Today is trash day. The first of two my city has this week. I have never lived anywhere with two trash days and still am not entirely sure why its necessary, except perhaps for the smell of a week of rotting trash in the summertime. But still. It seems excessive. Perhaps if the city chose to provide compost pickup, then the smell of trash in the summertime wouldn't be a problem? Enlighten me, please!
But I started out on my walk this morning in high spirits, looking inspiration in the sidewalk. The story of trash was sidelined when the dog lifted his leg. This is the first time, and I hope the last time. No, there were no fire hydrants in sight. I wasn't wearing red. I stopped near a manhole cover and felt the sun shining, and my pants getting wet. The dog got time out and didn't get to finish the walk.
TXT MSG EXCHANGE BETWEEN ME & HUBS:
Me: Dog just peed on my effing leg
Hubs: Not in the house I hope
Me: Lol no
Me: Eff him
Me: On a walk w mom and the girls
Hubs: No fire hyrdrant in sight?
Me: Mom made me turn around and go home to change
Me: We stopped by manhole cover outside back gate
Hubs: How exactly did he hike a leg without you noticing?
Me: I turned around to watch mom struggle to get the gate closed
Hubs: [silence]
[I'm going to call uncle here. There is nothing about the rest of this post that is remotely more interesting than me being peed on, but I started the day with something to say... and here it is. It's not funny, so if you want funny, re-read the text conversation and try not to pee you pants. Sucker.]
[Seriously. The rest of this is just kind of annoying, ranty and whiny.]
Anyhow, being the Monday following Super Bowl 50, I expected there to be quite a bit of trash. I expected to see yard waste from neighbors having time on the weekend to clean up their yards. I even wasn't surprised to see a few boxes for new TVs, as it's one of the best times of the year to find good prices on these TVs. But it never ceases to amaze me just how many boxes litter the landscape on trash day.
Is it so hard to save the boxes to put out on recycling day? This isn't a problem that's isolated to my neighborhood, so I hope that it's not seen as a particular criticism of any one family. I took pictures on my walk today to illustrate and cropped so as not to identify. I didn't keep any tallies for the number of trash bags, cans or boxes, though I've often wondered what those statistics would look like. And I certainly acknowledge that a number of households had no trash out or just one half full bag.
Trash and recycling days always seem to coincide with windy days. But today, the knocked over trash cans were more likely a result of our neighborhood's nocturnal friends who wander the neighborhood looking for a free meal.
At my house, I put the trash and recycling out to ensure that the boxes get recycled. I often forget to put the trash out or am running to get it together and miss it before the blue truck comes by which is what happened last week and caused us to have two bags instead of one.
[You made it this far? Sorry. I told you so. You just wasted your time. Kind of trashy of me to do that to you, wasn't it? #sorrynotsorry #stinker ]
Phew!! Glad I didn't make your pictures! ;) we only had 1 can out today, but yes I notice litter all over on windy days. our teen has trash duty, so the only time you'll see tons of trash out is if he skipped a day...Or two! My husband build a compost box in our back yard. Mainly to supply our gardens with soil every year. But we put all kinds of compost material in there, especially lawn clippings.(you're welcome to come dump anything in you'd want) between that & recycling, our trash is cut way back.
ReplyDeletePhew!! Glad I didn't make your pictures! ;) we only had 1 can out today, but yes I notice litter all over on windy days. our teen has trash duty, so the only time you'll see tons of trash out is if he skipped a day...Or two! My husband build a compost box in our back yard. Mainly to supply our gardens with soil every year. But we put all kinds of compost material in there, especially lawn clippings.(you're welcome to come dump anything in you'd want) between that & recycling, our trash is cut way back.
ReplyDeleteHa! I actually did take a few pics of trash from friends in the neighborhood. :) I'm excited for the family who just got the two new TVs. If it was left up to my husband, our TV box would have been in the trash, too.
DeleteWe tried our own little compost in the back yard. It consisted of piled up clippings between some shrubs and our back fence. Recently realized we had termites in the fence who ate a huge hole large enough for our dog to check out the neighborhood adjoining ours because those neighbors took down their chain link fence. #suburbanproblems -- On recycling day, I have the girls help me pick up blown away boxes and put them in the closest available recycle bin. Always a fun time!