I stop about 10-15 feet away from the truck in front of me and, as is my habit, check my reaerview mirror.  Only, this time was a little different.  I didn't see traffic come to a stop behind me.  I saw a car going what was obviously too fast coming right at my bumper.  I heard his tires lock and thought to myself, "He's gonna hit me."  I tensed up and remembered that you're supposed to relax (as much as you can) so I tried to go as limp as possible.  He skid for less than two seconds before he hit me and slammed my car into the truck in front.

All three of the drivers exited about the same time.  The truck in front of me had no damage at all.  The guy didn't see a need to stick around since there was no damage so he took off.  Thankfully I took down his plate number before he left.

When I got to the car of the guy who hit me, he came out of the car.  My only question was, "Do you have insurance?" to which he replied, "Yes sir."  We both got back in our cars to write down the information and after we exchanged it we pulled the cars off to the side of the highway.

In the conversation he noted that, not only was this his second accident connecting with the back of an SUV, he was oblivious to the traffic that was around him.  He had no idea why I or the truck in front of me were stopped.  I had to tell him that everyone around us was stopped, to which he replied, "Oh."

At first he was trying to pass it all off on me, telling my insurance company that I had hit the truck in front of me first which is what led him to slam into me.  But, after talking to his adjuster, it sounds like they realize what actually happened.

So, now we're looking at a potential total loss on our car and waiting to get an estimate/proposal from his insurance company.  We're hoping for a fair settlement.

I'll post more after they make an offer.

Stop#2:  Mercy Wine Bar (Addison)  California Sav, French Desert Wine & French Cab paired with Bleu Cheese/Honey/Apricot/Crackers.  Talked it up with the bartenders, suggested beers and the like, got gifted with a $20 Come Back and See Us gift card and, when we were leaving, received a personal introduction to Vincent.

One night, three hours, 4 continents.  And we serisously deserved it.  Sometimes you just gotta have a good time.

Thanks Amber, for hanging with the kids.  Thanks abbey-mates for putting up with Aidan.

Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco): "Um.  No.  No.  We're just really lousy Capitalists."

Kelly has proven to me, once again, why it is that she is the Number One Hero of my life.

If you need a picture of strength, determination, fortitude, wisdom, endurance and the like, I would suggest that you put your war heroes aside. I would venture to say that you would be a fool to look to the wisdom masters and even those who have conquered nations with military prowess and power. As it stands, there is one woman on the face of the planet who, to me, represents everything that is incredible about Woman and even Man. With every contraction, with every moment of rest, with every step and new position attempted, with every tear and every laugh she has shown herself to be a living legend. You, oh Brave Man, know nothing of this woman's strength. You, oh Strong Man, know nothing of this woman's true beauty. You, oh "Rock Star", have never sung a note so beautiful and the song that she has sung over the last 48 hours.

Kelly labored, unassisted by either physician or medication, at our home for over 28 hours. Her mother, our friend Ami and I walked with her, rubbed on her, loved her the whole way. After all was said and done, we got not only the labor and birth we hoped for, our daughter is now at her mother's breast... a symbol of intimate communion and triumph all wrapped into one.

My daughter, the new and beautiful jewel of my life, is beyond words.   She has shown me that the world is new again. When she cries, I hear all of the struggle of this world in one tiny voice. When she rests on her mother's tender chest, I can see all of the comfort and tranquility to be found on our tiny planet. She has conquered my nation and I am proud to surrender.

Minutes Old

Beautiful Profile

Embraced

Clean

Born 10.25.08, 10:36pm
9 lbs, 15.5oz (heck, just call it 10lbs)
22"
Perfect.

Story soon to come.  Much love,
Papa Nygren

2.  Palin looks like she's having a great time running in those circles.  Maybe that's how she stays fit.

3.  Biden almost lost it when talking about his family.  I can respect a man who will show his hurt.

4.  Education got so little time.

5.  Amazing how two people can say they agree on Gay Marriage and mean two totally different things.  Interesting that Biden brought out the distinction between civil and faith-based unions.  Palin glossed it over.

6.  The difference in the experience levels of the two candidates could definitely be seen in not only their stories, but in their demeanor and confidence in actually answering questions.

7.  Politics is politics is politics.  Let every human be found a liar, but God be true.

8.  Seven points is enough to make the point that Sarah Palin did not answer any questions to my liking.

Goodnight America.

No more Starbucks. 

No more screen printing (unless its a big job that I can make some money on) in a garage. 

No more waking up crazy early to sling coffee (which I am surprisingly still passionate about) for the (mostly) loved masses and slipping that one particular guy decaf instead of leaded.  (For the record, I only did that once in the 2 years I was there.) 

No more coming home for a short nap before heading to the "sweatshop" to print.

Tomorrow, I start another Big Kid Job.  I start my training in Auto-CAD and down the road to a whole new season in our lives.

In the meantime, I just wanted you to know that my former employer takes the highest care when training their employees.  They care passionately about people and even more about the quality of the bean and the drinks they hand over the counter.  In light of this, I'd like to give you a little insight into the extensive training they employ on your behalf.  Please lick HERE.

1. I have not gone crazy.  
2. We are not rich, but we are not starving.
3. We are not idealists, but we do believe there is something wrong with the "American Dream".
4. We are not reckless, but life is too short to live by the status-qou.

All that being said (typed), last Friday night I took the leap.

Into a dumpster.  Yes.  You read that right.  Actually, it was several dumpsters.

The first one had little to be reclaimed.  There was a broken rocking chair and one of those things you put on the roof of your car for long trips to put your luggage in.  Oh, and there was a Christmas tree too.  My diving buddy, who we'll call Bonesaw for reasons undefined, wanted to set it up in the parking lot we were in but decided not to.  After we decided there was nothing of worth there, we made our way closer to the Mediterranean market we were scouting out. 

Behind the store we found what I was anticipating.  Earlier last week I had scoped out a few other stores to see what we were up against, only to discover that every store had a compacting dumpster with a chute either directly connected to the back wall of the store or with a locking door outside with no access to the internal contents.  My theory is that this is to deter the exact efforts we were attempting to explore.

So, we made our way to the side of the building where Bonesaw (who we'll just call BS) found a whole onion.  And, I'm not just talking about your average onion.  We're talking 6 inches across kind of onion... with only about an inch of in-edibility, in the bushes. Not to mention, if you were into thievery, there were roughly two truckloads of refrigerators just sitting in the open with tarps on them.  It is a good thing that I developed my new motto before temptation set in:

I'm only here for trash.  Not theft.  (A man's gotta have boundaries.)

After our first treasure, the onion of great treasure, BS spotted the bagel shop across the street.  We parked in the apartment parking lot next door and stopped first at the trash bags behind the optometrist's.  I got about 30 5-day supply boxes of prescription contact lenses and BS got 2 huge boxes of envelopes.  He also tracked down 5 bagels that never should have made their way to the trash.  Mmmmm, bagels.

Next we hit a local Sprouts with no luck.  Read: Chuted dumpsters.  The dumpster behind the local furniture store, however, provided great amusement for BS, with its Styrofoam trampoline/ball pit experience.

La Madeline across the street had accessible dumpsters and we hoped to score big here because of their wonderful pastries and breads.  Unfortunately, scoring was not in the cards.  We did, however, discover that they do not lock their outdoor storage area where they keep not only food and drinks, but expensive carbonating tanks for soda/beer taps.  Good thing I've got a motto and I'm not hard-up for homebrew supplies.

We then made our way to Central Market where we found the same "chuted" experience we'd run into at Sprouts and earlier in the week.  Undeterred, we walked the length of the building only to discover the south end of the building where they keep the "Organics Only" disposal.  Roughly thirty trash bins, each labeled by department (MT= meat, FS= fish/stanky, and FL=floral, BD= bread, etc.) and all of them empty... except the floral department.  And yes, the flowers from this trip are still on our window sill, thank you very much.

Hoping against hope, before we went back to the car, I took one good saunter around the chuted dumpster.  When I got to the area just below where the chute connects to the dumpster, I noticed something unusual.
A gap. 
With food sliding out. 
This is where I saw them. 
And they were beautiful. 
They made me wonder with extreme sadness all that was locked up inside this container of metal and "waste" (oh, the irony that we call it waste).  And what was this thing of beauty, you ask?  Well, I'm glad you asked.

They were grapes.  One bunch of grapes.  About 25 total.  Perfectly edible.  Not a scratch on them.  Not a briuse.  So perfect in fact, BS and I each ate one on the way back to his car.  And we're still alive.

Our last stop of the night was a fluke.  We had decided to head back to the house.  After all, 2 hours of frolicking in the late night wild had landed us at 4am and BS had been awake for 22 hours at that point.  But the sign the read "Donut Shop" seemed to evoke some sort of pirmal urge in him.  We made an illegal right turn from the left lane and made our way behind the 7-11 to the dumpster.  When I lifted the lid, my first thought was, "Mother lode..." when I took the first sweet-scented whiff.  The first thing I saw was what turned out to be four 6-packs of 16 oz Sprite.  As I was in process of transporting them to the car I heard a thud, followed by, "No way!"  This my friends was the Mother lode.  30 pounds of donuts in one bag.  What were we going to do with 30 pounds of donuts?  Who cares?  It was 30 freaking pounds of donuts and we did not pay for them.  Granted, they were smushed together and a day old, but it was 30 FREAKING POUNDS OF DONUTS!  When have you ever had 30 pounds of donuts at your disposal for free?

When we finally made it back to the house we were exhausted.  We celebrated with splitting a Sprite and a toast... to Provision.

Since then, we've enjoyed a few donuts.  The bagels (onion, sesame seed, pumpernickel) were great toasted with some butter.  The onion was great saute'd with my eggs on Saturday for lunch.  Everyone enjoyed a grape or two.  And BS will never have to waste another tree buying envelopes.

All that said, I wonder just how much is really out there in dumpsters that could be used by people who don't care where it came from, only that it did and they were fed.

And I wonder how many people I know can say they've been dumpster diving.

 I recently finished reading Sandor Katz' "The Revolution Will Not be Microwaved" (see left sidebar) and found myself enamored by the ideas of the Slow Food Movement.  I've battled the idea of the fast-paced "American Dream" for a while and it seems that, from the interviews and stories that he shares, I'm not the only one.

Sandor explores everything from raw milk and cheeses to open-range beef and chicken.  He digs into the history of the genetic modification movement and ultra-"sanitized" regulations that force farmers out of local business for friends and family.  Each chapter ends with an incredible appendix rich in resources including books and stuff from the web.

The last chapter delves into the Freegan movement, something that has intrigued me for years.  The idea that we as Americans generate so much waste while large portions of the wast remain usable/edible or recyclable/compostable simply dumbfounds me.  Generations past and cultures current did/do so well at using the most of allotted resources that, if they were to see the stuff we throw out, they would shake their heads in shame.  I realize there is the possibility of oversimplification in these areas, but we really need to think about how much usable material goes to waste.

Take for instance the fact that every day tons of edible food is thrown into dumpsters that, washed and cooked, would make fine meals for those who's concern is not for looks but for nutrition.  The more I think about it, the more I see the reasoning behind the gleaning laws of the Ancient East.  They took into account that, while you as a land owner might have plenty, there are also plenty of people who are able to live on your so-called leftovers.  Look into the numbers on how much E-waste we generate every day and you'll (hopefully) think twice about just throwing your "old" monitor into the dump.  Look at how much grain it takes to feed the mass-"need" for beef in our country and you might begin to realize that source reallocation of grain to the poor might not be that bad of an idea... especially since we really don't "need" all that steak anyway.

All of this talk of Freegan living and the possibility of stuff just sitting around ready for me to take struck a chord in me.  And, since there are really a few things that I want to do before I die, last night I got to mark one of them off my list.  Stay tuned...