Dumpster Diving, Again

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Readers outside the US and Canada may not be familiar with the term dumpster diving. Dumpsters are large trash receptacles found in alleys in urban areas or behind almost any commercial establishment. To go dumpster diving means to rummage through these bins for decent quality items that have been thrown away and can be reused or sold. Sadly, it can also mean looking for glass or aluminum to sell at recycling centers or simply to find food.

For CDP members, the metaphor is for looking through your old files, trying to find images you once passed over that might still be suitable for the blog. Lots of us do it when we don't have any new material. So, voila, a photo of a modern downtown office building reflecting another one, with a little of this and a little of that mixed in with Photoshop. Hope you like it.

Back Home

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Points in space: yesterday we drove 400 miles / 644 km from Marysville, Kansas back home, dropping U "R" Us at the Kansas City airport en route for his flight to Chicago. Click his link for some very good Kansas pictures. No new St. Louis material so it's into the archives. A cornice of the baseball stadium, a half moon, the low sun behind me. Little lessons in non-Euclidean geometry.

STL DPB In Marysville, Kansas

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Marysville, Kansas, is a town of about 3,300 people. Not so big, but it has the only WalMart for many miles around. My wife went to high school here. It is about 14 miles / 23 km from the farm where she grew up and 16 miles / 26 km to Hanover, where her mother lives today. Marysville has the closest motels so we always stay here.

I had a bit of free time late yesterday so I went out shooting in the hour before sunset in the town center. These are some examples. There is a growing set of pictures from this trip to Kansas on Flickr here.

STL DPB In Kansas: The Hunt

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It's a family tradition: the day after Thanksgiving my brothers-in-law, nephews and assorted hangers-on go out into the farm fields, trying to shoot small, defenseless birds that are theoretically edible. And the old, old joke is that they have shotguns but I have the edge in firepower - I have a Canon.

Above and below: nephew Ryan strides through the hay stubble with alert eyes. He is clay pigeon target shooting in the second picture - notice the shell cartridge ejecting from the shotgun. Farther down, nephew Josh pushes through the brush with a determined look; nephew Tom looks like his dog just died, someone stole his last six pack and his four-wheeler has a flat; and nephew-in-law Steve scans the horizon. And after all this effort, of course, the apres-hunt party.

STL DPB Across The Kansas Prairie

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Nice dinner of Kansas City barbecue with some of the in-laws Wednesday night, then out across the rolling prairie yesterday to the town of Hanover, Kansas, population 653, where my wife's mother lives. She's 91, still lives at home, and we get out here when we can. We had a small, warm Thanksgiving dinner together.

I like driving across this part of the state. The terrain is varied and the farm fields are full of color in every season. The top picture was shot out the car window at about 70 mph / 112 kph while my son drove. No idea what the plant in the background is - power station, maybe. Below, two views of Hanover in the silence of a national holiday.

Repair

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This is something I need to spend more time on for a bit, at work, at home, and maybe on myself. STL DPB should be back late next week from the farm out in Kansas. Hope I get some nice light like this.

Pay Here

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This parking lot machine looks like a snippet from the work of one of my favorite contemporary artists, Jenny Holzer. (Like this, for example. We have a long row of these Truisms on posters along a wall in my office. I don't know if anybody gets it.)

Well, it's finally happened. I have so much at work and at home that needs my attention that I need to take a blog break. I've got something in the hole to post for tomorrow but comments will be on hold. If the force is with me, I'll pick up again late next week from out in the prairies of Kansas, when we go to see my wife's family for America's Thanksgiving holiday. Friday, November 26, is the annual Kruse boys' unsuccessful quail hunt, when my brothers-in-law and nephews go out with shotguns and I follow them with a Canon. What a photo op. Here's an example.