Nighttime Rescue

I have a confession to make, and I hope you won't think less of me once I tell you.  

One of the things I've been fascinated about for a long time is the practice of "dumpster diving", basically rooting around in skips for bits of use or value, or that are vaguely edible.  I understand that (mostly in the States, but also in the UK) there are Freegans, who live solely off what they find in dumpsters in their locality, relying on them for food, clothes, furniture, you name it, basically.

Well, after work this evening as I was walking my sister home (about 1 am), we discovered a huge metal skip that had been placed in the car park outside her apartment and filled with junk.  I didn't even think much about it, until my sister, who I think will probably wish to remain nameless for this one, gasped, pointing at a box of books sticking out of the lower end.  My jaw dropped - who throws out books? 

So I pulled a few out.  

Then, looking higher up the mound of rubbish, and seeing more boxes with books and DVDs in them I clambered up and on top of the heap and had a bit of a rummage.  Sister was mortified, but very nicely stuck around, hissing at me to get down, mind, but not wanting to leave to go inside - I suppose in case I broke my neck getting out of it.  Every time a car passed she hid around the side of the skip, and at one point a few people passed on foot, and she feigned interest in the property listings in the auctioneer's window.  I just stayed still, hoping to remain unnoticed in all the dross.  I think I probably spent about 15 minutes up there, during which time I found a discarded holdall and shoved as many books as I could inside, along with some DVDs, a few of those small records (45s?) and a painting of a sheep.  I was going to leave the sheep, but there was a sticker with €20 handwritten on the frame, so I said I might as well.  The frame was smashed to bits, so I left that. To be honest, not many of the titles appealed to me all that much, there seemed to be a good few about Germany and World War II, but I will go through them again in the morning, and what I don't want I'll drop down to the charity shop.  Honestly, throwing out books!

My swag is currently drying out around the dehumidifier.  I will review the situation in the morning, but overall I'm pretty happy with the night's achievements.