We’ve had a break in the rain, so I went out scavenging again this morning.

Scored: A plastic Adirondack chair in a horrid shade of menstrual pink (but I’ve got spray paint for plastic that will mitigate that). A stainless-steel mixing bowl. A cigar box with glass inset in the lid that sort of begs for me to get all Joseph Cornell on it—-plus five cigars, still dry and in the original wrappings. I’ve never smoked a cigar in my life, but I might just give it a go to see what the fuss is about. A bag of whole-bean coffee from the Dominican Republic, unopened. One bottle of cheap vodka, opened and half-drunk; I can use the vodka for purposes other than human consumption, and the cobalt-blue plastic bottle will be cut up for a craft project. One bottle of Margarita mix, unopened. Two pint glasses. More t-shirts. Two regular pillows, and one double-length one with a furry cover. A fleece throw blanket. A huge transparent orange plastic jar that used to hold whey supplement; I’ll cut it up and use the plastic in the same craft project as the blue plastic vodka bottle.

Oh, and the same house that yielded all of the men’s clothing last night had even more when I went back to look in full daylight. It’s all soaked from the rain, but I’ll just hang it up to dry and send it off to Goodwill. It’s all perfectly good stuff, and I’ll easily fill three large trash bags with it, but rather than donate it the dude just tossed it. This happens every year, and I’m always astounded at how much usable clothing and how many household items get thrown away.

And I admit it got me to contemplating narcissism, and how, to a narcissist, anything they don’t personally value is garbage and thus can’t possibly have value to anyone else. (Then again, having grown up with a narcissist, I admit I contemplate narcissism a lot. So there you have it.)

At any rate, there are lots of moving vans and parental SUVs cruising the ‘hood today, so later this afternoon when I no longer have to play dodge ‘em I’ll go back out to see what fresh leavings there might be. But I couldn’t resist taking a break to post pictures of the best scavenging find so far this year:

Strolling down 18th Ave NE, I found this sweet ride parked at the curb.

Don’t they know it’s a 2-hour parking zone? This thing doesn’t have a residential permit!

Okay, so you don’t need a kart–how about a nice trash can? It matches just about any kitchen decor!

Alas, if you planned to just hop on in and ride away, you’ll first have to clear out all the trash crammed into it. I expect that whoever does decide to nab it for themselves will do exactly that, leaving a pile of crap in the street or on the curb–because that’s just how they roll here in the U-District.