a bunch of packaged foods that they decided to eat - and they survived.

It doesn't have to go to that extreme, but it can if you choose. And even though I appreciate many of the finer things in life, I'm not above dumpster diving, especially if there's potential for a good yield. One such incident with some friends behind Trader Joes netted several bottles of unopened, unexpired mustard that turned out to be quite tasty.

Though not an actual dumpster dive, I was in Northern Liberties the other morning when I saw a trash can sitting outside the front door of the residence I was servicing. I noticed there wasn't a trash bag in the can, but rather just a bunch of stuff thrown in there, mostly unwanted household items. I decided to take a look.

There was a good amount of stuff in there, most of which I didn't want, but I did manage to snag a nifty little lamp that will clip to my work/project table, a mini backpack that appeared to be a digital camera case or something similar, and two nice ceramic elephant sculptures. Unfortunately, the sculptures didn't survive the trip home, even though I wrapped them as best as possible. Philly potholes are killer.

Anyway, that old saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure" is totally true.