Thursday, April 28, 2011

Precious Memories

Despite the fact that it was Tara's birthday today (how old is she, you may ask? Well, let's just say she's the square root of forty-nine, plus one less than six, times a score, minus a gross, divided by three, plus two cubed, and leave it at that) we managed to make another precious metals run. Also despite the on-again, off-again drizzle and rain (not to mention wind, which threatened to blow away all the aluminum at the scrapyard) which means my feet are still wet. Here's the butt-end of faithful old Larry, yet again:



Good old Larry.

So we got rid of a bunch of copper and brass, some irony/insulated/old sheet aluminum (including this impossible weird aluminum cable thing), a good deal of rusty hunks of rusty rust, er, I mean, #1 iron, plus the odd battery. It netted us a decent chunk of money, which was quite nice for both of us, even though it wasn't my birthday personally.

When we got there, after sorting it all out, the guy in the smelter asked us where we'd been over the winter, like he'd missed us. Awwwwwww.

Since I was going to go back and cook a birthday dinner for Tara, we forwent our usual celebratory Burger King stop, instead hitting the drive-thru at local empire Dunkin' Donuts; when we got back, as I was cooking, Tara took it upon herself to bounce around in the drizzle and uncover a whole bunch more precious stuff (including a prized catalytic converter), enough pretty much for another run in the quite near future. While I've no doubt the unexpected chunk of birthday cash had a lot to do with her enthusiasm, I also have my suspicions about the French vanilla coffee + two chocolate honey-dipped donuts + energy drink she'd had earlier for breakfast. I swear sometimes it feels like we're in that Star Trek episode where Kirk gets into some alternate space-time continuum and is all sped up and Spock keeps hearing this little mosquito whine. I stand here with my eyebrow raised, but I can't understand a word of it.

So yeah, that'll be another run sometime soon, because:

There is always more.

8 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Happy birthday, Tara. Sounds like you guys are becoming cherished regulars down at the smelter!

Anonymous said...

Awww, he did miss you two. In fact, I bet you are first name basis by this time!!

And, okay, so I am not so good with math, but Happy Birthday, a day late to Tara.

A reader from Chicago who enjoys reading about your trials, tribulations, trips to the junk yard and more!!!

Anonymous said...

No royal donuts? :-)

Happy birthday nonetheless.

Nonny said...

Thalia, you have SUCH a way with words. You make me laugh out loud with your imagery. What ever you do, don't slap that mosquito, she is a hard worker, no matter what her age. Which even with a computer I can't figure out.

Anonymous said...

um, i just of something: have you two encountered any spiders and snakes hidden among the stash? Wild animal carcasses? (A very large skunk has made my suburban neighborhood it's home last fall and we are smelling again this spring--lots of neighbors complaining---it's really BAD)

Hope you have been wearing nice strong leather gloves when cleaning up.....

A reader from the Chicago area who enjoys this blog

Thalia said...

Nah, there's nothing nasty or poisonous in this part of New England. Maybe in the mountains you could find a rattlesnake, but you'd have to really go out of your way. The worst we have around here are ticks, or grouchy opossums, who, let's face it, will play dead if you pester them enough. Ooooh. Scary.

Tara did disturb a garter snake once on I think the hood of a car. It had been snuggled inside of something and when she went to move something it got itself cornered and freaked out. Did you know a garter snake will rear up and hiss just like a cobra? Cutest darned thing, I swear. It was all of a foot long and tryin' so hard.

curiouslittleoysters said...

You guys are so impressive!

Thalia said...

Thanks everybody.

No, no snakes or a...

Wait, didn't I leave this comment before? Am I going batty? Was it lost when blogger got bloggered the other day?

Anyway, I'll say it again despite the déjà-vu: nope, nothing scary in this part of New England, not poisonous snakes nor big nasty spiders. Ticks, yeah, but that's it.