Local food-service worker Earl Baxter was reduced to this Tuesday, when a Hardee's customer lost a metal bracelet in the restaurant's dumpster and Baxter's manager instructed him to retrieve it. 'So, this is how far I've come,' said Baxter, wading through the giant trash receptacle in search of the mislaid bauble. 'I'm actually reduced to this.' His arms blackened to the elbows by coffee grounds, Baxter noted that he could have been a mechanic earning $30,000 a year by now, had he gone to trade school. 'Woulda gotten me outta this,' said the reduced-to-this Baxter. 