There Is Trash On My Trash Pile, Oh My!

I had an interesting revelation last week while going through the final motions of packing up my house and moving everything over to my new one.

When one has lived somewhere for a while, you find that you have accumulated much stuff. Much of this stuff isn’t needed, so one becomes inclined to THROW IT OUT!

I find this inclination to be refreshing and really a wonderful cathartic process. I would soon find out that others feel quite differently.

I was in the throw-everything-out stage last week and had been doing quite a good job of doing just that when the Weed & Seed program came back to our street for a visit.

This program is SUPPOSED to be out walking the neighborhoods to “Clean” them up. It is supposed to help eliminate crime and enforce property standards.

My question is, why then are they walking the streets of South Highlands? There are a few houses that aren’t well kept, but these belong mostly to the very elderly who are unable to do the work themselves (or so it would appear.)

There is a lot of crime in our area as well, however it mostly stems from people coming from other neighborhoods to commit them. The rest appears to be from teen-aged kids with nothing more to do than roll other people’s houses and sometimes do things that prove a bit more damaging.

This day, I was busily hauling out my garbage bags full of old clothes (mostly things that had been over-altered and things that really should have been thrown out many years ago.)

That was when I noticed that the police were back in our area. It was the same Officer who had banged on our door and had scared my babies and upset my little doggie by calling her “Cujo.” The same lady was with him who had been handing out the little pencil and magnet baggies, too.

They were parked in front of my neighbor’s house and I was worried that maybe something had happened to her because she is very, very, VERY pregnant right now.

So, I watched from my front window to make sure that she didn’t need my help (they do not have a running vehicle right now as it needs a new battery & she was due any day now.)

What I would see would surprise me. Instead of knocking on her door, this officer proceeded to look inside her trashcans which were on the street in anticipation of trash day the next day.

He accidentally over turned one (or so it appeared,) and instead of picking up the empty trashcan, he let it roll to the center of the yard.

That one was empty, so he moved on to the next one. It apparently had some stinky garbage in it by the look on his face!

I honestly do not know what they expected to find in that trashcan other than GARBAGE! Next, this guy moved on to MY trash pile.

Of course, I knew that mine would prove much more interesting than that of my neighbor’s. If he thought her trash was stinky, what would he do when he got a whiff of mine full of all those diapers???

Both he and his assistant started poking at my garbage bags and checking out my trashcans too (which were still up by my house because I was still busily filling them at the time!) Next, the assistant made a call on her cell phone.

After a few minutes, a tow-truck pulled up and the Officer had my neighbor’s truck towed from its usual parking spot. I had thought that must have been the nature of that phone call until my phone rang.

It was a call from 1-800 JUNK at my number for the lady outside. She had referred me to them to have me pay to have my garbage hauled away and had given them her name and my phone number.

I just do not know what to think of this. The next day was garbage day, hence my very large and growing trash pile in its usual spot near the street and the corner of my driveway.

I had always thought that the garbage men were the ones who were supposed to take it all away. After all, it’s not like I had large appliances or paint or anything out of the ordinary down there. It was just plain garbage sitting where I had always put it for the regular collection.

I felt like I had done something wrong by having to place my garbage on my trash pile. My yard isn’t the prettiest on the block as I prefer to let my beds run wild with everything I have planted there.

But I am not the sort to use old toilets as planters or tires as flower beds and I do not have one of those yards decorated with old broken down cars instead of yard gnomes. We even have a yard man who comes every so often to mow our grass and place the residual lawn trash on the trash pile.

I ended up telling the lady on the phone that there wasn’t anyone at this address by that name, which is true. I am not sure why this lady felt that I needed to pay someone a minimum of $80 (I looked up the website just to see what the prices were for this company to haul away my garbage) when the regular trash collection would run the very next day.

While I was pondering that little tidbit of information, I heard that dreaded knocking that the Officer does so love to use on social calls, coming from my neighbor’s front porch.

I waited by my baby monitor, holding my breath, to see if the babies noticed or heard from their nursery as they were napping at the time. Luckily, they did not hear him this time.

Meanwhile, I could here him actually tell her that they were hauling away her truck and that would she please pick up her garbage can out of her front yard?

Now this was the very same empty trashcan that this officer had knocked over earlier while trying to see what was in her garbage! My poor little overly pregnant neighbor actually waddled outside to try and pick the darn thing up, too.

I waited for my turn, thinking that they would come and visit my house next. My little doggie was already bouncing off of my front door barking over all of the hullabaloo going on outside and next door.

Thankfully, my turn never came. After the tow-truck left, they seemed a bit more excited over something else at the other end of the street. I still haven’t any idea what it was that got their attention down there, but I am glad that I didn’t have to try and talk to them again!

Don’t get me wrong, I think that this program is a wonderful thing when implemented in the neighborhoods that really need it.

Cleaning up our neighborhoods could really help lower the crime rate in some areas, theoretically. I just do not know why they selected South Highlands to try and “Clean up” when there are actual problem areas other places in our city.