We used to go trolling a good bit when we lived in the Dallas area and had a fishing boat. I never thought it was much fun, but then, I wasn’t the one driving the boat. I felt the best part about trolling for fish was in the heat of the summer when you felt so hot that you thought you would faint. At least trolling meant we kept the boat moving and that made a bit of welcome breeze on wet skin.

I went trolling yesterday . . . for bottle caps. I was reminded of the time when my son was in fourth or 5th grade and his gifted class was collecting bottle caps. As best I recall, they were trying to get to one million to see how much that actually was. When I picked up my son and his friend at the Social Studies Fair, I found that they had been outdoors picking up bottle caps in the parking lot. They weren’t nearly as clean (the boys) as when I first left them there, but they did have a few more bottle caps to add to the class collection. It seemed the bottle cap hunt was more interesting than the Social Studies Fair.

I’m not trying to get to a million bottle caps. I just needed a few more for making earrings. I’ve previously posted a number of pictures wherein these were used and you may recognize a few of those that follow.

 

 

 

 

 

Since we don’t drink anything that has bottle caps, the few that I have used previously have come from friends who remembered to bring them to me. I don’t know if I’ve run out of those friends, but yesterday, I was definitely out of bottle caps and set out to find them.

I’d been told I should just go to a bar and ask the bartender to save me some. I told the suggester that I’d feel strange in a bar and he said not to worry that I’d look better by closing time. (I think that was an insult!) At any rate, I chose not to visit a bar, but rather went searching as I ran my errands.

The first stop was a hit! I found one root beer cap when I stopped at the office supply store. Although I searched around the entire area where I found this treasure, there were no other caps around.  Later I found another cap at the filling station, but obviously the people who go there are very careful about getting things in the trash can, because I couldn’t find any others. I searched around all the various filling stands and people probably thought I must be very poor and was looking for change. I guess I could have dug in the trash can, but I chose not to. That would have made me look really desperate!

I drove very slowly through the parking lots on my way home as I looked for bottle caps. Finally, I realized that it would be hard to explain that I had run into something or someone because I was looking for caps and I gave up. The sum of my trolling is in the next picture. 

Oh well, don’t you think these are good ones? The exciting part of working with them was when I used the torch to anneal them. Either the plastic center in the cap or the cap finish created a beautiful little flame that I feared would set off the fire alarm. Luckily, it burnt out quickly and all peril was averted. Tonight these little jewels will become some sort of earrings.  I sell these at a very low price, but after yesterday’s effort, I’m thinking that price may just have to go up. Trolling is hard work!