Recycling is now VERY important
Sometimes small incidents provoke great responses. Today, what was an insignificant gesture in the “bigger scheme of things” has forced me to become a true environmentalist. We’re going beyond tree-hugging. We’re now a family that must recycle 100%.
You see, for the last few years the city has cut a very sweet deal. In return for a raise in taxes, they cut back the garbage pickup from twice to once a week. Fewer trucks, etc. At the same time, a local entrepreneur (known as the Bus Mafia) cut a deal to rent green garbage bins for a yearly fee. No bin, you fight the gulls by yourself. There was never complete agreement, but we paid the fee and wheeled the big green monster out to the curb, once a week.
Our last dog was terrified of the bin; once, when the chain got caught up in the wheels, he dragged it around for several hours and from then on used the same avoidance technique he’d learned for other horrors. Electric fences, white vans, black helicopters.
The company changed names, although the Bus Mafia was never out of the picture, and somehow, in all the excitement of our daily lives, we neglected to send money. Not such a great idea, in retrospect.
Today, while the neighbourhood was quiet and serene (that’s actually most of the time) some man disguised as a garbage man came and took the bin away.
It’s being held for ransom. The amount demanded seems to be about the same amount as a yearly rental, and we’ve been left a note with a telephone number. No mention about whether we should call the FBI… My son did see the man, so we have an description: “Disguised as a garbage man…”. My efforts with our home Ident-i-Kit have proved worthless, though. He took our garbage, too, so the disguise was appropriate.
