Spring Is Here

Just couldn't help it. Happy first day of spring !

A Closer Look

It was at the end of the week at work, and we were cleaning up the trucks, and taking care of some loose ends and all. A couple of the trailers had some "solid waste" on them. "Solid waste" is junk that people dump out on the side of the street. Actually, we're not really supposed to pick this up, but of course if we didn't, no one else would. But I digress again. In consolidating this stuff we came upon one of those big, high dollar TVs, or rather, what was left of one. In the process of manhandling this thing, it was discovered that it contained three of these cool, big ass lenses. I guess I'm just one of those people who if they have a little time, and a pocket knife, are gonna take something apart. Besides all that, I have a thing for big ass lenses. Over the years I have found that the lenses out of old projectors make incredible magnifiers, and these things were huge. And so, an accomplice and I went to work. We each got our own cool, big ass lense, and even had an extra to give to the guy in the shop. Us old guys have a bit of trouble with the fine print these days.
But is this cool or what ? I already set fire to some leaves with it. I don't like to toast ants, it seems cruel somehow. Maybe it would be OK with fire ants though, they deserve it. Mostly, I just carry the thing around and look at stuff.

Pretty but Doomed

We have this volunteer peach tree down in the yard. These volunteers often make some of the best peaches. Now with the warmer weather, we also have these beautiful blossoms. But the tragic fact is, we are expecting below freezing tonight, and our potential peach crop is DOOMED ! It would have been the first year for this young tree, but nature can be so cruel.
Amazing Grace, the movie, finally came to town and we went to see it. Liked it pretty well.
Happy St Patrick's to you all. I'm gonna go have a Pint O' Stout in his honor.

Organic Cookin'

The weather was just too nice. I couldn't resist the impulse to sear these chunks of a dead bird over a small pile of hot coals. We used to raise some of our own, before we got lazy. These however, came from the Harris Teeter. But this is not just chicken, this is "Organic Chicken". We take our chicken serious here. Come to think about it, is there such a thing as "Inorganic chicken" ? Or would that be "Unorganic Chicken". Would that be plastic or something ? My daughter has a rubber chicken somewhere, but I don't think she's ever tried to cook it.
Well I kept the lid down and let all that smoke influence the chicken cooking in there. I suppose that cancels out all the healthy stuff from the "organic" part of things, but it was quite tasty anyway.

Dandelions and Other Stuff

So why do people hate them ? Why are so many bent on their destruction ? Here is this nice bit of color heralding the glorious springtime, and it bothers people. But why, what is the crime here ?
The blossoms are kinda pretty. When they go to seed, they're a lot of fun. Who hasn't plucked the fuzzy little things and gently poofed them out into the wide world ? And they're nutritious, you can add the greens to your daily salad for that natural effect. Shoot, you can even make wine out of them if you add a bit of sugar. The weather is warming up. The Violets are coming out now, the Red maples are blooming. We are looking forward to seeing the new leaves on the trees. I like Spring Time.

Foolish Desperation

I'm kinda a Slacker sometimes, and I let the sunflower seed get a bit low. With the whole wide world out there, I didn't really understand just how important this was to the Avian Economy. This desperate little fella, somehow managed to squeeze himself into the feeder in an effort to obtain the last few seeds. Birdbrain as he is, he never thought out his escape plan. But then, a lot of us often don't think very far ahead, do we. Rest assured, after I made him pose for this humiliating picture, He was allowed to return to his home and family. Perhaps he learned a valuable lesson in this, it would be nice to think so.

The Poetry Corner

Always kinda liked this one.


I'M nobody ! Who are you ?
Are you nobody, too ?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell !
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody !
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog !

Emily Dickinson

Final Final Destination

I'll admit it was hard to see. A sharp eyed surfer got it close. A deer was the call, and considering how hard it was to see, I guess that was close enough. Here is a closer look at this tragedy. So congratulations to Woodie, you'll have to buy your own lottery ticket, but if it's any consolation, I hope you win big. Maybe if you do you'll remember the Fuzz.
I guess that stuff about the glue factory isn't true any more. These big guys get special treatment. They have a nice deep hole just for them. Horsies, Moo-Cows, Dogs and Cats, ( the animal "shelter" is here at the landfill ) this is the final destination for so many.
But I'm getting depressed about all this, so I think it's time to say Bye Bye.

Rusting Away

More on the fascinating subject of railroads, or at least railroad trestles. Back to the old Southern RR. This is the part abandoned. Here it crossed the river on the other side of town. Actually, I suppose, it still does, but no trains. Not even any track. But this is an impressive trestle, is it not ? There is that long stretch with the timbers leading to the river itself. Trains must be really heavy, I guess the trick is to use lots of timbers. And then we come to the river itself. This is not the river of the River Walk, only a contributer to that mighty flood. But still a real impediment to railway travel.
I think at flood stage, all those timbers would catch all kinds of trees and other debris, so this problem was eliminated with this iron span. It seems so fragile in a way, with it's slender braces, compared to more modern bridges. But this one carried trains for years and years, and never let them down. Now it sits here, quietly rusting away.

Still no score on the "Final Destination" quiz. You'll have to look real close to uncover the sad truth.

Final Destination ?

Ha ! No picture.
Yes it's quiz time. Turn back the pages of time and "Kinda Fuzzy" itself. Travel with me back in history to Saturday, February 24, 2007, and the "Final Destination". How observant are you ? Who's "Final Destination" is this ? Unfortunately there are no prizes, no big bucks. If you want that, buy a lottery ticket. But you can have the smug satisfaction of knowing your keen powers of observation are a cut above the rabble.

Pumped Up

The weather was so nice today I couldn't resist taking out the 'Cycle. Topped off the tank and headed up toward the South Mts. That's always a pleasant ride on the winding through the hills. On the way I passed this place. It's a museum for the late Lawndale Railway & Industrial Co. Which is not the subject here. But I did want to share these cool gas pumps. I already had a full tank, so didn't try to fill up here. I'm not sure If I know how to work these things anyway, and besides, the place wasn't open.
Some other time we'll look at the LR&I RR.

Still Hanging In

This little fella goes back pretty far. Back to the days of the house in the country with the holes in the floor. I was trying to saw a plank out of an old log I'd found in the woods, which was more work than I'd expected of course. There was this little tip left over and I got inspired to make a little "Protecter of Socks" and such. Some might think I had too much time on my hands, but I wonder if that is actually possible. I must have been a bit of a pagan at the time. But be that as it may, I was not relying on any dark forces or anything, only the fact that he was a bit of sweet smelling cedar wood.
For some reason he's still hanging around, although I don't know that he ever had a chance to do any work in his field.

Gang aft a-gley

This is a '64 Chevy Truck Transmission. A 4 Speed, even. The other stuff is not the subject here. Many years ago this tranny had been grafted into a '53 Chevy Truck. It was a nice combination, lots of low end torque and all that. But one day, disaster struck, as it seems want to do, and this classic bit the dust. I was saddened by this, of course, but did not despair. After a time, I located a '70 model that seemed to fit in the budget. It was a rust-bucket of course, and had a 3 speed transmission that was prone to jump out of 1st gear. But, having swapped transmissions and even engines out under the old Oak Tree, I thought "no problem". I had this functioning 4 speed and the change would result in an even better truck. Alas, after I had removed the faulty member, I realized with dismay, that the shifter would come up though the firewall, instead of the floorboard.
Now, years later, the '70 Chevy is history, but the transmission remains. I suppose someday we will haul it to the scrap-yard. I'm so lucky to be married to an understanding woman.

River Walk

Rainy day. Gloomy sky, everything is wet and grey. Rain dripping from the roof, splashing on the bricks below. But yesterday was beautiful, so beautiful we had to take a walk along the river. It's good to get away, into the woods. This time of year with most of the leaves gone, you can see beyond the little place where you're standing, kinda get the big picture. This is the Broad River. They've made a really nice place along here with a trail that follows the river for several miles. In the summer it is a great place to cool off. There are some picnic tables spread out along the river, but you better get there early on a weekend. A lot of people tube down the river, and you might see a kayak or canoe. Our son let me barrow his kayak and that was a lot of fun. I am amazed how easily one can paddle upstream around the rocks and everything. I took my Sweetie down the river once in a canoe. We bounced off a few rocks and now she won't do it again. This time of year it's pretty quiet though.
We did see a couple geese out there, and this fellow was catching a few rays.

Final Destination

Let's just say, we've been furiously grabbing garbage for several hours now. The packer has been packing and packing, but can only do so much. If we don't do something we will have garbage blowing out of the top of the truck all over town. It's time to take a ride in the country. We run the packer blade all the way back, and if we haven't gone too far with things, it should seal everything safe in the truck. This is important because the police frown on littering.
When we get there, we will have to run over the scale. For some reason they must keep a careful account of just how much stuff comes out here. A big reason is money. The County charges by the pound for garbage. But we have to pay them. This seems somehow wrong. I mean, this is our garbage, and we are delivering it to them. They don't even have to go get it themselves. But be that as it may, we will have to sign a ticket, and they will bill the city. Threatening to just keep our garbage won't help.
Now we'll travel down a dusty road, cross a creek, and eventually wind up on top of a hill that used to be a big hole. After they dug the huge hole, great sheets of some kind of rubber looking stuff were spread out on the ground, then garbage, and more garbage. There is a system that collects the water that ends up in here, and pumps it out. That's not my problem and I'm not sure what they do with it. It's probably really exiting, but, like I said, that's not my problem.
This is where the birds are. It's cool to see the buzzards hanging out in the dead trees. There weren't any around when I had the camera, so you'll just have to take my word for that. We will dump our garbage out on the ground along with everyone else's, and unless it looks like there is something good in there, they will run over it and crush even more with these big crusher things. This is one parked. It's probably tore up. All this kind of stuff seems to tear up a lot. We keep our mechanics busy too.
Finally they will cover all the garbage with dirt. And that will be that. Out of sight, out of mind.

I'm not sure why I wrote all this stuff about garbage, and I only scratched the surface. I do have a life other than this, but someone once said to write about what you know, so I maybe I got this out of the way now.

On The Route

Hello again. Now we are out on the "route". We've left the "Shed" and made it though town without incident. (Just as a side note, our modern facility is sometimes referred to as the "Shed" by the few old hands who remember when it really was a shed. Back then we worked out of an old tin building with little heat and rats in the walls. But all that is in the past, now we've got running water and everything.)
This is what we see as we make our way along the street. The cans are actually pretty easy to get when they are like this. You just pull up along side and grab 'em. The problems start when they are next to a tree, or maybe a mailbox for example. The arm on this truck is capable of doing major damage. Once I made toothpicks out of a 4x4 post. I'm not proud of this, but, like they say "stuff happens". Even one of those killer brick mailboxes is no match for a garbage truck on a rampage. People seem to think that if they can squeeze the can between a tree and a mailbox, everything is cool. But of course it's not. Sometimes people park their car in front of their garbage can. This is a stupid thing to do. When they find it still full of garbage, they call our office on the telephone and say we "missed" their garbage. But with our modern technology we have a Radio in the truck, and we keep a list of what, and why, and where.
This is what you see when you grab a can. You have to work with the mirror, but this is no problem, you get used to it pretty quickly. You can see the powerful jaws in action. As soon as you have a grip on it, you jerk it up off the ground, and dump into the hopper. On a good day most of it goes in. This would be a good place to bitch about those Styrofoam "peanuts", but I don't think I want to go there.

Next time we'll visit the Landfill.

Really Getting Into This

As you probably realize, we finally made it into the truck. This is not one of those flip-flopy things, we really are on the right side. Of course in this case, the right side, is the right side. Since all our cans will be on the right side, we need to be on the right side also. This takes some getting used to, unless maybe you have some experience with the postal service. When I first started doing this, I rode home on my bike, so I didn't really "re-normalize" and scared the doodoo out of my sweetie when we got into a normal vehicle.
The thing with the three buttons that grabs your attention is what works the arm. I guess it's a little like a video game. I don't play video games. Pull back, it goes up, push is down, side to side, is in and out. Sounds simple but can get hairy in a hurry. If you have to grab a can that is close to anything, there is a good chance you'll accidentally destroy it. It happens. Your yellow button grabs, green lets go. The red cycles the packer. On the far left, there is a thing that resembles a tiny computer monitor, this can be set to pack automatically. This is not a good idea, since it will happen when you don't want it to. Just remember to use the red button as needed and you won't have garbage falling out all over the place. You can see when you need to do this in this TV-looking thing. Mostly you use this to see if the garbage is falling out of the can so you don't put it down too quick, and throw garbage everywhere. You can also see behind the truck when you have to back up. And you will have to back up more than you want to.
The other knobs and switches are normal truck stuff, Heater, Fan, and even Air Conditioning ! Wow ! Nice in the summer. And most importantly is some stuff to lock all the differentials and axles and stuff. This is so you can get really good and stuck before they have to pull you out of the mud with the bulldozer at the landfill.

More really great stuff in the future !

Modern Times

Here is our fleet of modern, state of the art, Garbagetrucks. On the right is one of the older rearloaders that is actually still in use. With these new wonders, the "operator" (not referred to as "driver") pulls along side a can, grabs it, and dumps it into the top of the truck. Then, does it again, and again, and so forth.
This is a shot of these trucks warming up, at dawn, anticipating an exciting and productive day.
Until recently, this function was performed by a crew of 4 men, a driver, and three "pullers". Back then, the residents of this fair city had the luxury of backyard pickups. This meant that they had the option of hiding their trash in difficult locations anywhere on their properties and it would miraculously disappear once a week. This was known as "Pulling Garbage" or "Pulling a Buggy". That was how I broke into the business myself. The first change was the "rollout" step. Now all cans must be rolled to the curb (if there s a curb). The city now provides these "rollout" cans to the residents but they have to pull them to the street themselves. This was not well received in all quarters, but it is now a fact of life. Now there was a 3 man crew, a driver and 2 hands on the back. Lest one thinks this is a cruel and heartless business, there is a provision for "handicapped" pick up where a crew does the back yard thing for folks who can convince the city that they are incapacitated somehow. This is much abused of course. One of the old rearloaders is used for this and to work in the business district.
The last step, which was the plan from the beginning, was the new trucks, a one man operation.

In the future, (if there is one) we'll get into the truck.

Garbagical Historical

Back then, before my own involvement incineration was the going thing. This was a state of the art facility in that bygone era. I can only guess that in those more innocent times, hazardous, choking, fumes were not a major concern. As one can see, this facility is no longer in use.
There are places these days where, I hear, they burn the trash to make electricity. This was not that sort of place. This must have been a fairly common arrangement back then. I remember going with my father to a similar facility in another town. They would push the garbage down through a hole in the floor. It made me think of Hell. But that was years ago.
Here is a closer look at what's left of the guts of this thing. I suppose in it's day, this spot contained it's own bit of Hell. Not today however, it was a cold day when I visited.
There are all those ruins in Greece, and Rome that people go to see. We have our own here, although they don't seem to
have as much class. But they are a lot closer. I sometimes wonder what future generations might think about our debris. Of course, this place might be a cinder by then anyway.

Next time we'll look at equipment.

Undercover

Wecome to the magic of Kudzu. That is not a thatched roof down there, but part of the "Green Revolution". It appears to be taking over the world. This could be a good thing in it's own way, I suppose. Green vegetation could help with this "Climate Change" stuff. And this will be green enough when the weather warms up. But for now we can see the underlying facts better.
They say this stuff can be useful and all. I guess it does slow erosion which was the original idea. They say one can eat it, but I've never know any one who does. Except goats, they like it. When it blooms it smells a lot like grape jelly. It just doesn't know when to quit.
I couldn't find an entry for "kadzu" in the Wikipedia, which I couldn't believe, then I realized I was spelling it wrong. I had a lot of problems in school with that sort of thing. So it is there after all if anyone is unfamiliar with the stuff at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#Kudzu_as_an_invasive_exotic . I suppose there is a way to make this a direct link, but I don't know how to do that either. Hey, the 20th century was complicated enough.

The Garbage Series is coming soon.