Update Ramble

Been a long time since I have updated this Blog. The job I took a year and a half ago takes long hours (up to 15 hours a day including commute) and takes place outside of a small town that one would think would have few opportunities for diving. I, naturally had done a bit of scrounging, mostly on the job of things destined to be wasted. Can't think of many examples at the moment.

Sadly, after 17 years of marriage my wife and I are headed for a divorce. It isn't the first time she has felt that way, but this time she has chosen to move on, and I have rented a cute little pink house for the kids and I. We had recently bought a little house in the country for $44k with only $1750 down and a reasonable payment of $750 a month for a year then only $550 for the remaining 10 years of the note. This was to be the replacement for the most recent chapter of my real estate investing saga. I had been a home owner for the last 24 years when at age 19 I purchased my first home. I have a long track record of buying at the top of the market. This time I leverage to the hilt at the top, then found myself marginally employed (hence the move to where I am now and the blue collar job.) When the job cut back the overtime and the per diem pay for those with out of area residences, the house had to go. I went from $6.5K to $8K in take home a month to $2,400. Kind of tough to pay a first and second mortgages totaling $2,600 and live well on the negative $200 a month discretionary portion. I was, at first feeling put upon to give up the new house to my wife, but on reflection, the loss happened when the market crashed, and my investment out his is minimal in dollar amount, even if it was a great emotional salve to have a place to go to to call my own. I think it is for the best. Financially I always land on my feet, and will recover. This way she has a place of her own for her time with the kids. We are sharing custody of the four youngest with the oldest at 20 ostensibly fending for himself. Minus the occasional outburst of emotion I am sure are common in we are proceeding as amicably as we can. (Fingers crossed.) I love her still, but have to let her do what she feels she needs to do to take care of herself.

Anyway, on to the point of this blog, the diving. There is one grocery store in the town. It is a chain specific to my state that was started by thrifty Lebanese immigrants at the turn of the century. In my old major metropolitan city, I found that they didn't have the best produce stocked in their dumpster. I had theorized that the reason is that they do a lot of baking and prep work at each actual store location for their deli and fresh bakery items.

The choicest dove for items at any grocery store are perishables that are odd-sized, or nicked or otherwise usable, but not attractive in appearance. I think they wisely grab those things for their deli salads, and sandwiches and so forth.

I went a couple of days ago and found only a couple of bell-peppers. I made a nice stir fry for the kids. This was the second visit of the day. The first visit before my 12.5 hour shift yielded nothing but I did run into another hard core diver. I recognized him as such from his broomstick with a hook affixed to it. I eschew such conveniences, preferring the belly-busting classic divers head-down-feet up pose. After shift there was one over ripe avocado, some rotten tomatoes and the peppers. Slim pickings, but satisfying to find something.

One of the things I have noticed about my diving trends over the years is that I am still a bit psychologically averse to the poverty such activity connotes. When I have been truly without material wants, I dive with real aplomb. When times are lean I look over my shoulder more and feel less than socially acceptable.

On a logical basis, lean times are the best reason to dive, but I struggle. Nationally of course the recession has hit hard. In our major city, my wife recently drove one of the main streets when back for a visit and relate3d to me many of the places that had gone under in the year and a half since we left. The most surprising to me in this downturn was the Army-Navy surplus store that had been an institution since just after World War II. You would think that they would thrive in a down turn. Maybe the shabby chic look of Uncle Sam's olive drab is being avoided by people trying their best to look presentable on a shoestring in favor of Chinese imports at WalMart. Thrift stores I have seen seem busy, but with customers leaning towards the out of date versions of fashionable brands. Slumming isn't as cool when we all live in foreclosure riddled neighborhoods.


The next post was actually the reason I went to the library to have a chance to jot down.