Keep Your Trash

Today being Thursday, I spent some time down at the Second Mile Mission Center. My task today was to help out getting the warehouse straightened out. As I was working a thought entered my mind involving people such as myself who desire an orderly world. Some call us neat-freaks, others say we are obsessive, but I like to say we just like things to be orderly. Is that too much to ask? Anyway, it occurred to me that for someone who desires order, working in the Second Mile warehouse is either heaven or hell. It's hell in that it is in a continual state of disarray. On the other hand, it's heaven because there is always the opportunity to make the world a better place by organizing things (even though you know they won't stay organized for long). Being a "glass half full" kind of person, I was in heaven today.

Today the warehouse was as bad as I've ever seen it. There was furniture stacked up by the loading dock, bicycles everywhere, all of the trash cans were overflowing, and the area around the dumpster was a mess. As I walked in I noticed the two permanent warehouse guys were struggling to raise a pallet onto one of the racks, because there was furniture in the way. Rather than move the furniture they were attempting to work around it, with the forklift going head to head with a desk and then a sofa. The forklift was the clear winner. These guys work hard, but they don't always work smart. Once things calmed down I set to work getting all of the furniture in the furniture spot, all of the bikes hung on the hooks on the rafters, took out the trash, swept the floor, etc. Then I immediately left so that I wouldn't have to watch my work destroyed.

Speaking of destroyed, I noticed a few donated couches that should have been destroyed rather than donated. WARNING: I am about to get on my soap box. I'm sure none of you are guilty of this, but I wish that people would realize that "donating" worthless junk to any charitable organization is just an easy way to make someone else get rid of it for you. I noticed today that there were several boxes of totally worthless stuff laying around. Things like gardening books, analog TV's, clothes that I wouldn't use as shop rags, ceramic kittens, etc. Donating this junk to a place like Second Mile - where the clientele comes for food, decent furniture and wearable clothing - only makes it difficult on the paid staff and volunteers who have to sort through it and then throw it away. My favorite donated item this week was the couch pictured below. A good rule of thumb regarding donating any item is that if it has been on your back porch or in your garage for more than twenty years and has been at the bottom of a pile of garbage or most of that time DON'T donate it. Take it to the trash dump yourself or set it on fire.

Imagine how happy some needy family would have been to receive this magnificent piece of furniture!

On the job search front, I called the pipeline company guy today. As I expected, I got his voice mail, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Rather than stumble around trying to introduce myself and name drop my reference I was able to take a minute or so to leave a nice detailed message regarding who I am and what I want - a high paying job with great benefits and lots of vacation. I called him at 8:30 this morning. I'm still waiting for a call back.