Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  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 Potat...

    When my oldest daughter, Jennifer was a teacher, she used to sing a little song. "Clean up, Clean up... I don't know the rest of the words, if there were any others. She used to sing it to the class and around her house to her kids too I believe.  That song was running through my mind a couple days ago when I went out into the neighborhood with my long handled grabber and a trash bag. The day was really nice; sunny and about fifty degrees, which may sound chilly to those farther south, but it was comfortable for me. I just donned a jacket and got busy. My biggest fear was that someone would be watching me as they drove by and would run into me while I walked along the side of the road picking up other peoples trash. There is a city wide clean up in May, but I didn't want to have to see trash all over the ground until the snow falls. I like the idea of driving by and not having to see a bunch of plastic fast food cups, paper, booze bottles and all other manner of junk ...

Today is Friday. If you happen to be one of the millions of people who work five days a week, this could be a great day or a pain in the butt. It could be the end of a long week and you can't wait for it to end, or it might be the start of the weekend and you also can't wait for it to end. For me, Friday is just another day. When the fishing season is open, all  the days are pretty much the same. Most fishermen don't take any particular day off usually. I'm off today, but not by choice. The weather is pretty blustery, so fishing isn't really an option. I hope that it calms down by tomorrow. The season is winding down and I don't want to miss too many days because of weather. For me, Fridays have a different meaning all together. Around here, Friday is garbage day. As you can imagine, getting rid of your accumulated trash is of utmost importance. In fact, one of the last things Jan tells me on Fridays isn't " I love you" or "Have a good day...