the copier

Oh, man! Today of all days I wish I had my cheesy camera with me! I have had non-stop entertainment outside my office today.

We had this old copier that was no longer working and we couldn't get anyone to maintain it for us, so we finally got some volunteers (4 strapping high school/college boys) to help the office guys here move the old beast outside. That is 7 people working on moving this copier out the door, down the slope to the curb.

So today come the "scrappers". People pick up stuff like our copier and sell the metal and parts. I have no idea who buys the stuff, but apparently there is a market. If someone can use our junk, more power to them! Come and take it away! But what they don't realize is what it takes to move this thing. Like I said, 7 men.

So first come a white pickup truck with one man. He looks, he tries to shove the copier. He realizes there is no way he can lift it and get it into his truck. He drives away.

Next come the Russians or Ukrainians... some kind of accent like that to their English. In a dark red pickup truck. 2 men. They push and pull and beat on the copier. They move it around but can't lift it up to the tailgate. They call a 3rd buddy. He arrives and tries to help. They manage to get the stapler/sorter extension part of the copier loaded into their truck, but not the rest of the main copier. I lost track of them (cuz I actually did have some work to do today), but eventually they left.

Next comes a man who seems to actually have the proper type of trailer and truck for the job. But still, he is alone. And not only that, he has one arm. I decide, this I must watch. I suppose these scrapper people learn techniques for working solo and dealing with big hunks of metal. Maybe I can learn something from this man.

Well! He did it. He tied a rope around the machine and used his truck to pull the beast up the ramps and onto the flatbed trailer. Took some time, but by golly I am impressed with the sheer ingenuity and determination! One man and his truck doing essentially the opposite (heading uphill) of what 7 men did the day before (heading downhill).

I am sure there must be a spiritual lesson in there.  But in this case, I was impressed with one man and his determination.  And OH how I wish I had taken some pictures, just to show blogland the size of this copier. Alas, another day... maybe I'll remember to bring my camera to take pics of the next circus in my front yard.