Garbage

Last week was Spring Clean up - that's where you can put all sorts of crap at the end of your driveway and the city hauls it away for no extra cost. After living here for several years, I am still amazed at how much junk people can accumulate in a year. And also, I ponder the types of things that people throw away.

When I was a kid, we treasured all our possessions and treated them well. Games had all the pieces, records weren't scratched, Lego's and Barbie shoes were rarely lost. But now, at the end of many driveways sit large collections of children's ruined bicycles, fallen apart furniture and giant stuffed animals. What happens to these large stuffed animals? I guess the biggest problem is that they are too big for the washer and therefore difficult to clean - but how dirty do they get? I don't think one of my stuffed animals was ever thrown away, except maybe the really old ones that were filled with sawdust (back in the day) and either the dog got to it, or a mouse did a number on it when it was in a box in storage.

But also interesting to me is what's left a week later. There are restrictions to the type of items left on the street (such as old wood) and the amount - some people had heaps that spanned 10' across and 8' high. There seems to be a couple houses on each street that has debris left over. But these piles have not been cleaned up. They sit. And kids muck about in them and spread more debris. The weekend's passed but no one has removed them, not even for Mother's Day. The piles are just left to sit at the end of the driveway. I guess these people are too lazy - perhaps they figure they did all the work hauling their crap to the end of the driveway and that their job is done. Meanwhile their neighbours have to endure the mess. What an eyesore! It's very disappointing that they don't care that their crap is piled in front of their house for 2 weeks (or more, God forbid). I wonder how long it'll take, I'll let you know when the three houses on my street have cleaned up.

Also, while walking the dog this morning, I came across fresh graffiti on a fence next to a park. The word? "Ass Monkey". If you'd like to be enlightened in slang, here are some definitions. And this is how you can use the word in a sentence: Hey neighbour, don't be an ass monkey and clean up your garbage.