On Jul 31, 2006, at 5:57 PM, James Newtons Massmind wrote:

> I would feel really bad if I just trashed it and there were
> some rare, one of a kind tube in there that was just what was
> needed to bring some old system back to life... I don't know,
> does that make any sense?
>
I live in a lovely house surrounded by large oak trees.  About
12 years ago, shortly after we had moved in, one of those oak
trees broke, and proceeded to crash down on and through the
house.  Rumble, Rumble, Crash! Blackout!  Very exciting.  Noone
was near enough to be hurt, and the damage wasn't too hard to
get repaired.  Insurance, however, does not pay for removing
the broken tree from the yard; only for getting it off of the
house itself.  So there I was with a large oak tree, cut in
pieces, lying in my yard.  I tried offering it on the work
mailing list as free firewood.  Not many takers (it wasn't really
in fireplace sized pieces...)  Someone suggested I contact the
local "wood turners club."  These are folks that like to chuck
a big piece of wood in a lathe, and chop away bits and pieces and
chips till they have a bowl.  Or something.    The next morning,
a bunch of guys with chain saws and trailers showed up, rubbed
their hands together "this is GREAT!" and took away most of my
tree.  Apparently big chunks of hardwood are hard to come by
(people, and communities, get a bit upset if you start cutting
down 100+ year old trees to make bowls.)

The moral of this story is that no matter what junk you have,
you can probably find someone who thinks it's a treasure.  You
can't be too picky about getting reimbursed, or even about finding
out what happens to stuff.  It helps if you find the right person
(or group of people.)

BillW


-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist