One foot in the grave.
That looks like a fabulous show. I'd have loved to see it. D'you think it's on the net somewhere?
Mongo
In Montréal, you have what is called "Le temps des grosses poubelles" - the time for big-garbage.
Generally, after moving day (July 1st) the city picks up all the stuff people threw out that they did not want to move.
During this week, you can see hundreds of guys driving around the city in pick-up trucks, sorting through the big garbage looking for some finds. Sometimes, they leave with everything.
Officially, you are supposed to keep the big items in your home until the week after moving day. However, if you have something big that you just can't keep around until moving week, you have to call the city and advise them that you have a big item so that they can send the appropriate garbage truck to pick it up.
Sometimes, somebody'll simply put something on the curb, but it can stay there for a couple of weeks until the regular garbage guys finally tell the head-office that a big-garbage pick-up is required.
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In Laval, the island right beside Montréal, where I live, you can put out big garbage any time and the city will pick it up withing the week. Generally though, if the item looks serviceable, somebody'll pick it up.
It's different than Montréal though because folks'll usually knock on your door and ask if they can take it.
The first time this happened I was really surprised. When I lived in Montréal, it was in an iffy neighbourhood - things'd get stolen right off of the front porch, so having somebody knock on my door and ask if I was really throwing away those shelves and was it o.k. if he took them really made me smile.
