My Fair Share

Serendipity!

I wrote earlier about joining the “local” Freecycle group. Well, today was the day of collecting and delivering. This is what had to be done today in my trip to the city a couple of hours away:

1. I had to go to the university to find the page numbers for three quotes that I am including in a thesis (3 years ago when I collected the quotes, I didn’t file the reference information very well)
2. I had to attend some training at The Smith Family to volunteer with their student2student program
3. I had to take our car seat to drop off to a lady who got it from me via Freecycle
4. I had to go to somewhere way out north of the city to get the swing set that I got via Freecycle
5. I had to pick up some stuff that the swing-set lady had organised from the town I live to give to her when I picked up the swing set

I wasn’t looking forward to the running around.

But, here’s what happened:

I put the carseat in the car. I then went to collect the stuff on behalf of the swing-set lady, and it turns out that I had to collect it from my neighbour! Then I went to the city to the university library, and it took only 20 minutes to find the page numbers, something akin to finding three needles in three haystacks. As I walked back to the car, I noticed a piece of timber sticking out of a dumpster. I investigated further and as I removed its 4m length, I noticed some shelving and I decided that I would make that mine, too. Not long later, there were all sorts of timber and shelving leaning against the outer edges of the dumpster and 3 men stood watching as I busied myself from within the bin. When I realised they were watching, I asked coyly if this stuff was theres, to which they responded that it was mine now. With the bin now half empty instead of overflowing, I loaded the trailer – it was full – and headed off to The Smith Family, wondering how the swings would fit. After The Smith Family, I decided to take the car seat to the Freecycle lady’s house, since we were having trouble connecting. I dropped it off, then realised that her place was immediately around the corner from the swing set lady, who not only gave the swing set but a beaut rope ladder that I know young Charlie and Tommy will enjoy greatly.

Heading home smiling, the day was fittingly ended with a brief stop at a roadside stall to buy a box of oranges and a pumpkin.

The rest of the hour and a half drive home was spent deliriously day dreaming about my new shelving and timber, and the kitchen that my wife and I said recently we would build. Now, to “discover” some bench-tops – preferably recently milled slabs from locally felled mango trees…any offers?