From Tampons to Tennis Balls

 

While the title might sound like a category for the game of Jeopardy, it's not. It's just a reflection of some of what I find when I'm out picking up trash on the side of the road.

 

When we returned from church today, I was driving up a road close to home and noticed a Mike's Hard Lemonade bottle off to the side. I was afraid that if a car was coming in the opposite direction, it would be easy to run over. Of course I wasn't thinking about someone else running over it as much as I was thinking how mad I would be if I ran over it. Years ago, I would have just hoped that such a thing didn't happen, and I'd go home and forget about it. However, either because I've matured, or I've had enough experience to know that Murphy's law would certainly come into play and I'd be the unfortunate clown who destroyed his tires, I decided to come back with my grabber and a large plastic trash bag and pick it up.

 

Picking up trash is like eating Lays Potato Chips.  I can't just stop at one. Unfortunately there was an abundance of trash alongside the road, so I was busy for a short bit. I should point out that we're in an unusually warm spell right now. Today it was 46  degrees outside. Not your normal January day in Alaska. For the past few weeks we've had copious amounts of rain, so most of the snow has melted away, with the exception of the berms along the road. With the thaw, all the trash that has been tossed out truck and car windows has been exposed, and I filled  over a half a trash bag. 

I never know what I'm going to find. Today there was an abundance of booze bottles, in assorted sizes, brands and contents. I believe a lot of the bottles I'm picking up are from kids who are trying to discard the evidence before they go home. There are lots of one-ounce bottles. I don't know why the liquor stores even sell them. They have to know that most of it is purchased for and consumed by those too young to drink.  Anyway, along with a plethora  of  booze bottles, I also found a waste basket, which was still good, and a ratchet wrench for a socket set, which wasn't. In the past I've found golf balls, tennis balls, baseballs, lead balancing weights for tires, hubcaps, a helmet, a tape measure, and even money. It hasn't been much, I think a five and a one dollar bill. Oh, I also found a bucket with the lid on it that had fourteen bottles of Fireball whiskey. I don't drink the stuff myself, but my neighbor does, and she certainly enjoyed it. I suppose some teens tossed it into the weeds thinking they would come back at a later date to scarf it up, but I foiled their plans. Big meanie!

 

I ended up with about a half a large trash bag full of trash from just  that one little stretch of road. I might have gone further, but the bottles are glass, and there were a lot of them, and they're heavy. I guess I'm kind of a wimp. I didn't used to be, but I didn't used to have grey hair, wrinkles and a gut either. Go figure.

 

It's probably a good thing that I went out today. It seems that the weather is going to return to normal this next few days, with massive amounts of snow and minus nine degree temps. Oh joy, something to look forward to.