I Picked Trash Now I am in The Doghouse

ejen34

ejen34

Member
Aug 6, 2006
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Brewer, ME
Hmmm..
Got up this morning to take my wife to work. We have been married 28 years. Thus far she has been super supportive of my Modelling efforts. Two weekends ago in fact she bought me a B&M GP40-2 locomotive N scale with decoder from a Hobby shop we visited while on a long trip. Well I might have jeopardized that support this morning :(
Today is trash pickup day. You are beginning to feel where I am going with this eh! Down our street, cross 2 latteral streets, crossover a long busy street, hit a short street almost to the school (she is a teacher).....ooh the car pulls itself over to the curb....almost by itself. There on the top of a small pile of clean trash is 3 large blocks of styrofoam. 2'x4'x4inches. How can I pass that up....some folks pay a lot of money for such blocks. Instinct takes over as I jump out of the drivers seat....all the while the wife is sort of dazed says "What are you doing, whats going on? Is the car broken?" I check the styrofoam over quickly...perfect squares, clean as a whistle, they are mine....I grab all three and throw them in the back of the jeep. Yup this day is starting out wonderful....Or is it??
"What the hell are you doing!!!"
"Honey....what a find!" I mutter.
"But you can't pick peoples trash................................."


Yup thats what she had a problem with. I picked someone's trash and now I am in the doghouse.....arghhhh

But I still have my styrofoam :) :) :) :) :thumb:
 
L

LoudMusic

Member
Jul 21, 2006
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I would probably have dropped her off first and then doubled back, hoping the collection truck (or another modeler!) doesn't get there first.

Nice find by the way. I'd check again next trash day ;)
 
L

LoudMusic

Member
Jul 21, 2006
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More foam. If it's like most house projects I do they'll be working on it for a while and have little scraps all along the way :)
 
N

N Gauger

1:20.3 Train Addict
Dec 20, 2000
6,732
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South Eastern, PA
mywebpages.comcast.net
ejen34 said:
Hmmm..
Got up this morning to take my wife to work. We have been married 28 years. Thus far she has been super supportive of my Modelling efforts. Two weekends ago in fact she bought me a B&M GP40-2 locomotive N scale with decoder from a Hobby shop we visited while on a long trip. Well I might have jeopardized that support this morning :(
Today is trash pickup day. You are beginning to feel where I am going with this eh! Down our street, cross 2 latteral streets, crossover a long busy street, hit a short street almost to the school (she is a teacher).....ooh the car pulls itself over to the curb....almost by itself. There on the top of a small pile of clean trash is 3 large blocks of styrofoam. 2'x4'x4inches. How can I pass that up....some folks pay a lot of money for such blocks. Instinct takes over as I jump out of the drivers seat....all the while the wife is sort of dazed says "What are you doing, whats going on? Is the car broken?" I check the styrofoam over quickly...perfect squares, clean as a whistle, they are mine....I grab all three and throw them in the back of the jeep. Yup this day is starting out wonderful....Or is it??
"What the hell are you doing!!!"
"Honey....what a find!" I mutter.
"But you can't pick peoples trash................................."


Yup thats what she had a problem with. I picked someone's trash and now I am in the doghouse.....arghhhh

But I still have my styrofoam :) :) :) :) :thumb:
Click to expand...
sign1 sign1 sign1 You better hope that Styrofoam can cook!!! sign1 sign1 sign1​

Suggestions:

~~ Mention to her that you will use this stuff somewhere.. on the layout.. Reearch on the net how much it costs (Michaels, AC Moore, etc.) -- Let her know how much you saved.

~~ Tell her - youre not alone in this, Things I have gotten over the years..
Bookcase,
Toy Robot (Took out the motors for layout Motors),
Chairs,
wooden drill (Core drill) cases.. they ended up on a wall as HO & N gauge display cases,
Too many pieces of wood, plactic, and foam
Wooden Mini-Blinds - AfterI disassembeld them they were 300 Ft of board stock.. See my Challenge thread for the latest use :)
at least 3 tool boxes over the years
2 "wall" organizers (missing some drawers)


goldtoth1 goldtoth1 goldtoth1 This could be a Daily question... What kinds of neat stuff have you found in trash piles??? :D :D :D
 
L

LoudMusic

Member
Jul 21, 2006
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N Gauger said:
This could be a Daily question... What kinds of neat stuff have you found in trash piles??? :D :D :D
Click to expand...

You mean other than trash, right?

A friend of a friend found a Lionel set. Unfortunately it was actually trash. Every piece was severely damage and the track was all rusted to the point of crumbling. I imagine it was use as a "garden railway" or sorts.

Personally, I don't recall removing anything from a trash receptical but I've rescued a few items on their way there. Everything from computer hardware to furnature and tools.

In a lot of cases it's not that you're saving money by reusing someone elses discarded belongings - it's more of a challenge to do so. "What can I do with Joe's trash that Joe couldn't do with it?" I believe there are deeper psychological reasons to all this but it's not necessary to talk about here.
 
E

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
Jun 18, 2002
2,772
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36
62
Torrington, Ct.
Garbologist, I think is the right term.
A couple of years ago someone posted a "Dumpster Diving" website link. The guys running the site, listed some of the things they found.Old VCRs', Radios Model Railroad stuff, and lots of personal pictures with quite a few ripped in half(You know..dump the guy or get dumped by the guy, rip the picture of me and him in half), and a couple of pistols(which they turned into the police).
The stuff people throw away......
 
T

Thoroughbreed

Member
Aug 4, 2006
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South Eastern AL
Ah, newest acquisition is wine rack, but the kind with multiple shelves, just big enough to hold 2 rows of engines and/or stock side by side, and the upper shelf (after a lil removal of bottle holders) holds 10 engines angled at about 45 degrees. So overall a good find! :thumb:
Have found speakers, bookcases, even a Kenwood Dolby 5ch reciever that functions perfectly (got the remote for it off ebay for $20). Have found dish sets (still in the box), vcr's for parts, even some code 100 flex from a guy took apart his layout (wouldn't depart w any stock or engines though:cry: ).
 
ejen34

ejen34

Member
Aug 6, 2006
123
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68
Brewer, ME
Thoroughbreed said:
.....even some code 100 flex from a guy took apart his layout (wouldn't depart w any stock or engines though:cry: ).
Click to expand...
Tb.....as I was reading this and an image flashed in my mind....an image of an N scaler getting tired of his 12'x12' layout and as he decides to do another layout he just pulls the entire 12x12 old layout out, fully intact, and puts it out at cubside. Imagine.... :thumb:
 
T

trainnut65

Member
Feb 17, 2006
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Ejen34 tell your wife there is not a thing wrong with getting stuff of the curb. it is there for the taking. and if i had come along and seen it i would have done the same thing.
 
L

LoudMusic

Member
Jul 21, 2006
620
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ejen34 said:
Tb.....as I was reading this and an image flashed in my mind....an image of an N scaler getting tired of his 12'x12' layout and as he decides to do another layout he just pulls the entire 12x12 old layout out, fully intact, and puts it out at cubside. Imagine.... :thumb:
Click to expand...

I have actually heard of two people in the past few weeks who discarded their entire layouts. One the man died and the woman was tossing it - ended up a friend of mine's father bought it all for $500, rolling stock included. I don't care if it's a 4x8 table it's worth more than $500. And supposedly this thing was double digits in each direction with several hundred cars and locos.

The other was another friend's father who took his layout out of storage and tried to build it into his new house - turned out he kept the rolling stock and buildings, the rest hit the dumpster.
 
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