Thank you for the trash, I am sending it into space.

It's surprising how much styrofoam costs. It's the kind of thing you can't wait to get rid of when you open a brand new electronic gadget and remove it from the box. I, of course, wanted a nice styrofoam box for my electronics so that they will remain insulated when I send them into space on the balloon. The kind of styrofoam container I know I have thrown away many, many times thinking, "wow, this is nice, but there is no way I'll ever use it again." One of the final things I need to complete the payload, I started looking for "foam shipping container" on Amazon. Oh yes, you can buy them, in all shapes and sizes, but you can't seem to get them individually. Try a pack of ten and then you have to pay to ship them all. I don't need ten. Just the one. I was amazed at how expensive it was--$75 on trash and another $27 to ship the trash to me? Of course I started to think of a cheaper solution. What if I ordered something that comes in a styrofoam container? How about ordering some Omaha Steaks, just so that I could get a styrofoam container (and of course, some nice juicy steaks--you know, a two bird one stone kind of thing) or perhaps a live frog? Those come in about the right sized styrofoam container, don't they? I might just enjoy the company of a frog.

As I'm about to suck it up and just order a ten-pack, I decide to go on a styrofoam hunt at the physics building.

I would just like to thank whoever happened to put this giant bag of foam boxes, corners, pieces and peanuts outside of the office right before I happened upon it Thursday night. Seriously, who are you, styrofoam fairy, and how did you know I needed you? Did you come down from your big styrofoam cloud with with a big styrofoam star on the end of a long styrofoam stick and poof into existence a giant goodie bag for me? A colleague happened by while I was trash digging and I tried to explain it all to him with bits of styrofoam stuck in my hair. Was it static electricity that held them there or was it the excitement manifesting itself or perhaps some trick of the styrofoam trash fairy? In any case, thank you for the trash, I am sending it into space.

Consequently, this is the second time this year I have dug in the trash for science.