My husband and i recently purchased a new vehicle, no it was not the shinny little number i had pictured in my mind with the convertible top and enough horsepower under the engine to give a girl an orga.... um yah sorry got distracted there,what was i talking about, oh yah right, my new ride, no we purchased a very family friendly, unexciting, border line boring mini van, because as much as i dream of driving that fast sports car or hugging my hubby tight on the back of a tricked out bike the reality is we have four kids in car seats and babies and fast cars do not go hand in hand (though my husbands car does have a bit of pep to it it also does not have enough room for our whole family so unless i strap a kid to the roof which there have been occasions where i have thought of that but for an entirely different reason his car is out for family road trips), so yes a kid friendly mini van is parked nicely in our driveway and to be honest i actually like it, it has this wonderful invention called stow and go seats that actually turns the back of my van into a very convenient truck like space, and makes for great versatility while i am cruising my local neighborhoods on bulky item pick up days or as i prefer to call them, exchange days, yes i am a dumpster diving diva and proud of it, some may call me cheap, or thrifty or a garbage picker but people throw out some great stuff and with a little tlc and elbow grease some of these wonderful finds can be transformed back into beautiful pieces you know the kind that these people that call me a garbage picker go out and spend big money on ;) i have been a dumpster diving diva for as long as i can remember definitely long before it became cool, when i was little i would go with my grandfather and father to the dump aka the exchange where inevitably we would bring something back with us, you see i come from a long line of tinkerers and salvagers, i do not remember a time when my father has not been building or creating something, and my grandfather was always tinkering with something, a boat motor, a radio you name it he could fix it. I can remember stopping along the side of the road to search for lost bottles, the really old collectible glass ones, or swiping at cobwebs as we searched through abandoned barns and buildings looking for something, cool that would catch our eye. There is something rewarding in being able to take a broken item and fix it or picking up someone elses trash and turning it back into a treasure. I had forgotten just how much i loved to go looking through thrift shops, garage sales and dumpsters in search of a piece that makes you stand back and take notice even in a state of disrepair the piece speaks to you. I am passing on my love of dumpster diving to my own little dumpster diving diva and hope that one day she will be able to look back like i have at all of the fond memories of times spent cruising the back roads in search of the perfect find while sharing our love of music, story telling and reminiscing and maybe if I'm lucky my boys will also find a love for the nostalgic. Yep i love me some stow and go.
That's me for today, just trying to live life one puzzle piece at a time.
J
