Yellow Sodium Lights

I was a young child when all the street lights were switched from the bluish metal halide to the yellow-orange high pressure sodium bulbs, but I still remember the change that gave a literal sepia tinge to most of the subsequent nights of my life. Those ubiquitous yellow street lights have also coloured the many night time posts of this blog, and it feels ironic to finally find the beauty in something that I always thought was an urban blight.

I love my neighbourhood, especially the elms, not so much the ice.

A bike, snow bank, and a wintery street scape.

So many half remembered golden nights…

…forged in the sepia glow, like living nostalgia of the simple act of sitting on bench, by a snow bank, drinking tea.

Sodium lights are on their way out, and cheaper, whiter, more efficient LED’s are starting to replace them. It won’t be long ’til the golden glow of a long winter’s night is replaced by a new hue and nostalgia for the old. I wonder how it will change how we see and act in the night.

Another Winter Night

Last weekend, I finally admitted to myself that all attempts at fixing the zipper on my warm winter boots had failed, and that I couldn’t go all winter trying to keep them closed with reflective ankle straps, so I decided to go shopping. Understand that I’m on a really tight budget right now, so tight that there’s no room for groceries and new boots to coexist. Thankfully, I have some staples in my pantry and a good sense of where to find good food for free, so living without groceries won’t mean going hungry.

These are not the boots I bought.

Snow, porta bike, and new boots.

Later that night, I went dumpstering with some friends (hey, it’s more fun than spending Saturday night at the bar, and end of the month is always rich pickings), and all of us came home with good hauls of stuff. My prize was this pair of leather boots in excellent condition, the perfect size for my feet (plus two pairs of wool socks). They aren’t as warm as the boots I bought, so I think I’ll keep those for when it gets colder again instead of returning them, but what are the odds?

In the picture above, you see a bike that was saved from the scrap heap with a basket pulled from a dumpster as well as the dumpstered boots on a freegan fueled bod. Most people overlook the overwhelming ocean of waste we’re creating, but it’s amazing how much sustenance can be found in other people’s trash. If only there was a way to scavenge gas to heat my house.