Swapping Old (Free)...For New (Free)

 Today, we shopped. We traveled east, found some things we needed, did not find other things we needed. Spent too much time in traffic, then returned home. We decided to stop at one last place in town.

They didn't have what we needed, either.

We turned for home. Instead of going one way, I went another, and that made all the difference.

"Free," the hand-drawn sign said that was attached to the exercise bike. "Look at that," I said to my wife, and I slowed down. "You stopping?" she asked.

The fact that I did answered her question.

The thing is, I've been looking for an exercise bike like this one, one more like a paddleboat than a bicycle, like the one we have in our humble home gym. We obtained that one from our neighbor who didn't want it anymore and had not gotten rid of it yet. I used it whenever I worked out (which was a couple of times a week...). It worked okay, but it was starting to fall apart. The worst part of it was my wife really couldn't use it. For that reason, I was thinking of replacing it with another...

With one like the Free ProForm 955R exercise bike sitting on the side of the road.

My son and I loaded it in the minivan and we took it home with us. I moved the old one out and put the new one in...both used, both free.

I thought it interesting that something unless for one person can be useful for another. Using that theory, there's someone out there who would gladly take our old piece of equipment and be glad for it. Unlike our neighbor, I'm not going to set our old bike out for someone else. I believe it has completed its mission.

Swapping old free for new free...looks like it worked out for us this time.

One Man's Trash...

 I've blogged several times about the wonderful field that is just east of our house. It's only a matter of time before that field becomes first streets, then foundations, then homes and yards. People need places to live and I hope many can find out what an amazing place it is where we live and join us on the gently slopping hill.

But, I haven't blogged much about what's north--at least, not for a while. North of us the hill continues. I'm sure, in time, that will also be filled with homes and yards, RV pads, and backyard barbecues. The more the merrier. Before they developed our subdivision, the hill was farther from civilization and there's evidence that the hill was used as a landfill for some. There's old window frames, a lot of old barrels, and other items strewn across the land, some new, some not. I doubt there's anything of value semi-buried near the sagebrush and wild grasses, but I stopped and looked anyway on my last hike. I wanted to see what it was that people threw away.

That's when I came across an old bottle. It was covered inside by a film so I couldn't tell how old it was. I'm no expert in dating objects, but it was small and portable so I decided to take it home and clean it up. 

I did, and after washing it up a bit, I'm still convinced it's not worth any money, not that the value was the only reason I picked it up. As I walked down the mountain I thought about something. Years ago someone hiked--but most likely drove--up the hill and dumped their trash. That bottle might have stayed on that hill for years, maybe even decades if I hadn't picked it up. One man's trash becomes another man's object of interest. 

There's a good chance it will end up in the trash again, only this time it will be placed in a municipal container and driven away to another landfill, a proper landfill, a legal landfill. 

Who knows--maybe one day someone years from now will take a hike near their home and come across the bottle, depending of course it remains in one piece. It will be older then. Will that person pick it up, take it home, and try and clean it up? My guess is if I throw it away, it will become something no human will ever again see.