Adventures in Sanitation

Nothing can strike fear into the heart of a homeowner faster than the garbage man taking garbage back off the truck and putting it back into your can.

I was watching the truck this morning while waiting for Miranda's carpool ride to show, and I notice the guy empty the first can, the one with most of the debris from the counter tops I pulled out last window in the kitchen. (Did I mention we're remodeling our kitchen and I'm about to lose my freaking mind?)



We have these cool new trucks in Olympia where there's an articulated arm like on the Space Shuttle and it grabs the cans and hoists it overhead and dumps the contents into the truck. So, the first can gets emptied, the arm goes halfway down, then back up and waits at the top, and I'm thinking some of the linoleum is stuck in the can.

The guy gets out of the truck, climbs up on top of the truck and starts putting stuff back into the can and I'm thinking, "Oh no, what did I do now? No debris allowed? Is it filled with lead or asbestos? Did the metal strips jam the compactor?" -- not likely, I know.

I run upstairs and get on some pants (I've already had a cup of coffee, so I'm thinking ahead) and go out and ask the guy as sweet as I can, "Is there a problem?"

The guy smiles at me and says, "No. No problem, unless you count me forgetting to open the top of the truck as a problem." We're the first stop on this leg of the route, I guess, and he drives with the bay door on the top closed and he forgot to open it before emptying our trash onto the top of the truck.

So, he put the trash back into the can, got off the roof, lowered the can, opened the top, and re-emptied the can. And moved on. *big sigh*

Homeownership. The things that keep you up at night...I never woulda believed it.