January 9, 2002
Dear Everyone:
Just got home from another fun-filled trip to “Hobby” today, hoping to find that my missing garbage can had returned from its own adventures. Alas, the garbage can remains MIA.
The garbage can (description: olive green, 32 gallons, my street address marked on top and all four sides) went AWOL on New Year’s Eve. This, you may recall, was a Monday. Monday is Garbage Pickup Day in San Ramon, and environs. Most people put their garbage out Sunday night, rather than be up early enough to beat the truck in the morning. Some people, if they plan to be away for the weekend, will put it out Saturday morning or even Friday night. Some have even been known to put their garbage out in the middle of the week, thus ensuring that the entire neighborhood knows that they are away. This suggests that it’s a pretty safe neighborhood.
Safe for people, perhaps. Not necessarily so for garbage cans.
This is not the first time my garbage can has flown the coop. Some time last year, I returned home on a Sunday afternoon to realize that my garbage can was not at its post. Said post is inside the carport, directly behind the concrete parking blocks. All residents are allowed to store their garbage can(s) (and their companion recycle bins) in the carports. This is about all they are allowed to store in the carports.
I traversed the length and breadth of Twin Creeks Gardens, searching for my garbage can. It was nowhere to be seen. In other words, it was not in plain sight. It had been hidden behind someone’s patio gate. The following Monday, I returned home on my lunch break and there was my garbage can, sitting in front of someone else’s carport. (All cans have to be placed on the sidewalk, or in front of the carports on Garbage Pickup Days.)
I returned my garbage can to the safety of my own patio and we had a serious discussion about not accepting rides from strangers. From then on, the garbage can, and companion recycle bin, has/have resided on my patio except for Monday mornings.
Until Monday, 12/31/01. I had placed the garbage can and recycle bin out the night before. In fact, it was the sound of the garbage truck that woke me up that morning. But when I went out to collect my charges, only the recycle bin was waiting in back of my car, which was parked in the carport (that’s what carports are for, after all). Once again, I searched the complete complex. Once again, no sign of my delinquent garbage can.
It occurred to me that someone, out to collect their own can that day, and contemplating all the extra trash that seems to happen around the holidays, decided to temporarily “borrow” an extra can for all those cartons and torn wrapping paper. This thought came to mind when I saw several Christmas trees that had been placed behind one of the buildings, hidden in the bushes. A present, no doubt, for the landscapers to deal with.
So I had some small ray of hope that my garbage can would be returned “anonymously” when it was no longer needed. But that hasn’t happened so far. And why, you may ask, take my garbage can? After all, there are larger ones around. And it’s not as if they don’t all have their owners’ street numbers marked on them. In point of fact, I noticed as I was searching the grounds again one evening last week, that I’m not the only one who doesn’t trust the carport position.
But I’ve been out of town a lot lately. In fact, I’ve been on more business trips in the last six months than in all of the 28 years prior to them. Someone may figure I don’t really need a garbage can and that I should go on paying for the pickup service while they help themselves to it.
At any rate, I couldn’t go looking for it this last Monday because I was in “Hobby” at the time. So I’ll have to wait until next week to attempt to recapture my little hostage. If I can’t find it, I’ll have to inform the Valley Waste Management Company that someone has stolen their garbage can (I am, after all, only the custodian) and that they need to provide me with a new one. In either case, once I get a garbage can, I’ll pick up a 20-foot cable to anchor it to the carport.
Stay tuned for further developments. Watch for a photo of my little, green garbage can on milk cartons. Film at 11:00.
Love, as always,
Pete
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