Garbage in, Garbage Out

Garbage is on my mind this morning. Literally. Because of the Labor Day Holiday our garbage pickup was changed, without notification, of course. I'm not even sure I understand why, since my regular pickup day is Tuesday not Monday. Here's the problem. We have rural pickup, once a week, $30 a month, and they're selective about what they will and will not take in the way of garbage. I admit I cheat. I sneak litter in there every so often, buried in with the other garbage. I try to evenly distribute it over the entire garbage load. You know, half in one large black back, half in another, so the weight doesn't give me away. So, on Tuesday morning, I grab up the three big bags, load them in the back of the truck and drive them to the gate. Off load. Come back, thinking smugly that once again I had beaten the truck, which is not always easy, since I must be the first on the route. He's usually here by 7:10. Yes, I actually set my alarm clock for this weekly chore.

At 11:00, when I went to have lunch with friends, the three bags were still sitting there. When I got back and saw them there yet, I called. The lady seemed perplexed with me. Didn't I realize that there had been a holiday? Well, yes, but the holiday didn't fall on MY garbage pickup day, and they had never stated what their holiday pickup schedule would be. She said, "Well, we consider today Monday. Tomorrow will be your day. Or it would be, except our truck broke down, so this week it'll be Thursday." I said I hoped so because I was leaving town Thursday for a week and the garbage could not just sit out there that long. For one thing, we have raccoons and possums and all manner of other wildlife that would consider those garbage bags a great treasure. She said they would pick up my trash on Thursday. I retrieved my three bags and shoved them in the garage to await Thursday.

So, this morning I was up before daylight, making sure I collected all the garbage, including some litter, of course. I now have four bags of garbage. I backed the pickup around, loaded all of it into the bed, busted my thumb pulling down the tailgate. One of the bags had some kind of mucky mess in there that had leaked all over the floor of the garage. Got some on my nightgown. Well, whose going to get dressed just to take the garbage down to the end of the driveway? I ran over the newspaper going through the gate. Try as I might, I just can't seem to straddle the pickup tires over things. The damned thing's just too big and cumbersome, and I can't see out of the rearview mirror. I don't want to mess with the sideviews because I know my SO has them set just the way he likes them. So I ran over the paper. Twice, actually. Once going and once coming back. I'm just glad that's all I ran over. I barely missed one of the wings on the cattleguard.

Now, I'm waiting to see if they pick up the damned bags, and it's already after 8:00.

Meanwhile, I watched Obama's speech last night. I thought it was a great speech, although I don't think it changed anybody's mind. This country is so divided and usually it's over the most trivial details where our lines get drawn. Last weekend, I listened to some very good friends rail about their insurance company, how difficult it was nowdays to get anything approved, or paid. But as soon as I brought up Obama's plan, they immediately began to attack it, and ME, I might add.

All of this got me to thinking about the article I wrote in such a frenzy yesterday. I decided that it's timely, maybe too timely to submit to someplace that might take a month or two to read it, and then another month or two to publish it if it were, by chance, to get accepted. So, I polished it up, while I waited for the garbage truck to arrive (it hasn't yet), and emailed it to the opinion page editor at the local newspaper. I know him personally, having worked at that paper reviewing books for two and a half years. Don't know if he'll like it. I do know that it's long-ish at just over 1000 words. I whittled on it as much as I could, just didn't find another word to cut. We shall see.

When I get to Denver tonight, I'll call him.

Onward....