e-cycling

Well, I got rid of 1.5 boots (BritSpeak for "trunk") worth of e-waste today. The City of Dallas was sponsoring a Quarterly Recycling Event at a nearby park, so .. I took advantage and got rid of all sorts of circuit boards and cables and .. stuff .. that I will never use again.

Turns out the City had contracted with BCD Electro ("Electronics Recycling – Surplus Electronics – Computer Recycling") to handle all the electronics waste, and -- despite the rain -- they were doing a reasonable amount of "business" when I was there.

I still have 2 CRT monitors that have been sitting in my garage; I'm reluctant to part with them because -- even though they probably have zero value -- they cost hundreds of dollars and still work (they just take up lots of space and use lots of amps).

Now, I simply have to avoid the same mistake - buying stuff that'll ever be obsolete. Where do I start?

next Smart stop: Austin

The Smart Car Roadshow is in Dallas this weekend (Mockingbird Station), so I waddled down to take the car for a quick spin. Sadly, that's about all I got, as they're cranking up to 500 people/day through the five (5) cars they have available for test (four Passion models and one Cabriolet).

First reaction: at $13,590 it's almost like having a disposable car (compared to my normal wheels - a completely unfair comparison). While standing in line, they show you the Crash Test Video which is a must-see, especially here in Texas where F350s and soccer-mom-powered SUVs have a tendency to tailgate with abandon.

The Smart US models have a 33 liter (8.7 gallon) fuel tank, which gives it a 300 mile range, more or less. The engine is a 3-cylinder, 1-liter gasoline powered engine. Don't expect the G-forces to whip your neck off, but for a city car .. I'd buy one. If nothing else, because they're Just So Dern Cute.

10 years, $141

My car's back from The Body Shop and looks as good as new, mostly. There's a scrape on the rear (plastic) bumper that I don't remember .. it could've been there before The Tragic Event (3/7/7). My cost was the same either way (the deductible) but I noticed the cost rose from $3100->$4400. Good thing it was only the door!

Since Paula was in town, I didn't need to rent a car while mine was being repaired. Why rent a vehicle when it'll be parked the bulk of the time? That changed yesterday, when I decided to slay two birds with one stone. There's been a Herd of aluminum cans in my carport which have Bred over the past ten years or so, and become a Sentient Life Form. It was (past) time for them to GO.

So, I rented a (Dodge Ram) pickup (about 1pm) and proceeded to load bags full of cans into the bed until the pile became One Less Than Unwieldy. It was then time to take them to the recycler in Dallas - about 15 miles 20 minutes away. Amazingly, it netted to 177 pounds of cans (and at 65 cents/pound became $113.75 in my pocket - including a couple $50 bills and one $2 note).

The scene at the Dallas recycler was amusing - about a dozen vehicles unloading various metals - including several suspicious characters selling copper (it's become a high theft item in the past few years). For some metals they asked for photo ID but waved me off when I offered mine.

Easily 80% of the workers and customers were Latino, so there was a fair amount of gesturing but nothing difficult.

Needless to say, I stopped at the nearby Dallas Farmer's Market on the way out of downtown, and got a small supply of fresh fruit, which I'm now happily consuming.

Alas, the place closed at 5pm and it was already nearly 4 .. so no time to bag and schlep the remainder - it'll wait until morning. Today, I decided to locate a different recycler and picked one in Garland. The last five bags were Problem Children - those bags were the oldest (dating to the Pleistocene era) and had begun to decompose - they broke upon lifting. I rebagged those cans and started the journey. Garland only paid 60 cents a pound, but the drive was easier (no freeways). These were Good Ole Texas Boys (with a trifle of An Attitude) .. very different than the day before.

Bottom line total for two trips: $141 for 223 pounds of cans -- and there are now NONE on the property! When I returned the pickup (11am-ish) I paid them ~$60 so actually made money on the exchange, and it only took ten years of can collecting.