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Today's Urban Design Observation: Boxed Oil and Construction Lumber Mystery

By Rain Noe - January 31, 2018

in Urbanism

Bit of a mystery on yesterday morning's dog walk. On the east side of Columbus Park I spotted these.

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I wouldn't touch these any more than I'd grab and shake a ticking backpack with wires sticking out of it. But I was curious, as these were purposefully placed where they are (away from the curbside trash pile) so I leashed the dogs tightly behind me and crept a bit closer to inspect these, careful not to come into contact with them.

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They appear to be boxes filled with bottles that contain some kind of oil, judging by the blotting on the boxes. I can't describe why, but when you see marks like this on cardboard you can tell it's from oil, not regular liquid.

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Why the 2x3s? My only guess is that they were placed atop the box to prevent local critters (the park is home to squirrels and, of course, rats) from getting into the box and gnawing the bottles open. Which suggests to me that someone left this oil here (for what purpose? To cool off?) and plans on retrieving it.

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Not sure what "temp open" means, and can't work out what's written above that.

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Across the street from this spot are two businesses, a deli and a funeral home. I might not have my choice with the latter, but I am definitely never going to patronize the former.

Oh, wait a second. Now that I've blown the photos up I see it says "Ultra 35" on the box, which I overlooked in person. Let me Google that. Be right back.

Okay, I'm back. Ultra 35 is a heating oil…for industrial furnaces. I'm guessing the funeral home does cremations.

Still can't figure out why they left it outside, and this morning when I passed by they were gone.

o

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Rob G

6 years ago

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My best guess here is that one of the nearby businesses (probably the funeral home considering the type of oil) had setup a quick outdoor painting station for something long (maybe baseboard or handrails). Since the 2x3's have brush strokes from being stained/painted, they were probably used to keep the workpieces off the boxes. I think the oil boxes were used because they were easy to move, provided a decent work height, and were heavy enough to remain stationary in the event of an accidental kick / strong wind. The outdoor setup was probably to keep the fumes out of the business, and the whole setup was removed after the residual finish on the 2x3's was dry. Only thing left to do is go into these businesses to find which one has freshly finished long objects.

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- Rain Noe
  
  Rob G
  
  6 years ago
  
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  I'm digging your detective skills! I didn't even think about the (obvious, now that I'm looking at them) paint marks.
  
  But I can't get into the funeral home. It's a real hotspot; people are dying to get in. [cue rim shot]
  
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Colin Warren

6 years ago

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What you have there is used fry oil. If you had dug a little deeper you would have found that Ultra 35 is a package type for edible oil 35# size. You got tripped up by Ultraheat 35 which is indeed a fuel oil. I'm sure it's from the deli, unless some sort of Willy Wonka type juicing of customers is happening next door...

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Jorge Torrendell

6 years ago

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At first I thought the boxes of oil might have been there waiting for pick-up; restaurants et al can't send oils down the drain. They could have been from the deli. But why leave it across the street? And then the spacing and the position of the 2x3s would support Rob's observation (the leftmost might have been rotated later).

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