Utility cart-oon

Once upon a time there was a little utility cart...

left behind by its owners underneath a platform. Left to rot and corrode with the humidity of the outdoors and become soiled by the infamous Stuttgardian particulates. Left-lost-lonely... :(

Until one fine day I came along to work in the depot the platform is a part of. As soon as I set eyes on the trolley I was in love! I liked its industrial design, the fact that it was heavy but small, practical with its wheels and two shelves. Used - and very useful!

I hesitated for days, wondering if it was worth to ask my employer if I might have it, sure the answer would be no - because I had tried this before... But in the end I did, as that trolley was just so nice! I could see its potential and couldn't stand the idea of it ending up on the dump, which I knew it would sooner or later otherwise. So I emailed the colleague in charge of the depot attaching the above photo so she'd know what cart I was talking about. I declared my feelings for the trolley, that obviously seemed to not be of use to anyone (?!) and very delicately asked that colleague if MAYBE that cart was free to go or if she knew to whom it belonged and might put me into contact with him/her?

...

Due to people being on holiday I had to wait two weeks for an answer. But then suddently there was that email I had been at the same time impatient and dreading to get. Reading it my eyes started glowing and I being all smiles! My colleague - how sweet of her! - had contacted the owner of the trolley herself already and asked him if I might have it and the answer was yes, I might!

First I couldn't believe my luck!? :o

Then I screamed for joy! :)

... And then I started wondering about how to get the soiled and heavy thing home? Was Tüttüt (my tiny old car) up to it? My (former) husband and I decided it was worth trying. So I packed some large plastic sheets and a broom to take along the next day. My husband was going to fetch me after work.

Late the following afternoon I stood outside the depot in an industrial park at the side of a road busy with rush hour traffic... because of the hot summer temperatures (un)dressed in tank top and with my trousers' legs rolled up high. Armed with a breathing mask and gloves I started brushing off the worst dust and dirt of the trolley to pass the time... attracting the one or other person's attention in doing so!

I noticed a smart Mercedes driving by... once,... twice... third time it stopped - very inconspicuously - a couple of meters away from me on the pavement. A man in his 50ies dressed in a suit not matching the elegance of his car in the slightest got out and - very nonchalantly - lit a cigarette while sauntering to the back of his car towards me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him linger about. Just when he finally moved to approach me another car pulled over. This time a man in his 30ies - dressed in working clothes soaked with sweat going rather well with his unexpensive vehicule - stepped out calling "Salut chéri!". My husband - at exactly the right (?!) moment! ;) Mr. Mercedes watched us folding over Tüttüt's back seats, dressing its trunk in plastic sheets and heaving the trolley upside down into our little Nissan Micra. Then the crucial test: will the trunk lid close? Yes, it will! The little Japanese toy car manages - even the big German limousine is in awe! Hihi.

For security reasons I wound the seat belts around the trolley's back wheels and some plastic sheets and a tote bag around its front ones to protect the glass of the trunk's window. Packed up that way all four of us arrived home save and sound. And the work on the sorry homeless utility cart in my open-air-workshop (alias our multi-functional parking space!) could begin. :)