Dump Rats and Crystals

Today in the News:  I'm going to run this plea until you actually send me pictures to post.  You.  Yes, YOU!

I'm looking for some guest posts.  I'd like to host a week of game pictures from our readers.  If you have cool (or just normal) photos of fish and wildlife in your area or of your travels, please send them along to me.  If you want to do a short write up with the pictures, that would be cool as well, but not required.  Please send submissions to thesharpenedaxe@hotmail.com .  FWIW, I do have a disclaimer here on the blog that states that you retain the copyright to anything you post. 
For my part, I'm going to set up a game camera at the dump.  There are tracks everywhere.  It is a little eerie to arrive at the dump on a foggy Friday morning and see monstrous tracks all around the yard.  I'm hoping to catch a big one!



Dump Rats and Crystals

So, as you have all figured out, I'm talking about the dump a little this week.  I love the place.  Between the stuff that comes in on trucks and the characters that work there, I could write a book.  But I won't.  Because dump rats like their privacy and hide themselves when others are around.

I'm a dump rat, but really, I'm just a wannabe dump rat.  I use the term in the most sincere and respectful way.  These are the men that deal with what you want rid of.  Piles of horse poo, household trash, broken toilets.......vomit.  Sometimes the pile has a real bouquet to it.  The men that work there rarely complain about it.

One of the dump rats approached me the other day and pulled something that looked like a new age something-rather out of his pocket.  I looked at him oddly, thinking he was saving brick-a-brak. 

"You see this?"

"Yeah.  What is it," I asked?

"You can use this friggin' thing for a meeeeaaan fire starter.  Watch!"

He held the large piece of curved glass up to my glove and I almost immediately squealed.  It was hot!

I asked him what it was and he told me that every older model big screen television has one.  Ultimately, it is a magnifying glass. 

It weighs a somewhere under a pound.  If you've ever screwed around with a Fresnel lens that you can keep in your wallet, you know that fire by Fresnel takes a little practice.  Fire by Sony?  Notsomuch.  There are two sides:

You hold it as seen in the picture above, with the fat curved edge on the bottom.

Pretty neat.  I don't think that it's too large to carry with you.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to make a case for it in tomorrow's post.  Stay tuned.

Pax Domini Sit Semper Vobiscum,

Mike, Oscar, Hotel.....out.