Holy crap! How? Why?
It didn't matter at the time, literally 15 minutes into the start of my walk at 2:45 AM today. I stumbled upon a massive find that needed saving. While the task ahead was absurd, there was no way that my conscience would let me keep walking. I'm out there to save perfectly good items from being wasted, and any excuse to not accept this challenge was not going to fly.
What I found was pretty crazy in itself, but it was such a tease because I'd just missed the royal jackpot. If it was what I wished it to be, I don't think I'd ever be able to find better.
The irony of this story is that I was going to bring my debit card with me just in case I found something that would need a taxi ride back, but I left it on my bed and accepted my fate to muscle whatever I found home. What a mistake. While I could've used a car service from my phone, I decided to be accountable for my decision and pay the price with hustle and sweat to truly appreciate the pride I'd feel when I completed the mission. Oddly enough, it turns out that one taxi van ride wouldn't have been enough. Two wouldn't have been enough.
But I did it. I almost passed out a few times on the final stage of walking the haul up 4 flights of stairs in my building, before the final stage of having to invent a way to put everything IN my apartment.
So what did I find?
I found 17 completely full black garbage bags full of LEGOs at 3 AM.
After finding one bag in the large pile I often look forward to visiting every Monday, I just kept finding more. Even when I thought I found all of the bags, I found more.
As the bags piled up, I was stunned. I also had a mix of happiness and severe disappointment. While I knew that I had no choice but to save these stuffed bags of LEGOs, I quickly realized that they were all LEGO DUPLO pieces, the larger type that are for young children. If these were all standard LEGOs, I'd have fainted at the profit potential and had the most epic story of all time, plus a lot of fun going through them.
But, the reality was that these were the children's version, and not as valuable. They appeared to be neatly organized in the bags and sorted by block type in tons of large ziplok bags. The state of all the pieces like this made me feel that they were from some type of special education school for children, as I've found relevant stuff for this niche here many times before.
As fate would have it, I was literally across the street from my friend's apartment, with a freight elevator they've let me use to stash large finds for a day or two since I don't have a lot space. They're often up very late as an attorney at a large global firm, so I floated a "You up?" text by them to see if luck was on my side.
They answered. We spoke. They were fine with holding the bags in their apartment's hallway for a day... but they were sick and it might be Covid. I couldn't risk it, so I thanked them for their offer, declined their insistence on ordering me an SUV to bring a wave home, and told them to get some sleep. I hung up the phone, gulped, and realized that it was time to rise to the challenge.
I was 1 3/4 avenues and 2 blocks away from my home. That doesn't sound far, but when you need to move 17 full and heavy bags at 3 AM (after a full day), it's a long journey of willpower and endurance.
I started with this picture above and then decided to start recreating this arrangement by carrying two bags at a time about 60-75 feet ahead. I couldn't go too far because I needed to conserve my hands, shoulders and arms. The shorter walks would keep me from tiring out too soon, and then let me recharge just enough for the next set.
This was the position after the first formation move.
I did this over and over, and over and over. Slowly turning a corner, working down a long avenue, crossing the street, crossing the other street, getting looks, questioned, and working through burning muscles in my hands.
I tried to carry 3 bags at a time to make the job faster, but it was counter-productive with the drain on my muscles. I was also completely soaked in sweat and had no money for water. I needed to make sure I didn't cramp up.
During this time, I did some soul searching and realized that this was more than saving tons of children's LEGOs. It was all about the commitment I made to accept the responsibility of bringing home whatever I found that needed saving. When I left my wallet at home, I made my bed, and I had to lay in it here (or exactly the opposite). Ironically, the oasis in my head to drive me the most was eventually collapsing in my bed when the job was done, exhausted, and proud that I held myself accountable.
That's what ultimately happened, but there was still much more work to do to get there.
Hours rolled by as I moved these bags two at a time, leapfrog style. 4 AM, 5 AM...
I eventually started getting bags in front of my building. With about 11 bags left to bring the final homestretch, my neighbor came outside for his early jog. I was walking up to our stoop with two bags slung over my shoulders and called out his name. He didn't even recognize me at first, but I helped him see that it was me. Shocked, and despite my insisting that he didn't need to, he helped me carry 6 bags the final 200 feet to the stoop. I thanked him profusely and then he went off for his run.
While it felt like I achieved my goal of hauling this ridiculous amount of toys home, I still had a huge challenge ahead. While my arms, shoulders, and hands were brutally spent, my legs would be the next up for the test. I had to bring these into my apartment building and then up 4 flights of stairs. I then had to find a way to fit all of this in my modest apartment in a way that wasn't a fire hazard and where I could function. Ahhhhhhh. PTSD right now as I type with sore fingers from gripping the bags for hours earlier today!!!
Here was the view once I got the bags inside the building. This was going to be rough.
Just imagine how that must've felt to see after 3 hours of walking with these bags.
After about 45 minutes, the bags were up in front of my apartment door. Despite drinking water twice between trips, I legitimately almost passed out 4-5 times. I was really on the brink, but I'm not a quitter. I rested just enough to make another trip up and down.
I then took this picture...
Victory was around the corner. Now, how the heck do I get this inside my humble apartment. Sparing the details, let's just say that I figured it out. Bed was too close and nothing was going to stop me. One bag, two bags, 14 bags, all inside. I put 3 bags in the large box outside my door. The box was overflowing from just the 3 bags.
All of the bags seemed to be meticulously sorted in these bags, which is a Godsend because it'll be easier to sell them... and no cleaning will be needed. I caught a break there.
No words can explain the pride I felt taking this snapshot at 6:54 AM just before I collapsed in bed.
Soaked. Delirious. Completely spent. All from my own drive. I did it.
Now I just have to sell it all. It's going to be a pretty pretty penny, but nowhere as much as if it was a haul of normal Legos.
I hope this post shows you what drive and determination is all about. Think about the last time you pushed yourself mentally and physically for a good cause. Are you due? Are you overdue?
I woke up way too early, caught a buyer offer message and sold a set of recycled textbooks for $425. I then passed out again to let my body recover.
What's next? I'm going to post this and get myself outside to save some more.
I'll post more on this once I start processing the bags so you can grasp how many pieces are in these bags. It was hundreds of pounds in total. No joke.
Effort = Results
Stop blogging in circles and do something good for our planet.
Please comment and give me some more fuel. I need it tonight.
Thanks for your interest and support,
PS. Bonus story - a usual competitor (virtually my only regular one) was out with her daughter (haven't seen her before) in their van. They usually take mattresses when the husband is there. In the middle of carrying my bags, I stopped, went backwards and grabbed a pair of nice silver flat shoes I'd found before. I then walked it right up to offer it to the daughter who graciously accepted. It seemed like her size or close. It made her mother very happy, and they said hi to me later while driving around on the street I was working down. Another item saved and ally made...
I’m exhausted just reading that! After seeing your one photo all I could think of was…
Ha. I felt like Marshmallow Man when I woke up.
Damn, that must be a whole lot of Lego
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Wow, nice find! time to build a lego mansion, and a lego Lambo to pull in the lego garage. legggo to the moon!
I was thinking some type of crypto wall art project, sell it for millions!
Yeah like a Banksy legoooo!
Incredible! Well done indeed!
The monstrous photo of the hallway full of bags looks very intimidating. Amazing you made room for it all.
I hope there’s a solid reward in it all for your hard work.
Although by the sound of it your hard work alone was the reward.
An amazing find and commitment to bringing it all home - who needs HIIT routines or jogging to burn off a few lbs.
Dude, you need an elevator for your efforts to humanity :)
On nights when I don't find much, I'm proud of myself for getting the cardio. This was the true test of mind over body. It's going to take a few more days to recover, but it just means I'll be stronger to carry 27 bags bag next time.
What I really need is a ground floor apartment or a dedicated professional workspace so I can have a normal home for once.
Yeah this mission has been good for the mind and the body.
Ground floor space or a hold somewhere. Keys to multiple friends garages for a small fee could also work :)
That's for sharing this post. But #dcc is not only for that. The goal is to promote others. I don't know if I'm sleepy or I just can't find thst in your post. We call this collaborative curation.
In #dcc we do the following :
That all will help us to find more great content to support. It's helping curators that way. It help good content to be promoted and supported.
You have nothing to lose, if you take a look at new posts in #inspiration and promote the one you liked in this post.
Oh sorry! Thanks for explaining. I'll incorporate this properly next time. You can definitely disqualify me for not following the guidelines.