Jimmy

Yesterday in Pigeon Square walking around the Sunday market, I met Jimmy.  Perhaps one of the most ingenious "binners" of the downtown eastside of Vancouver, he devised this headlamp for his bicycle helmet.  Made from an emergency fire alarm light left in a dumpster, Jimmy ran an electrical cord from the light down through the sleeve of his sweatshirt and to his finger.  Whenever he spotted a dumpster prowling the alleys at night he would push the little button in his hand and voila--instant light.  The light was powerful enough to light up an entire alley, even in the rain as it was weather-sealed.  He also built a handy aluminum trailer to tow behind his bicycle and on good nights he could haul over two hundred pounds of stuff in his small rig.  He earns a small living from this work and re-cycles a lot of the stuff discarded by the lawyers and accountants off Howe Street.  Sometimes he walks off with a good pile of copper wire, a television, a few notebook computers and the odd cashmere overcoat.