A Moment in My Life – Tuesday, August 4, 2020
What’s happening today? I’m glad you asked. Today is Tuesday. Garbage day.
There has been a regular occurrence on garbage day that I neither approve of nor understand. At times, I’ve mentioned my pet peeves to others, but there is a consensus that opposes my view. That’s fine. They are welcome to their opinions.
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Why is it okay for people to pick through your recycle bin and steal the bottles and the cans? I honestly want to know the answer. Is it merely a matter of the location of the bins that make it okay? Meaning, surely you wouldn’t think it’s okay for someone to come onto your property and pick through your bin and steal the bottles and cans, right? Or am I just a prude? Why is it okay to steal from your bin on the street in front of your house?
Last time I checked, stealing is stealing. It doesn’t matter from whom or where you steal. It doesn’t seem like the garbage company cares either. Well, that’s out of my control. However, when they pick through my bin, then it is my concern. I know there are worst things to battle. Like I said earlier, this is just a pet peeve of mine.
Understanding why people do what they do is the issue here.
I guess another thing about garbage day that irks me is the fact that every so often someone messes with my garbage, and again, this action baffles me. Why?
A couple of weeks ago, I observed the garbage truck pouring the contents of my garbage bin into his truck. I was surprised to see only a handful of small pieces of paper that looked like coupons poured into the truck. For starters, why were there loose papers from my bin when I put in one white garbage bag securely tied at the neck? I didn’t see a garbage bag fall into the truck. Also, I had no small pieces of paper like coupons in my trash bag, to begin with, so where did they come from? And, more importantly, where did my bag go? At the bottom of my garbage bin, there was a candy wrapper. The wrapper did belong to me, but it should have been securely inside the bag. This evidence confirmed that someone tampered with my garbage.
Then there was this one time when someone poured out my garbage into my bin and took my garbage bag. Since then, I started triple knotting my garbage bags because I figure I’m not going to make it easy for you to steal my garbage bag and make a mess of my clean bin. A friend of mine even suggested that I leave a brand new garbage bag on top of my bag of garbage, so the thief won’t have to steal my trash bag by pouring it out. Seriously? Is that honestly the best solution? That sounds like I’m aiding and abetting and telling the thief that I condone what s/he is doing. Besides, what’s to keep the thief from still pouring out my garbage, and now s/he has two bags?
No, I’m not done yet. Garbage day is not my favorite day of the week. My next-door neighbor consistently overfills his garbage bin so that the lid is usually at a 45-degree angle. He doesn’t do much with his trash except dump everything into his bin. No flattening of containers. No bagging perishables. Yada Yada. You can imagine the picnic the crows have each week. My neighbor is usually pretty generous in sharing whatever the birds discard from his bin. My neighbor doesn’t mind if his trash ends up on my property, and it regularly does. The wind is his cohort. He is completely open to letting me pick up after him. In fact, he prefers having me pick up after him as he ignores the repositioning of his trash.
So, there you have it. What’s on my mind today. I would love to hear your take on this topic. As I said, I’m seeking understanding.
