Easily the most useless thing that our dad brought home from the dump, a 15 foot rubber life raft from some sort of ship.
Behind the green once-Saab, under piles and piles of tires, was this "thing". A twisted mass of rubber and vinyl that had been employed as "ground cover" more than anything. I suspect dad thought he could use it to "cover something" or something like that.
It's impossible to tell what this thing was from the photos, and it had to be dragged out by chaining it to a car. Once out into the open yard, I laid it all flat and discovered it originally was about 15 feet long, with two layers of inflatable tubes, some sort of lights built into it, and divided into 3 sections. I think it also had some sort of flares attached to it on ropes, and all sorts of various directions and stuff. It was pretty old, as the lack of safety orange seemed to indicate.
Whatever it was originally for, it was now trash that was now nearly impossible to get rid of. It was partly under the root system of all sorts of horrible weeds and also very wet from the rainwater that had been basting inside the tires, now as a sauce in which a whole mosquito civilization had seen it's genesis. Utterly disgusting and useless (it was already full of holes 25 years ago), it had to be cut up into 4 manageable pieces and rolled up and put into 4 very large 40 gallon garbage bags.
Thankfully we were still on un-restricted garbage pick up (they have since changed over to buy-your-own town bags), and they picked it up no questions asked.. They were very heavy, to say the least.
Yet it still begs the question.. Why do we own this? Once again, he saved that?
-Tara
5 comments:
"Easily the most useless thing that our dad brought home from the dump"
Oh I don't know; that sounds an awful lot like a challenge. I'm sure sooner or later we'll find something even weirder.
OMG! It looks like the remains of a Giant Squid or a Giant Octopus!
Was your Dad the Captain of a whaling ship and named Captain Ahab?
Not that I know of! But he certainly had that stubborn to the point of stupid thing going.
My brother just alerted me to your blog. And while we are not the children of a hoarder to the compulsive degree exactly, we are the children of a "visual person" who needs to see everything (and thus doesn't put anything away) and keeps far more than could be useful - clothes, fabric, dishes, random things that are given to her - out of fear, nostalgia, etc. So it's great to follow your amazing progress - I'm starting at the beginning and will read by way through. Thought you might like a book we tucked in my mom's xmas stocking: Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are by Stephanie Vogt. Your dad went beyond clutter, but the book approaches mindless keeping from psychological/ emotional perspectives... might be helpful? Best of luck to you both in this very worthy task.
ANGERED THE GODS OF HOARDERS? I have recently taken on the chore of sorting through a hoarders "collection" exactly like your fathers collection but on a slightly smaller scale. Over 5 acres of property here. Nonetheless, an unpleasant task. Tires, last count was 300, plywood, wood posts, maybe a woodchuck or 2, 2x4's, cars, trucks and cars and trucks FULL of odd and ends (floor to roof and bumper to bumper full), trailers of various sizes FULL of crap, lawn tractors, pieces and parts of lawn tractors. Car and truck pieces and parts for vehicles we don't own (never have), scrap metal of every size, weight, color of rust and stuff tossed in hedgerows. The list is endless. I have not thrown anything of this persons away but simply "organized" things a bit. However, I think I may have angered the Gods of Hoarders as the "tools of assistance" that I have been using have disappeared. I laugh and shake my head as I read your writings, I am sooo there. I too have unearthed rotting, rusting, wet and sometimes unidentifiable items, including the remains of many once plastic and/or cloth tarp type "things". It is like dealing with a toddler that refuses to pick up toys, no organization, just collect and toss here, there and EVERYWHERE. It is taking a toll on myself as I have no space of my own anymore and I am just tired of the bleeping mess and saftey hazards. Cheers to you and your sister and "may the force be with you"
Post a Comment